Author Topic: EP245: The Moment  (Read 26657 times)

lmh

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Reply #50 on: July 06, 2010, 05:03:18 AM

I think it is defensible. I know the story is called "THE Moment" but I don't believe the story itself implies it is the ONLY moment in the universe. It is one of many, it's just this particular one is a human moment.

This is how I read it. I liked the idea that in this diverse and imaginative universe that humans, on a faraway arm of the galaxy, had done something worth noting by beings of spectacular capacity.

I also liked the circularlity of it. Its a device for sure, but the imagination of the author went off on immense diversions and then returned to a human footprint.



alllie

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Reply #51 on: July 06, 2010, 06:16:12 PM
I actually quite enjoyed it, both for the humour in the shifting experiences of the footprint, from the broadcaster to the proto-gods. The kicker - for me anyway - was that it wasn't Neil Armstrong's footprint.  "It was where they jumped off": it was someone else's footprint, one left on the way forwards.  Or that's how I heard it anyway.  That footprint hasn't been left yet :)

I didn't understand the "jumped off" thing. It wasn't clear to me that that was their (our) first step into space.

Maybe I should listen again.



Wilson Fowlie

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Reply #52 on: July 07, 2010, 07:17:59 PM
P.S. - Kibitzer, what was up with the sudden sharp silences?  I kept thinking the story had ended or my iPod had died...  It wasn't bad per se, it just sounded like someone cut the sound with a razor and it was a little startling.

Not sure what you mean there, Cat. Just listened again to a bit of what I submitted -- couldn't detect the razor-sharp silences. In all probability, your young ears are far better than mine. :-)

What you submitted may not be (exactly) what was cast.  When I narrated a Pseudopod episode, Ben felt that I didn't put enough spaces between some of the sections and edited in some extra space.  (This isn't a complaint; it didn't bother me - he's the editor and it's his prerogative to do so.)  That may have been what happened here.

(If that is what happened, then I have to say the sharp silences jarred me a bit too and if it had been me editing it, I'd have extended the pauses by pasting in existing background noise from elsewhere in the recording.)

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Listener

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Reply #53 on: July 07, 2010, 08:38:52 PM
P.S. - Kibitzer, what was up with the sudden sharp silences?  I kept thinking the story had ended or my iPod had died...  It wasn't bad per se, it just sounded like someone cut the sound with a razor and it was a little startling.

Not sure what you mean there, Cat. Just listened again to a bit of what I submitted -- couldn't detect the razor-sharp silences. In all probability, your young ears are far better than mine. :-)

What you submitted may not be (exactly) what was cast.  When I narrated a Pseudopod episode, Ben felt that I didn't put enough spaces between some of the sections and edited in some extra space.  (This isn't a complaint; it didn't bother me - he's the editor and it's his prerogative to do so.)  That may have been what happened here.

(If that is what happened, then I have to say the sharp silences jarred me a bit too and if it had been me editing it, I'd have extended the pauses by pasting in existing background noise from elsewhere in the recording.)

That's what I do when I edit text -- and then, later, minimize out the background noise as much as possible to keep the silences from being hard cutoffs.

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LaShawn

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Reply #54 on: July 16, 2010, 04:41:29 PM
::peeks her head out looks around, whispers::

Well, I liked the ending.

::dives back into her hole::

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stePH

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Reply #55 on: July 19, 2010, 02:20:39 PM
Well, I liked the ending.

So did I.  It meant the story was over.

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LaShawn

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Reply #56 on: July 19, 2010, 02:33:28 PM
Well, I liked the ending.

So did I.  It meant the story was over.

Can't disagree with you there.

To be honest, the only part I liked was the ending. the other stuff went way over my head.

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Talia

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Reply #57 on: July 19, 2010, 02:46:50 PM
It going over my head was part of what I kinda liked about the body of the story. Gave it an epic feel, spanning eons, going far beyond humanity. :)



Unblinking

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Reply #58 on: July 19, 2010, 04:36:21 PM
associative connection the story gave me: 
In the superb space exploration game Star Control II, there is an intelligent plant alien race called the Supox (which the plant race in this story made me think of).  When you communicate with them, you can ask them how plant sentience can exist--it's not scientifically possible.  The Supox say that they, too, have done studies which prove that plant sentience is scientifically impossible so their actual existence is a little confusing to them as well.  :)



chemholio

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Reply #59 on: August 06, 2010, 02:45:55 AM
This story did have its rough edges  and the ending could have been better but IMHO this was a truly great story. I loved the whole flow of the actions and visits of  races leading to the actions and visit of more races within wildly unpredictable contexts and motives. This is a hard thing to pull off in a novel. It was truly ambitious to try to pull this off in a 30 minute story and I'd say the author succeeded. The story was thought provoking and sooooo imaginative. I listened to it 3 times. That hasn't happened to me since "Friction." (Episode 144).

To me, Sci Fi has always been about imagination first and foremost. Regrettably for me, so much of the Sci Fi we read today deals with the human consequences of some small technological or societal tweak. This may be good for those who like it, but I yearn for new universes, new races, and new realities.

Great catch, Escape Pod!