Pseudopod 218: Flash on the Borderlands V

[Bdoomed]

Pseudopod 218: Flash on the Borderlands V

On the third day of Christmas, the Devil brought to me…


‘M’ Is for Manhattan

By A. Nathaniel Jones
Narrated by Ben Phillips

As I walk home, I hear crackling bones under my feet. I smile thinking of everyone who died so that I may have something to walk on. Every dead body built this city with whatever small pieces of themselves they left behind.


The Snow-White Heart

By Marie Brennan
Narrated by Ben Phillips

“Cut out her heart and bring it to me,” the queen said, and so the huntsman did. He brought no deer’s heart in its place, for the huntsman was loyal to his queen. He brought her the heart, and she ate of it, and the blood stained her lips like dye. Her wrinkled skin grew pale and smooth, her greying hair blackened, and she laughed as she finished the last bite.


Hoofprints in the Snow

By Nathaniel Tapley, writer-director of the free monthly podcast In the Gloaming
Narrated by Alasdair Stuart

Christmas used to be a day of church, nuts, tangerines and charades. Now it’s defrosted pre-stuffed boneless turkey joints, DVD box sets, and crippling debt. I had to take a stand.



Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[Unblinking]

'M' is for Manhattan
I... didn't get this one at all.  It's not even that I disliked it, I just didn't get it, not even a little.  Can anybody clue me in?  Perhaps it is because I've never been to Manhattan, nor any other part of NYC, or even any place on the east coast besides Florida?

The Snow-White Heart
Loved it!  I dig a well-told reimagining of a fairy tale, especially if it's strongly rooted in the original.  So much of the story makes more sense in this context, why her skin is so pale, why she spends all her times keeping house for a bunch of dwarves in the woods.  I liked how it took many of the Disney princess tropes, like princess consorting with woodland creatures, and changed this premise only slightly by changing the creatures from chipmunks and bluebirds to wolves--her command of woodland creatures as an attack squad reminded me slightly of one of the Shrek movies where Snow White calls upon the woodland creatures to attack with heavy metal music playing in the background.  (I'm not saying that association is a bad thing, I just thought I'd mention it because that scene made me giggle mightily).  Good show!  This is now one of my favorite fairy tales reimagined, and is certainly my favorite version of Snow White.

Hoofprints in the snow
I enjoyed this one too.  The unlikeable protagonist made for a very interesting tale, particularly the fact that he's not so much scared for the fate of his child, but scared of being left alone in this world, and how the misbehavior of his child in this context is a good reason for his life to be filled with dread.  I only recently heard about some of the darker myths behind Santa with the carrying away of naughty children in sacks, and so that idea is still new and interesting to me when most Christmas themes have been done a million times by now.

[Marguerite]

A fantastic and creepy holiday offering from Pseudopod Towers. 

M is for Manhattan struck a fantastic stalker/serial killer vibe for me that always reminds me of "So Help Me Jesus" by The Toadies.  It combined with the melancholy note of Christmas perfectly.

The Snow White Heart was my least favorite of the three but I appreciated the undead riff on a classic story.  I don't know if I'll be looking at my friend's hoodie of "Dopey" the same way ever again.

Hoofprints in the Snow was... wow.  This is an amazing story, and one I'm going to trot out yearly.  I love the tone of the protagonist - one part aging British curmudgeon, one part frustration at the loss of the Christmas traditions, one part remorse, one part struggle with NOT being remorseful.  I love that the death of the mother is completely glazed over and the reader's left to draw their own conclusions.  I'm also a sucker for the vocabulary.  I mean, come on - how many Christmas stories can you name that contain the word onanism. 

I also have to say that Alasdair's reading was nuanced and one of his all time best.  It would have been easy to play the protagonist off as humorous or doting and out of touch, but the shift back and forth between frustration, remorse and horror was very subtly done and added immensely.

[Scattercat]

<3 for "The Snow-White Heart."  I did a series last year of dark riffs on the seven dwarves, and it was a lot of fun.  I liked this story's unabashed heightened tone; it was a horror story, dangit, and it was going to use some imagery up on y'all.

I liked "Hoofprints in the Snow," but I didn't love it.  I felt like it did better than most "evil Santa" stories without managing to get to what I'd consider the sweet spot.  I wasn't scared, really; "Hogfather" remains the best fictional deconstruction of the Santa myth that I've read to date.

"M is for Manhattan" was kinda meh.  I'm sorry, but there it is.  I can't even really remember what happened; it slipped from my mind like a tomato from a greasy burger.

[Loz]

M is for Manhattan

What?!

The Snow-White Heart

Very nice. Was this really a flash piece? It felt longer, like a great epic. Reminded me of Neil Gaiman's version of the tale but I think this could have been better.

Hoofprints in the Snow

A wonderful and twisted little tale. Of course, being a horror story the intrusion of the fantastic doesn't make things better and it's tragic the narrator is so afraid of dying alone that he wants to keep what would appear to be a horrid child with him. Great reading too.

[Fenrix]

I liked the whole pack. Sure "M" was a mood piece, but I'm fine with that for Flash. The other two were stunning. The rich imagery in the Snow White Heart are worth savoring and revisiting. And Alasdair always delivers the unlikeable protagonists deftly. I wonder how much this has to do with how likeable he is as a host that it makes his delivery of unlikeable characters all the more powerful.