EP2**8: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each

[Talia]

I liked the pacing of the reading. I wouldn't have wanted it to be faster.

It's one of those "well, can't please everyone" things, I guess.

[Unblinking]

2.  What do the mermaids look like?  ...  Do they have sharp teeth the better to tear fishmeat with? 

This was the only visual aspect that had any description at all - Lolo mentioned something about 'parrot beaks', which, frankly, didn't help much.

Oh yeah.  Unfortunately, the mention of parrot beaks came very late, and just served to muddy my mental image of them even more.  Up until then I was picturing something pretty much human on the top half, but muddy green like a catfish and built on a larger scale, with a fish bottom half.  Adding the beak in makes it VERY clear that my description is incorrect, but not HOW it's incorrect.  So is it a human top half except the beak?  Does it look more like a fish with arms?  Or what?

[The Far Stairs]

I second the comment about Christiana's reading of the rape scene. I thought it was brilliant. In fact, she did a fantastic job all the way through. It was one of the best readings I've heard in a while.

I was so excited about the story, listening to the first half. The setting was great, and so were the characters. Great atmosphere, too. Unfortunately, I thought the second half felt contrived and nonsensical. Niko fell overboard and then came back? And then fell overboard again? Really? When it happened the first time, I felt real empathy with Lolo's loss. Then, when Niko suddenly came back, I felt used and manipulated by the author. Only in the rarest of cases should you give a character a tragic death and then bring them back. Only when it's essential to the story. Then he went back in the water, apparently dead FOR REAL this time, and what was Lolo's reaction to the (second) loss of her true love? Nothing. Just nothing. That's when I gave up. The boat that had betrayed her so badly all those years ago killed her best friend, and she thanked it for doing so. She started to forgive the boat as a result of it murdering her best friend. She started to have warm feelings for the boat after it murdered her best friend. Granted, it saved her life, but is there any chance she would have seen it that way? Now I'm just angry.

Also, the bleakness of the ending wasn't handled well. Rather than feeling realistic or fatalistic or existential, it just fell flat. I was left thinking, "So, nothing really happened. Lolo didn't become empowered, because she was just a pawn of others throughout the story. Two men died, but she didn't care about that, so I didn't care about that. She didn't make any money or change the circumstances of her life in any appreciable way... so..."... so... ... ...... .. ....

[elleasea]

This was one of my favorite stories I've heard on the three sister podcasts here in awhile.  Thanks.

I really enjoyed the metaphor of her hatred for the ship.  Much literature around the phenomenon of child rape, especially in Central America, by an uncle or father discusses the same emotional response: a rage more directed toward an older female who did not (could not) prevent it from happening.  It really illustrates the true power difference in our society between the genders.

Lolo's emotional reaction to Jorge's attack on the boat was the same as if it had been a sexual assault; a feeling of powerlessness and the desire to blame someone older and wiser that should have been protecting her.

The mod-bod's was an interesting world building bit for me.  While I agree with some of the other comments that gender-neutrality cannot be achieved by an androgynous body alone, I again thought it was a very creative metaphor for another post sexual-trauma reaction: intentional modification of the body/behavior to make oneself less desirable.  It is very common for women who have been assaulted to either: dress less feminine, gain a lot of weight, cut off their hair etc., as a way to make themselves a less likely target <-- note: please do not read that correlation too far and start assuming that all women who don't look/act feminine or who are zaphtig to have been targets of abuse in their life.

The reading was really well done, and although I agree that the ending felt abrupt to me, and a little anti-climactic that the bodies just kind of disappeared over the side and then nothing.. not even a blood stain in the water, I just really loved it.  I really have a feeling that this story will stay with me.

I am pretty sure that this story made my short list.

[Unblinking]

Only in the rarest of cases should you give a character a tragic death and then bring them back. Only when it's essential to the story.

Just a sidenote:  You really DO NOT want to play Final Fantasy II then (FFIV in Japan and more recent releases).  I swear they pulled that with every single character.  Once was okay, twice was borderline, but half a dozen times and you just groan every time you see another one come back.

[Liminal]

Only in the rarest of cases should you give a character a tragic death and then bring them back. Only when it's essential to the story.

Or read past God Emperor of Dune. I swear, as much as I enjoy the ideas and philosophies and world building in the last few books of Frank Herbert's Dune series, the amount of people coming back from the dead got a bit ridiculous. 

