Author Topic: EP054: Tk’tk’tk  (Read 5085 times)

Russell Nash

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on: October 12, 2008, 06:43:18 PM
EP054: Tk’tk’tk

By David D. Levine.
Read by Paul Tevis (of Have Games Will Travel).

Shkthh pth kstphst, the shopkeeper said, and Walker’s hypno-implanted vocabulary provided a translation: “What a delightful object.” Chitinous fingers picked up the recorder, scrabbling against the aluminum case with a sound that Walker found deeply disturbing. “What does it do?”

It took him a moment to formulate a reply. Even with hypno, Thfshpfth was a formidably complex language. “It listens and repeats,” he said. “You talk all day, it remembers all. Earth technology. Nothing like it for light-years.” The word for “light-year” was hkshkhthskht, difficult to pronounce. He hoped he’d gotten it right.


Rated PG. Contains scatology and crimes against pronunciation.


Referenced Sites:
2006 Hugo Nominees
Shelley the Republican
CAP Alert System
Bento Fanzine
National PTA
Rescuing Recess



Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!



JoeFitz

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Reply #1 on: October 12, 2008, 11:06:37 PM
I would have sworn there was a thread for this story already. In fact, I'm pretty sure I posted something in it. I remember enjoying this story immensely at the time. I'm sure this is a good excuse to give it another listen. Thanks!



eytanz

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Reply #2 on: October 12, 2008, 11:19:08 PM
I would have sworn there was a thread for this story already. In fact, I'm pretty sure I posted something in it.

Yeah, I was also sure I already posted about this story; wasn't this thread created in the time period lost to a server crash a few months back?



Russell Nash

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Reply #3 on: October 13, 2008, 07:46:11 AM
I would have sworn there was a thread for this story already. In fact, I'm pretty sure I posted something in it.

Yeah, I was also sure I already posted about this story; wasn't this thread created in the time period lost to a server crash a few months back?

I'm the only one posting old ep threads and I'm keeping track of it in a text file.  Also I'm mentioning it in the request thread when I put a new one up.  Yes, I know that could have been lost too, but it didn't effect my personal record keeping.  also the requests for old threads started in January and if you look here you can see the server crash happened in November of last year. 

This story gets brought up often in episode threads and in favorite episode threads.  You probably just posted about it there.



JoeFitz

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Reply #4 on: October 13, 2008, 03:16:11 PM
This story gets brought up often in episode threads and in favorite episode threads.  You probably just posted about it there.

Indeed. http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=621.20 and also

http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=1339.40

Oh well.



Unblinking

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Reply #5 on: February 12, 2010, 05:49:03 PM
I liked this one for its analogy to visiting a foreign culture.  I've been to China a few years back, and though the interculture communication made it much less jarring and/or dangerous than it once might have been, there were still plenty of misunderstandings due to my expectations vs. theirs. 

If you've ever been to a restaurant in Italy, the difference in culture is very obvious--unless you go somewhere quick like a pizzeria, the service is abhorrently slow by my expectations.  In the US, most often you can get your meal even at a slow restaurant withing 45 minutes or so of taking a table, and if you were in a hurry could pay and be gone in a little over an hour.  In Italy, the fastest sit down restaurant I went too took at least 3 hours, which was very frustrating for me--I wanted to sightsee, explore the town, not sit inside a restaurant all evening!  And asking politely for faster service was just seen as rude, so after a couple restaurant excursions we just started going to the pizzerias where the food was hot and ready and you pre-paid so you could leave when you liked.

Anyway, good story to illustrate the concept of culture shock to someone from any culture.

What I didn't understand though, is what triggered the closing of the big deal.  It seemed that he was simply too pushy at first, and when he relaxed and stopped demanding, the alien bought something he didn't need for ridiculously large amounts of money.  But in the end, he still didn't need it, so why did he buy it?  I guess I'm just not integrated to this culture yet.