Author Topic: Pseudopod 112: Periods  (Read 21719 times)

Bdoomed

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on: October 17, 2008, 04:14:15 AM
Pseudopod 112: Periods

By Florence Ann Marlowe

Read by Damaris Mannering

“It’s going on three weeks, now.”

“Mmm-hmmm. And there’s no chance of you being pregnant?”

“Oh, no!” Nancy shook her head. “I haven’t even been with a guy in a long time.”

“Good.” Doctor Mason stood up, his eyes still glued to Nancy’s chart. He flashed her a quick smile. “One less thing to worry about.”

Nancy nodded. “So what could it be?”

The doctor seemed lost in thought. He pressed the butt end of his pen to his teeth. He then quickly shifted his seat, uncrossing and re-crossing his legs. Nancy suppressed an impatient sigh.

“I know exactly what it is,” he said finally.

Nancy was surprised. “Oh.”




Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Zathras

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Reply #1 on: October 17, 2008, 05:25:49 AM
Yawn.  Blatant.  Obvious.

Maybe there is some personal horror if you lack a Y chromosome.


The outro was more insightful than the story.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2008, 05:29:01 AM by Zathras »



Chivalrybean

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Reply #2 on: October 17, 2008, 01:29:25 PM
Bloody hell!

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nicrat

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Reply #3 on: October 17, 2008, 09:53:52 PM
I really disliked this episode. I guessed the premise from a joke I've heard ("a vampire walked into a bar and ordered a kettle of hot water...") early on in the story. I tried to commiserate with the female protagonist by replacing a perpetually bleeding vagina with a perpetually bleeding penis, to my discomfort. I think the story of the continually growing pubic hair worked better as a mundane situation grown out of control, if you'll excuse the dumb pun.

Love the work anyway, you have no idea how hard it is to find podcasts that are as fun to listen to as pseudopod.



Kaa

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Reply #4 on: October 18, 2008, 02:11:02 AM
o.O

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cede

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Reply #5 on: October 18, 2008, 04:31:18 PM
liked it, frightening(trying to live your life with an everlong period) and entertaining(vampires are always amusing).



jodymonster

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Reply #6 on: October 18, 2008, 10:03:17 PM
The vampire ending was a little obvious, but the body horror more than made up for it for me.  It doesn't surprise me that some of the men felt kinda 'meh.'   I spend much of the episode shifting uncomfortably in my car seat, even happier than normal that it wasn't my time.  It reminded me of every scary ob/gyn appointment and of my first period, waking up 11 years old in a puddle of blood, absolutely shocked at how much there could could be (health teacher told me a few teaspoons... BS!) and terrified there was something wrong with me.  I was sure (at the time) that I was bleeding to death.  I felt like hell, and I had cramps so bad the pain made me throw up, which also helped along the 'dying' theory.  Even after I realized it wouldn't kill me, I realized I had to do this twelve times a year for the next forty years or so.   
That experience is why this story freaked me out.  That, and the creepy doctor, but the fact that the doc was a vampire didn't freak me out nearly as much as the fact that he was a creepy, untrustworthy gynecologist.  I think that's because a creepy doctor is much more realistic threat.

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Bdoomed

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Reply #7 on: October 19, 2008, 01:02:35 AM
ugh.  i couldn't listen to the whole thing.  Just couldn't.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


600south

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Reply #8 on: October 19, 2008, 04:41:14 AM
I had reservations about this one from the moment I saw the title pop up in my menu, a few more when Alasdair sighed as he read the title, and even more after the first few seconds of story.

My main problem with it, though, wasn't that it was essentially a horror story about an exaggerated natural bodily function, or even that the ending was obvious after the first scene... it was the way that obvious ending was dragged out over the last five minutes or more of the story, leaving me waiting for a twist I knew deep down wasn't going to happen.



H. Bergeron

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Reply #9 on: October 20, 2008, 05:18:50 AM
My main problem with it, though, wasn't that it was essentially a horror story about an exaggerated natural bodily function, or even that the ending was obvious after the first scene... it was the way that obvious ending was dragged out over the last five minutes or more of the story, leaving me waiting for a twist I knew deep down wasn't going to happen.