[The Far Stairs]

Haha Thanks for the warnings. I hadn't planned on playing Final Fantasy II, and now I definitely won't. I read the first three (maybe four?) books of Dune, and I agree that the ideas/worldbuilding were great, but the characters (which were a little flat to begin with) slowly slipped into the brave frontier of the second dimension, and I found it hard to care what happened to people when it seemed like their metaphysical circumstances could change at a moment's notice. I'm all for genetically-engineered messiahs and people turning into sandworms (I think that's what happened?), but it's a little hard to identify with them once they've ascended to a higher plane of consciousness and/or returned from the dead as a clone/zombie/pure energy/reconstructed robot intelligence. Though I'm sure those people are very nice.

[kibitzer]

Or read past God Emperor of Dune.

Never did. That one kind nailed the whole thing shut for me :-)

[Unblinking]

I hadn't planned on playing Final Fantasy II, and now I definitely won't.

Final Fantasy II had another really really annoying plot point.  There was one character in the party called Kain (red flag anyone?), who betrays you to your enemy very early in the game.  That by itself is no big deal, presumably Cain and Abel are not known in this alternate reality, so the name is a red flag only to the play not to the characters.  Then later the character comes back, explains that he was being mind-controlled by something-something, and you let him back in the party only to have him betray you AGAIN.  Which is bad enough, but I'm pretty sure it happens a third time.  I tell you what, the second time I would be highly skeptical.  The third time I would say "hell no".

For what it's worth, there are plenty of good games in the Final Fantasy series, my favorites in order are:  FFX, FFIII(which is FFVI in recent releases), FFVII, FFXII (playing through it now).  FF Tactics is great too, though not really part of the main series--that ones great because you have a 3-D battle grid to maneuver around, which involves actual strategy, higher terrain gives advantage with ranged weapons and magic, that sort of thing.

OK, rant over, back to your regularly scheduled comments. 

[Scattercat]

The only thing more common in Final Fantasy games than inexplicably over-trusting characters is main characters with amnesia.

[The Far Stairs]

As David Cross says: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times? Well, that's me again, I guess. Cause I just got fooled twice, so I should be on the lookout. Fool me four times? That's definitely me, cause I just said 'Fool me three times...' Fool me five times? Fool me five times?? Well, I'm sorry, but that's you. What are you doing fooling me five times?" And so on.

[rowshack]

It left me feeling like I was looking at the contents of some ones junk drawer: alot of stuff there that does not connect.

[Unblinking]

The only thing more common in Final Fantasy games than inexplicably over-trusting characters is main characters with amnesia.

A bit soap opera-esque in that respect, isn't it?    Now we just more evil twins.

[stePH]

The only thing more common in Final Fantasy games than inexplicably over-trusting characters is main characters with amnesia.

Amnesia is a convenient device to put on the player character; then the player isn't familiar with the situation because the character isn't familiar with it.

[Scattercat]

The only thing more common in Final Fantasy games than inexplicably over-trusting characters is main characters with amnesia.

Amnesia is a convenient device to put on the player character; then the player isn't familiar with the situation because the character isn't familiar with it.

And dumping your garbage into the river is a convenient way to dispose of it, but that doesn't mean you and everyone else wouldn't be better off if you properly recycled and composted it instead.

[chornbe]

I found the story "meh..." on most levels. Overall I just thought it was depressing.

[wakela]

As was mentioned elsewhere, the vaguenesses didn't help retain my interest.  In particular, she lived a number of years "on the streets."  This seemed to be a pretty vanilla way to put it.  It's believable that the character would have said this, but it's not effective at keeping my interest.  I found myself wanting to hear that story.  What does a non-gendered person do "on the streets?"

There seemed to be a lot of telling and not showing.  We're told that Lolo is a neuter, that she hates the boat, and that she likes Niko, but none of her actions reflect this. 

I thought the mermaids were a neat idea, and I really liked that the boat thought it's best move at earning forgiveness involved killing Lolo's friend.  This seems like an idea that an AI and not a human would come up with. 

The societal commentary: environmentalism, corporate douchebaggery, sneering at the wealthy, are all pretty tired for me.  Once I hear one in a story, hearing the other ones come as no surprise and carry no bite. 

[hardware]

I finally got around to this one, and must say it never really gripped me. One little problem with the 'ratings', once they become very specific, they also drift into the realm of spoilers. Anyway, I think this story left me frustrated for several reasons. First, it introduced a lot of sci-fi concepts, but didn't take any of them very far. The exception being the AI boat, who was probably the most developed character. But the mermaids, the whole idea of degendering, the idea that a pile of trash would be worth so much, all these things are introduced but never really got their moment to shine. Instead we got this triangle of broken people, which was OK, but has been done so many times, so much better before. Their stories are very tragic, but the emotional punch was never really delivered. So, well, I'll sort this under minor disappointments, but I can see that many people enjoyed it, so I will just hope that next time it's my turn.

