PC097: Smokestacks Like The Arms Of Gods

[merryoldsoul]

this was a great story, well read. i think we'll be importing from the goblins soon whilst condemning their human rights record....anyone see any modern comparisons?!

it's amazing that theres a whole part of the world that's never heard the Red Flag; so entrenched in british society that it's still sung at the end of each Labour Party conference, and given their politics it becomes more ironic each time.

[Anarquistador]

it's amazing that theres a whole part of the world that's never heard the Red Flag; so entrenched in british society that it's still sung at the end of each Labour Party conference, and given their politics it becomes more ironic each time.

Well, organized labor never acquired the same level of formal political power in the States as it did in other parts of the world. Having the Soviet Union be our enemies for the better part of a century made it impossible for socialism to gain any real foothold on this side of the Pond. People still get riled up by the very hint of such a thing...which is a whole 'nother argument.

[Heradel]

it's amazing that theres a whole part of the world that's never heard the Red Flag; so entrenched in british society that it's still sung at the end of each Labour Party conference, and given their politics it becomes more ironic each time.

Well, organized labor never acquired the same level of formal political power in the States as it did in other parts of the world. Having the Soviet Union be our enemies for the better part of a century made it impossible for socialism to gain any real foothold on this side of the Pond. People still get riled up by the very hint of such a thing...which is a whole 'nother argument.

Well, some people. Socialism has lost a lot of it's stigma among the younger segments of the population, but the last polling I saw on it was pre-tea party.

And I'd argue the US labour movement had an amount of power that equalled most others after the depression, but it's been lost over the last few decades.

[Listener]

I had no idea there was an actual song, so I don't envy the task of trying to sing a song you've never heard. 

I bet I would've tried to do it like the song Picard sang in "Alleigance". http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Allegiance_%28episode%29

You mean this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zky2n0-zZs#t=1m13s

Exactly.

[danooli]

wow, i really liked this story!  i am left wanting LOTS more from this world, but, i'm also left wanting more from the narrator.  too bad he's with the green devil!

i was also thrilled that the narrator used the tune to Billy Bragg's "The Internationale"   That album was a standard for me during college  Rather formative 

[jay daze]

Excellent!  I finished listening to this one with a big grin on my face.

spoiler thoughts:




Wait a minute!  He can't be narrating this, I don't believe in an after-life!

Wait a minute!  I don't believe in goblins and vampires!

Oh, but now I do believe in goblins and vampires and Green Devils... So this story is great!


(And it honours the fate of real workers throughout history struggling for their right.)

[kibitzer]

I found the ending a bit lame, actually. It wasn't that it doesn't fit with the story, just that it doesn't need to be there at all. It would have been more ironically realistic.

But, it certainly didn't ruin an enjoyable story. And, another great reading by The Dark One himself.

[Allie]

This has got to be one of my favorites! I should have seen that ending coming, but I was so impressed with the telling that I was completely immersed in the story as it was unfolding. Home Run!
On a side note, I hear my own bang, clang, whoosh noise at work. Not bad enough to revolt... that sort of trouble is what got me sent down here in the first place 

[avocado]

Would you classify this as steampunk, do you think?

I would.  They're doing factory work with magic.  The tech level seems to be roughly that of Victorian England.  The human society we see is based on the Irish working class.  Bonus points for the presence of airships.

As far as factory work and magic go, I think people who really liked this story might want to look for Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter.  Just expect grimness.

[Ocicat]

Bonus points for the presence of airships.

I'm not sure it's possible to write a story with airships right now and *not* have it get classified as Steampunk...

[avocado]

Bonus points for the presence of airships.

I'm not sure it's possible to write a story with airships right now and *not* have it get classified as Steampunk...

Maybe if you pushed the tech level and the chronology far enough forward.  But yeah, it would take some doing.

[Boggled Coriander]

Bonus points for the presence of airships.

I'm not sure it's possible to write a story with airships right now and *not* have it get classified as Steampunk...

Maybe if you pushed the tech level and the chronology far enough forward.  But yeah, it would take some doing.

Stephenson's The Diamond Age?  Or does that book count as unusually high-tech Steampunk? 

[Listener]

Bonus points for the presence of airships.

I'm not sure it's possible to write a story with airships right now and *not* have it get classified as Steampunk...

Maybe if you pushed the tech level and the chronology far enough forward.  But yeah, it would take some doing.

Stephenson's The Diamond Age?  Or does that book count as unusually high-tech Steampunk? 

Gempunk?

[stePH]

Bonus points for the presence of airships.

I'm not sure it's possible to write a story with airships right now and *not* have it get classified as Steampunk...

Then most of Hayao Miyazaki's movies are "steampunk" including Kiki's Delivery Service 

[Gamercow]

Wow, wow, wow.  I adored this story, and the narration.  I've sent a link to my Socialist friends, indicating that they would probably like the story, without giving away the plot.  I had been waiting for a story like this for a couple of weeks now, I hadn't really gotten into a podcastle story since Hereward and Mr. Fitz.  But again, like Hereward and Fitz, we are presented with a superb, well imagined world where the uniqueness isn't poured on us like a bottle of cheap whisky, but given to us drops at a time.  And done so by a truly excellent reader. 

[Eliyanna Kaiser]

I found the ending a bit lame, actually. It wasn't that it doesn't fit with the story, just that it doesn't need to be there at all. It would have been more ironically realistic.

I disagree on the ending; it was perfect. Early on in the story, the main character was promised by his oppressors that he would be with his father in the afterlife and they'd have all the time in the hereafter to get to know one another.

This is a classic communist critique of the way capitalism uses religion to control the working class: that you struggle in this life because you are rewarded in the next one. (I'm sorta an aficionado of such things...)

There's a very famous song called "The Preacher and the Slave" written by IWW unionist Joe Hill, who was (wait for it) tried and executed in 1915 by firing squad for murdering a police officer in Utah. The song is a parody of the Christian hymn "In the Sweet Bye and Bye."

Here's the chorus [call and response style, the response is in square brackets]:

You will eat [You will eat] bye and bye [bye and bye]
In that glorious land above the sky [Way up high]
Work and pray [Work and pray] live on hay [live on hay]
You'll get pie in the sky when you die [That's a lie!]

Here's a link to a YouTube cover of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca_MEJmuzMM