Author Topic: EP261: Only Springtime When She’s Gone  (Read 29234 times)

Scattercat

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Reply #25 on: October 12, 2010, 06:09:31 PM
the world building is underdone & derivative. It's the same 'corporate-tech rules the world in little private complexes' I see everywhere (even including the lack of 'real' food and natural materials)

You can have my Shadowrun milieu when you pry it from my cold dead cyberhands, chummer.



Dave

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Reply #26 on: October 12, 2010, 10:30:08 PM
Man, I felt slightly stupid when, only at the end of the story, did I realize it was a retelling of Hades and Persephone. And then it was so obvious it was like a hammer to the skull.

I don't know whether it would have impacted my enjoyment either way, but I liked the story.

-Dave (aka Nev the Deranged)


digitalbusker

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Reply #27 on: October 12, 2010, 10:53:55 PM
Look, I don't want to be cranky here, but...

Can we please be done with Persephone now?

Please?



Talia

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Reply #28 on: October 13, 2010, 05:19:26 AM
I didn't start really enjoying this piece until after the reveal. which I confess I didn't see coming, though I probably should have.

Regardless of the  myth angle - the tension between the protagonist and his Significant Other's mom was delicious. The tragedy lingering there, was, to me, very palpable. So I found this tale stirring, ache-inducing even.

There were no winners here.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2010, 01:18:32 PM by Talia »



Unblinking

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Reply #29 on: October 13, 2010, 01:35:50 PM
Look, I don't want to be cranky here, but...

Can we please be done with Persephone now?

Please?

have there been a lot of Persephone retellings lately?  No other obvious ones come to mind, but I've been mostly sticking to a few podcasts for fiction recently so it's entirely possible that I've missed them all.



digitalbusker

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Reply #30 on: October 13, 2010, 03:14:46 PM
Look, I don't want to be cranky here, but...

Can we please be done with Persephone now?

Please?

have there been a lot of Persephone retellings lately?  No other obvious ones come to mind, but I've been mostly sticking to a few podcasts for fiction recently so it's entirely possible that I've missed them all.

Not recently, no, but there seem to be an awful lot of them overall.  Maybe I'm just oversensitive to the phenomenon because my reaction on first exposure to the myth was "What's a pomegranate?" rather than "Gee I hope lots of people decide to retell this with the details subtly changed so I can feel all clever when I figure out that it's really the story of Persephone again!"  I think I was especially annoyed by it this time because I had the great misfortune of getting the gimmick from the title alone.  The railroaded character actions and worldbuilding details were not enough to compensate for all the "H.D."s and "Miss. Sephone"s, and "Have Charon bring the car around"s.  For me.  Your mileage clearly may vary.



Scattercat

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Reply #31 on: October 13, 2010, 05:10:30 PM
my reaction on first exposure to the myth was "What's a pomegranate?"

Answer: Delicious.



stePH

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Reply #32 on: October 13, 2010, 05:40:19 PM
my reaction on first exposure to the myth was "What's a pomegranate?"

Answer: Delicious.

And a real pain in the ass to deal with. I like pomegranates and artichokes, but both are too much work to eat.

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Talia

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Reply #33 on: October 13, 2010, 06:00:33 PM
I like both of them specifically because they are challenging to eat. I like having to pick out the seeds one by one to eat them, or pull off leaves. It's fun and gets me much more involved in my meal than I normally am.



ElectricPaladin

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Reply #34 on: October 13, 2010, 06:51:37 PM
I like both of them specifically because they are challenging to eat. I like having to pick out the seeds one by one to eat them, or pull off leaves. It's fun and gets me much more involved in my meal than I normally am.

I'm with you on this one. Complicated food is much more fun.

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Maplesugar

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Reply #35 on: October 13, 2010, 08:12:49 PM
I'm not sure I liked this story either.  It took me a while to identify Persephony and Hades, and Soaces seemed a confused addition to the story. Am I missing something from the myth?  Should I be aware of him as a character prior to this story?




zoanon

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Reply #36 on: October 14, 2010, 02:39:53 AM
I got bored during the dinner scene, and I haven't finished listening yet. I might try again later if I run out of other podcasts. :/



Anemone Flynn

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Reply #37 on: October 15, 2010, 03:17:41 PM
I really really enjoyed this story - I didn't realize until the end that it was a retelling, and was interested to see what would happen throughout the entire tale.

