EP260: The Speed of Dreams

[FNH]

Although some other listeners may think this was Science Fiction, I didn't.  It was all a bit "Yawn".  More space ships and aliens please.

[seanpeter]

Way too simple, weak ending.

[knigget]

I liked the story.  A lot.

Is it SF?  It was liked by at least 2 sf editors and many more sf fans.  QED.

Is Mur's tone believable reading of a character about to commit suicide?  Unfortunately, yes.  Personal experience.

Do I think she killed herself?  No.  Melatonin and Rozerem are two of a very few sleep meds that do not inhibit dreams, and they are not that toxic.  Still, that might have been part of her intent.  To sleep, perchance...

[LaShawn]

At the end, I blinked and check the time on my mp3 player. I didn't expect it to end so abruptly. Don't get me wrong, I liked the story, and Mur's reading was FANTASTIC. It's just that I didn't buy the ending...because...well...it's a diary.

Just because she wrote it out doesn't mean she actually did it. To me, it just seemed like a girl writing a fantasy out, but there's no way to tell if she actually followed through.

Unless you count the abrupt end of the story.

Hmmm....

[Dave]

As for the discussion on whether something is sci-fi or not, I personally find it tiresome and self-masturbatory, which is why I tend to just skip to the end whenever I see people start in on it.  Nothing personal to those of you that enjoy talking about it, mind you, I just think it adds absolutely nothing in the way of describing the quality of the story, giving constructive feedback to the author, nor giving a clue to a potential reader whether they may enjoy the story or not.  It's akin to people arguing whether a particular pair of pants are charcoal or grey, when they could just try the damn things on and see how they fit.

Well put.

[Calculating...]

The reading was great, and the story was disturbing, which made me think it belonged more on pseudopod, because it wasn't sci-fi. but that being said, i still loved it because it was so disturbing

[kibitzer]

It's akin to people arguing whether a particular pair of pants are charcoal or grey, when they could just try the damn things on and see how they fit.

Well said.

Indeed. I reckon I'll frame that and put it up on my wall!

[kibitzer]

Loved the story. Loved it for the sweetly naive method of measuring dream time and the contemplative nostalgia of wondering about Nana's life and what kind of life she was dreaming now.

The ending literally stopped me in my tracks -- I was walking to work -- and I thought, "Wait, what? Did I just hear that?" I backed up the story so I could hear it again. Since it was so intertwined with thoughts about dreams and possibilities, I didn't attach a sinister meaning. And she expected to wake up.

Was it SF? Who cares? It's a great story.

[Planish]

[snip]
To have a fairly light story take a sudden right turn like that was most satisfying, this is an example of what I was talking about elsewhere a month or two back about how a story that is horrifying is often more effective on EP than PP because it's more unexpected. I did not see this coming at all.

I dunno. I think I would argue just the opposite. There should be a bit of a build-up to a hinted-at-yet-unseen horror, rather than a "Bread Eggs Milk Squick"-type twist at the end.

SF or not SF? Well, about "Raising Jenny" and "Lady or the Tiger" I would have complained "not SF"; but I can forgive it in "The Speed of Dreams" because I have a well-developed mechanism for coping with cognitive dissonance.

All that being said, I really enjoyed this story, and Mur's reading. She had me on the first "whatever...".
Yay for Paige choosing to ditch the original artsy-craftsy project and do some original scientific research. I certainly don't think she intended to end it all because of Austin. The first time through, I didn't think that she was going to (unintentionally) take a fatal dose, so the ending didn't seem quite as dark at the time, but this line - "1. Take the rest of Nana's pills, so I can catch up" - now makes me think otherwise.
I think I like my mis-remembered version better.

BTW, What movie were those clips from, between 15:03 and 15:25?

Oh, and there's this recent offering from the fine folks at cheezburger, subsection derp.com:

[goatkeeper]

BTW, What movie were those clips from, between 15:03 and 15:25?

Hard to say,  I was a little tipsy that night.  In that particular 20 seconds I believe there are some Inception impersonations, some Strip Tease references and some classic Saved by the Bell snippets.

[FireTurtle]

I first encountered this story in the printed context and I've gotta say I had forgotten exactly what the ending was- I just had a visceral sort of reaction when I recognized the story much like one does in a horror movie when someone walks into a dark room where you "know" the killer is hiding. That being said, I loved it the first time and I love it now. Mur's reading very closely approximated the way I "heard" the story the first time. As for whether she dies, I am firmly in the dead camp because: I thought the whole diary was like what the parents found by her body and were reading trying to figure out what the hell happened and also that she mentions very early on that she had had trouble the year before in "handling" school stress and her class load had been scaled back. This seems a bit ominous and so... Damn but I liked the kid anyway. Great stuff, Escape Pod.

[luka datas]

clever idea