[yicheng]

I have to echo Listener's sentiments for this story.  Nothing really clicked for me in this story, and there seemed to be a lot of inexplicable elements that just ended up being really confusing.  What was the point of having mermaids in the story?  Were they a symbolism for something that I didn't understand?  Why did they take away the junk from the net?  Why or how did Nico climb back on the boat, and why didn't he come back a 2nd time?  How has this situation not come up before were a woman (well okay neuter) stuck on a boat, might have to deal with one of her employees being unruly?  Wouldn't you pack a gun or a knife?

For that matter, it felt like the entire story was about the childhood rape, with main character narrating present events, all the while making a voyeuristic confessional about her uncle raping her.  To me, it felt out of place and disjointed.  Ultimately all of the sci-fi elements (mermaids, talking boat, gender removal) felt "glued-on" to the story and don't contribute one way or another to making the story work. 

PS, I also take issue with the idea that gender neutering would be used as therapy for rape victims.  The first thing you learn about rape is that it's about control first and sex second.  Not to be crude, but there are plenty of other orifices and body parts to use beside the genitalia.

[Unblinking]

How has this situation not come up before were a woman (well okay neuter) stuck on a boat, might have to deal with one of her employees being unruly?  Wouldn't you pack a gun or a knife?

Good point.  Especially considering her history, she'd likely have some kind of self defense for times of need.

[Gamercow]

Other than the narration, I don't think there was a single thing I liked about this story.  Which is interesting, because I said the same thing(minus the narration) when I read "Old Man and the Sea". 
I thought the AI was incongruous and a blatant plot device.  I mean, why put AI on a boat?  What did that AI do, other than talk to the occupants?  It seemed like Lolo had to put in the course, had to watch the radar, had to steer, etc.  It was a tack-on at best, that was used to get the story to the endpoint that the writer was trying to reach.
I didn't like the use of gender-neutrality to escape rape.  Rape has little to do with gender or sex, and much more to do with power.  I think that Cat wanted a punch of shock in the story, and used the rape to this point. 
I didn't like the characters.  Lolo was one-dimensionally bitter, Nico was one-dimensionally high(I mean, what did he do in this story other than provide a connection to the mermaids?), and Jorge was so one-dimensionally evil, he should have been wearing a top hat and twirling his mustache.  I don't consider the boat to be a character, because it was such a blatant tack-on plot device. 
I didn't like the conflict.  The big bads would really give up on them that easily?  Why even have them in the story, that "conflict" could have been omitted completely, and absolutely nothing in the story would have changed.  Zero.  The mermaids were taking away their precious haul, and before Jorge went nuts, nobody really thought too much about it.  And wouldn't they have lost some while dragging it under the water anyway?  Why didn't Lolo have a weapon on board?  I know NO boat captains that don't have some sort of weapon on board, be it a gun, knife, baseball bat, gaffing hook, etc.  Surely, they would have a knife to cut tangled lines in a supposed fishing boat.  Lolo could have also had the Magdalena report in the crime, as others have pointed out.
I didn't like the science.  Again, the AI was useless, and really seemed to be the only tech in the story.  Why/how would a dirt-poor fisherman who lived hand to mouth put a presumably expensive AI retrofit on his boat?  Why was there no other tech in the story?(other than the buzzer boats) Why/how would a group set up a system that would allow for gender neutralization for 13 year olds?  Surely there would be many hoops to jump through for this kind of charity. 

I think Cat Rambo had a thought of connecting a story with Old Man and the Sea in one hand, and a rape/gender neutralization story/shock point in the other hand, and mashed them together and just formed something ugly. 

[The Far Stairs]

Good point about the useless AI! I didn't think of that.

[Rachel Udin]

I have a little problem with the narration, but it's a personal problem. I loved Nina Kimberly the Merciless and Space Casey and thought they were very funny. I've loved Christiana Ellis and her narrations since then. But since Nina Kimberly I think of Christiana as someone who brings the funny, like in her narration of podcastle's The Hag Queen’s Curse. And this wasn't a funny story but I kept on kinda expecting it to be. I couldn't internalize the pain and tragedy because, hey, IT'S CHRISTIANA!

Just a personal problem.

Unfair, you should listen to Metamor. Christiana does a heart-wrenching performance as Fiona and really delivers an unfunny role there... she writes a lot of humor on her own, but when she needs to deliver other emotions she can!