I am Anemone Flynn.


Wilson Fowlie

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Reply #38 on: October 18, 2010, 07:02:33 PM
Speaking of pomegranates:



Via GraphJam

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Maplesugar

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Reply #39 on: October 19, 2010, 05:06:35 AM
The best way to clean a pomegranate is under water. The seeds fall to the bottom, and the white pith floats.



Talia

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Reply #40 on: October 19, 2010, 06:22:40 AM
"The seeds fall to the bottom, and the white pith floats." is just a really lovely line for some reason.



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Reply #41 on: October 19, 2010, 01:32:50 PM
"The seeds fall to the bottom, and the white pith floats." is just a really lovely line for some reason.

Sounds like a story/poem title.  :)



Kanasta

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Reply #42 on: October 19, 2010, 06:45:30 PM
I also got bored in the dinner scene, and after losing my way several times due to a rather monotonous reading which made it difficult to tell when speech ended and narration began, I turned it off.



Maplesugar

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Reply #43 on: October 19, 2010, 08:38:09 PM
"The seeds fall to the bottom, and the white pith floats." is just a really lovely line for some reason.

Sounds like a story/poem title.  :)

You guys are too kind!



CryptoMe

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Reply #44 on: October 21, 2010, 03:36:00 AM
I really liked the concept of getting the girl you want only to find out she under duress of some kind and doesn't really want you.

But, as many have already pointed out, this wasn't explored as much as it should have.



icegirl

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Reply #45 on: October 22, 2010, 08:05:19 PM
I loved the song... I loved the myth... the story was okay. I think the really interesting bits don't come forward until after you are done reading it... so maybe it's kind of a sneaker story, or just a really long lead up to a punch line.



heyes

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Reply #46 on: October 24, 2010, 05:14:08 PM
The story was enjoyable, even if it had that Great Gatsby sort of feel to it. I have a personal bone with stories that punish people who "rise above their station", especially when both sides of the "have" line hate the socially mobile. One thing I particularly enjoyed was how vulnerable HD seemed, how fearful within his tower he seemed.  Certainly there was a sense that he was blinding himself to the realities of what he was doing, but there was something more in it for me.  Maybe it was his willful lack of reflective thoughtfulness. He took some pride in treating his fellow luddite servant with respect, in respecting his craft, and yet HD was blind to the fact that to his servant HD was just another Techno-overlord.

The reading was a little below what we usually get from EP, but nothing a couple of edits cuts couldn't have fixed.  Having dabbled a little in podcasting I have learned how much time and effort editing for audio and clarity take, so in the case this is pointed out to the editor not the narrator. The quality of the recording was also a little bit below what I'm used to for EP and made some sections difficult for me to understand.

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eytanz

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Reply #47 on: October 24, 2010, 09:38:17 PM
Ok, starting on the task of commenting on (some of) the stories I missed while I was on holiday and am catching up on.

This was one of those cases where a retelling would have appealed to me more if I had never heard of the original, I think. I liked the story for its world creation and the characters, but felt annoyed that I knew the ending the moment I figured out what story I was hearing, and basically I spent the second half of the story anticipating the next step rather than enjoying it for what it was.



gateaux

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Reply #48 on: October 24, 2010, 09:49:58 PM
Ok... I cannot say this for any other story I have listened to on Escape Pod or PodCastle (I LOVE you both) but I truly... and utterly... despised this story. Every single character was completely unlikeable, the dialogue was dry and the story was contrived. I found myself scoffing outloud at the end. This piece felt like something that I would have been forced to listen to in my grade 12 Writer's Craft class (not to say I was any better in Grade 12). It was painful and I almost skipped to the end just to hear episode feedback. The Persephone references sailed directly over my head, and I used to be a self-proclaimed Greek mythology buff... Guess I am rusty on my mythos.

End rant. Love you Escape Pod... looooove youuuuuuuu!

On a side note; not sure why, but I pictured the setting to be like in Final Fantasy X.



Maplesugar

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Reply #49 on: October 24, 2010, 10:36:20 PM
On a side note; not sure why, but I pictured the setting to be like in Final Fantasy X.

Wow-  being a fan of FFX I have to listen to the story all over again.  :)