I came into this thread expecting to post something like the first post - "yawn, boring, whatever" - but this post nails it a little better for me.  I think what Jodymonster said is an excellent point -

It doesn't surprise me that some of the men felt kinda 'meh.'
...
...the creepy doctor, but the fact that the doc was a vampire didn't freak me out nearly as much as the fact that he was a creepy, untrustworthy gynecologist.  I think that's because a creepy doctor is much more realistic threat.

I can see that the body horror of this is much stronger for women (who, y'know, actually have to deal with the whole bleeding thing) than men (who, y'know, don't.)  The body horror aspect would have to be played up more or worked in a slightly different descriptive manner to really get to me.  As it was, it was a little gross, but not really HORRIFYING.

I think this story would have been FAR creepier if the gynecologist was just a messed-up human being with some bizarre fetish, rather than a vampire.  The instant he got more interested when she talked about how heavy her flow was, my mind went "Vampire?  Maybe some strange cultist?" and then eventually the BIG REVEAL was just plain ho-hum.  I mean, vampire, yahoo, what a snooze.


tl;dr: Predictable. Not as scary as it may be for some, as I don't personally have to deal with bleeding monthly. Vampire ending was dull.  Real, live human beings would have been, in this case, FAR scarier - especially since it then approaches a non-gender specific issue: untrustworthy physicians.  Yawn.

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600south

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Reply #10 on: October 20, 2008, 08:36:25 AM
what was the movie where Jeremy Irons played the creepy gynecologist?
oh, actually TWO creepy gynecologists -- Dead Ringers by Cronenberg.

i knew the doctor in this story reminded me of someone...



MacArthurBug

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Reply #11 on: October 20, 2008, 02:41:33 PM
ICK.
Do. Not. Want.

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DKT

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Reply #12 on: October 20, 2008, 03:30:31 PM
Not a knock against this story, but I want to know what's wrong with castle-dwelling vampires?  I like castle-dwelling vampires ;D


deflective

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Reply #13 on: October 20, 2008, 07:26:21 PM
vampires these days, no respect for tradition.

i have a tough time getting into any story where the protagonist is completely docile. maybe, if the story is centered around the character's indecision, it could be made to work but even Hamlet made some proactive moves. if you have a serious medical problem then get a second opinion. hell, just the initiative to buy some adult diapers and sleep on an airmattress would have been something.

the moral seems to be: act docile like a cow and you might become one.



gelee

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Reply #14 on: October 21, 2008, 11:37:33 AM
I had reservations about this one from the moment I saw the title pop up in my menu, a few more when Alasdair sighed as he read the title, and even more after the first few seconds of story.

My main problem with it, though, wasn't that it was essentially a horror story about an exaggerated natural bodily function, or even that the ending was obvious after the first scene... it was the way that obvious ending was dragged out over the last five minutes or more of the story, leaving me waiting for a twist I knew deep down wasn't going to happen.
Kind of sums it up for me.  My sister suffered from very long, painful cycles when we were teenagers, so I have a lot of sympathy for the main character.  I just got tired of hearing one over-the-top gross-out after another.  Just sort of beat it to death.  So, not my favorite PP.



petronivs

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Reply #15 on: October 21, 2008, 12:10:21 PM
Never before have I said so much about so little.

In the end, Periods was beautiful, for what it was.  What it was not, of course, was a story.  No, not at all.  This was a dream sequence.  A very lovingly detailed nightmare dream sequence, but a dream sequence all the same.  Perhaps if there had been some actual character development, this could have been a story, but, quite honestly, the rivers of hemorrhaging lifeblood pouring from Nancy's poor, sodden little crotch had more character development than she did.  Heck, even the horribly caricatured Doctor Mason had more character development.  Nancy was merely a limp, unresisting machine which existed solely to pump out gallons and gallons of sticky red yumminess all over our minds for the author's pleasure.

Don't get me wrong; Periods was awesome fun to listen to, and it had it's fair share of complete win.  Not too far into the story, though, I was beset by the nagging question of why this woman hadn't gotten herself off to the emergency room posthaste once she started filling tampons like they were Kleenexes she was using to mop up a leaky faucet?  Ok, her doctor told her not to.  This would make her an incredibly weak-minded person, but I can live with it.  Then she started gushing like Victoria Falls, and I had another question, "Why is this whiny bitch not dead yet?"  Seriously, she's pumping out more blood than a broken water main does water, and you put her on an iron pill three times a day?  She should've been in a hospital with a blood IV dripping into her, but she's at home filling her tampons with the sodden red mess.  Oh, and popping a pill thrice a day to compensate.

