Author Topic: PodCastle Miniature 28: Elf Aware  (Read 9524 times)

Heradel

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on: March 30, 2009, 01:35:32 AM
PodCastle Miniature 28: Elf Aware

By K. Tempest Bradford.
read by Marguerite Croft.

“I am an elf,” you say to yourself. “I am an elf, I am an elf, I am an elf…”

You keep saying it, first in your mind, then aloud. Over and over. A mantra. “I am an elf.”

You are not an elf. You know this. You do not have pointed ears, you cannot do any sort of magic, you aren’t even the right hue. You’ve never heard of a black elf. Everything is against you. But you think that if you keep saying this to yourself, maybe it will come true. Maybe.

Rated G. The last story of elf month.

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Listener

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Reply #1 on: March 30, 2009, 12:23:23 PM
Eh. Great reading, but the story didn't grab me. I could've told it in two sentences: "A girl who doesn't like to listen to her parents arguing hides under her blanket and pretends she's an elf. Then she becomes one and disappears."

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DKT

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Reply #2 on: March 30, 2009, 04:06:21 PM
Eh. Great reading, but the story didn't grab me. I could've told it in two sentences: "A girl who doesn't like to listen to her parents arguing hides under her blanket and pretends she's an elf. Then she becomes one and disappears."

There's that, for sure, but for me the story's as much about that as it is: "You aren't even the right hue. You've never heard of a black elf." And then, regardless of that presupposition, she's able to become an elf anyway, and escape.

The more I think about this one, the more I love it. The way it covers so many things (Racism, the necessity of fantasy and escapism, broken families, and above all, empowerment) so effortless and with so little time is really pretty amazing.


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Reply #3 on: March 30, 2009, 06:09:42 PM
The best thing I can say about this episode is that it only took three minutes of my time.  Three minutes that I'll never get back.

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Rachel Swirsky

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Reply #4 on: March 30, 2009, 06:29:37 PM
Quote
The best thing I can say about this episode is that it only took three minutes of my time.  Three minutes that I'll never get back.

I know you know this, but no one's going to break your legs if you skip our miniatures. ;)



Katie

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Reply #5 on: March 31, 2009, 05:00:46 PM
Gorgeously paced reading. Would love to hear more of Maggie's voice here. And then the story, oh man, so perfect. I think it worked so well in audio, and I was shocked by the ending. This flash worked extremely well for me.



stePH

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Reply #6 on: April 01, 2009, 12:09:03 AM
Quote
The best thing I can say about this episode is that it only took three minutes of my time.  Three minutes that I'll never get back.

I know you know this, but no one's going to break your legs if you skip our miniatures. ;)

Never know when there'll be another ... um ...

... well, okay, I haven't loved one yet, and I've actively disliked most, but there's still been a few worth hearing.

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Reply #7 on: April 01, 2009, 02:19:01 AM
Quote
The best thing I can say about this episode is that it only took three minutes of my time.  Three minutes that I'll never get back.

I know you know this, but no one's going to break your legs if you skip our miniatures. ;)

I did skip one.  While I was listening to it, even.

Elf Aware was too long or too short, take your pick.  I liked the idea, it just missed for me.



Loz

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Reply #8 on: April 11, 2009, 06:13:54 PM
What a strangely pointless little story.



rufriskey

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Reply #9 on: April 14, 2009, 08:35:04 AM
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)written by Irving Berlin in 1929



rufriskey

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Reply #10 on: April 14, 2009, 08:36:38 AM
Oops, wrong forum.



Anarkey

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Reply #11 on: April 15, 2009, 03:06:14 PM
I really liked this one.  Between this and Annals of Eelin-Ook, elfmonth concluded in a much better way than it began.  Not that I didn't like the starting offerings, I just really, really liked the ending ones.

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Wilson Fowlie

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Reply #12 on: April 15, 2009, 08:52:07 PM
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)written by Irving Berlin in 1929
Oops, wrong forum.

And not correct, anyway.  That was "Puttin' On the Ritz", which has a similar tune, and on which the "Istanbul" tune may have been consciously based.  (Personally, I suspect it was cryptomnesia, what the judge in the George Harrison case called 'unconscious plagiarism'.)

"Istanbul" was written in 1953 (the 500th year after Constantinople fell to - and became capital of - the Ottoman Empire) by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon.  Recorded that same year by The Four Lads.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2009, 08:55:36 PM by Wilson Fowlie »

"People commonly use the word 'procrastination' to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working." - Paul Graham


SirJolt

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Reply #13 on: May 07, 2009, 06:58:58 PM
Very strange, everyone but me seems to have read the ending as a transformation...

I'm not sure how I managed it, but I've somehow read this as the gradual dissolution of the main character's self, which made it a lot sadder than it was for everyone else.

Good reading though.



MacArthurBug

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Reply #14 on: May 11, 2009, 03:41:37 AM
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)written by Irving Berlin in 1929
Oops, wrong forum.

And not correct, anyway.  That was "Puttin' On the Ritz", which has a similar tune, and on which the "Istanbul" tune may have been consciously based.  (Personally, I suspect it was cryptomnesia, what the judge in the George Harrison case called 'unconscious plagiarism'.)

"Istanbul" was written in 1953 (the 500th year after Constantinople fell to - and became capital of - the Ottoman Empire) by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon.  Recorded that same year by The Four Lads.


and now I somehow have BOTH running at the same time in my head- thankyouverymuch

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Wilson Fowlie

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Reply #15 on: May 12, 2009, 03:57:29 PM
And not correct, anyway.  That was "Puttin' On the Ritz", which has a similar tune, and on which the "Istanbul" tune may have been consciously based.  (Personally, I suspect it was cryptomnesia, what the judge in the George Harrison case called 'unconscious plagiarism'.)

"Istanbul" was written in 1953 (the 500th year after Constantinople fell to - and became capital of - the Ottoman Empire) by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon.  Recorded that same year by The Four Lads.

and now I somehow have BOTH running at the same time in my head- thankyouverymuch

You're ever so welcome!  :D

"People commonly use the word 'procrastination' to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working." - Paul Graham


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Reply #16 on: December 30, 2009, 07:46:01 PM
Too literary-styled for my tastes, the entire point seemed to be "I hate my life".  And the mention of skin color seemed like an after-market add-on.  And since when are there not dark-skinned elves?  Okay, so the dark-skinned elves I'm thinking of (the drow) are typically not such a nice race, but they are still elves nonetheless. 

And, perhaps I'm simply cynical, but the ending seemed like it was either the narrator running away from home or committing suicide, and transforming the act in her own mind into an elvish metamorphosis.