Of course, once I realized that the story had no connection to reality, but was just a dream sequence, I laid back and enjoyed the show.  It was a good show, of course.  The imagery was yummy, and the panic was written in quite well.  It almost made up for the cliche ending.



Zathras

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Reply #16 on: October 21, 2008, 02:34:43 PM
Thank you, petronivs.  Gonna listen again with that in mind.



jodymonster

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Reply #17 on: October 21, 2008, 06:15:42 PM
I think this story would have been FAR creepier if the gynecologist was just a messed-up human being with some bizarre fetish, rather than a vampire. 

Totally.   That would have been been much, much scarier.  Of course, for me, a crazy human with no special powers (other than insanity) is always scarier than any monster or mythological being.  Even in vampires are real, serial killers are much more common. 

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thomasowenm

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Reply #18 on: October 21, 2008, 09:52:10 PM
Perhaps if there had been some actual character development, this could have been a story, but, quite honestly, the rivers of hemorrhaging lifeblood pouring from Nancy's poor, sodden little crotch had more character development than she did.                                                                      
   
Petronvis has a point the real protagonist of the story was surely Nacy's crotch and not poor helpless Nancy herself.     Listening to the story I felt more sorrow for her crotch than for her.   At least it developed throughout the story, Nancy started as a whiner and ended the same.

I was beset by the nagging question of why this woman hadn't gotten herself off to the emergency room posthaste once she started filling tampons like they were Kleenexes she was using to mop up a leaky faucet? 
I guess her HMO didn't allow for second opinions or Urgent Care visits.  She was one of the least intelligent heroines I've come accross in a while.   I just can't imagine losing that much blood and still staying conscious.

All in all there was nothing of this story that I could latch on to and let me suspend my belief even for a little while.



Cerebrilith

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Reply #19 on: October 21, 2008, 11:14:30 PM
I agree with petronivs's opinion about this being more of a dream sequence then a story.

From the title and Alasdair's bit about reading sentences too closely I was hoping for grammar horror...



Listener

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Reply #20 on: October 22, 2008, 04:14:04 PM
The ending went on FAR too long. I agree that there was no real character development for Nancy.

I didn't like the story, but it wasn't badly told.

Liked the outro.

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birdless

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Reply #21 on: October 23, 2008, 02:31:48 AM
I agree with petronivs's opinion about this being more of a dream sequence then a story.

From the title and Alasdair's bit about reading sentences too closely I was hoping for grammar horror...

Call me a prude, call me old-fashioned, call me queazy... I was desperately hoping it was puncuation-related. Like Bdoomed, i just couldn't listen to it all. I made it as far as her waking up hemorrhaging, and just couldn't take any more. I'll have to skip through to the outro.



Ellspacer

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Reply #22 on: October 23, 2008, 07:20:03 AM
First post, so be gentle with me...
I was disappointed with the comments on this story, in that I approached it from a different angle. Yes, the outcome was pretty predictable, but I thought that this was a secondary vehicle. The thing which got me was the very gripping description of increasing panic into helpless acquiescence, being cleverly written. Or was it just me? It takes from several sources, as stated in earlier posts, but they're not hackneyed.
I felt that the mood-amplified period-related tetchiness leading to desperation to a distraught state and acceptance was an allusion to the grief process, where the sequence of heightened emotions are not dissimilar.
I'm going to say it.......it's bubbling up.....yep......there was womb for improvement! (forgive me).
Too engrossing (emphasis on gross) to be a meh, in my view.



Alasdair5000

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Reply #23 on: October 23, 2008, 08:04:03 AM
Hi Ellspacer:)

   That's a fascinating take on the story and one that works for me.  And you work in an absolute zinger of a pun as well!  Good stuff:)



MacArthurBug

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Reply #24 on: October 23, 2008, 01:22:28 PM
there was womb for improvement! (forgive me).


Bwahahahaha! And ooooh bad.  I heart bad puns, so thank you Ellspacer

Oh, great and mighty Alasdair, Orator Maleficent, He of the Silvered Tongue, guide this humble fangirl past jumping up and down and squeeing upon hearing the greatness of Thy voice.
Oh mighty Mur the Magnificent. I am not worthy.