Author Topic: EP331: Devour  (Read 31648 times)

Zuishness

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Reply #50 on: March 24, 2012, 10:02:11 PM
The people of Adelaide have become accustomed to seeing me quietly crying on the bus, as I travel to work.

As I listened it made me recall a movie I'd seen, years back, with Lee Marvin, or someone Lee Marvinesque. In it he contracted rabies and chained himself up and told his boy not to trust him after he'd gone mad. The whole issue of personality and trust being eroded by a virus was very frightening to me back then, and still is now. Strange though, the only other thing I remember is that the rabid character wore double denim. Quelle horreur.

I expected the ending to be much bleaker. However, thinking about why the author chose to write the story, it's probably less surprising in hindsight that he chose to make it about love being an unconquered force of nature.




olivaw

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Reply #51 on: March 25, 2012, 11:56:49 AM
Another striking allusion is The Silver Chair, which involves one mindset superseding another in a bout of 'madness'.



childoftyranny

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Reply #52 on: April 12, 2012, 02:05:06 AM
To avoid simply reiterating what everyone else has said I'll keep my comment to something that struck me after finishing this story. While very sad and a heartwrencher it was fantastic to see a story where someone didn't become more cynical through horror. Instead of finishing with some sort of splatter or some act of violence it ended with an act of breaking through to something utterly alien to the war-torn world he inhabited. I thought the ending was very refreshing.

All in all a fantastic story, I think leaving it at that was perfect since calling it a good story would detract from what it was obviously meant to evoke.

As an aside I think that some of the best sci-fi out there evoked the same feeling as horror. This story, the realization in Ender's Game of committing genocide against an enemy you'd never even met, the solitude and hopelessness of the citizens of "The Machine Stops". All of these had moments where my stomach dropped out as I considered them and their ramifications.



Devoted135

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Reply #53 on: April 12, 2012, 02:22:23 PM
As an aside I think that some of the best sci-fi out there evoked the same feeling as horror. This story, the realization in Ender's Game of committing genocide against an enemy you'd never even met, the solitude and hopelessness of the citizens of "The Machine Stops". All of these had moments where my stomach dropped out as I considered them and their ramifications.

I agree, I really like reading stories that leave you with lots of fodder for thought and discussion. The Machine Stops is a particularly good story (though of course I love Ender's Game as well) for that, I remember thinking it over for days after I discovered it. Another of my favorite dystopias is We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which is becoming increasingly relevant as we put increasing amounts of our information in the public domain.



robertcday

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Reply #54 on: April 13, 2012, 02:14:40 PM
You had the misfortune to sound - to casual skimming - like you were complaining that there was "too much gay" in the stories on the podcast.  We have been down that road before here on the forums, and it was an unpleasant experience for pretty much everyone involved.  No worries; some folks are just a little sensitive about that kind of thing.

Hmm, erm ::approaching slowly with hands outstretched for you to sniff and hopefully conclude that i'm friendly:: is it possible to comment that I perceive there to be a high 'gay' content in the stories on the podcast without it being seen as a complaint or any form of threat? ??? Sorry, I'm new here and was not party to any previous conversation, so forgive if I rake over any old coals.
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Scattercat

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Reply #55 on: April 13, 2012, 09:22:09 PM
Well, for me, my reaction is: Why bring it up if you're not complaining?  If you don't care whether a given character is gay or not, then what does it matter how many characters are coincidentally gay?

Basically, saying, "Man, you guys have a lot of gay up in here" tends to heavily imply "...and that makes me uncomfortable," which tends to further imply that the speaker sees something wrong with being gay.  That sort of discussion (regardless of whether I think it's a crummy point of view or not) really doesn't have any bearing on the stories qua the stories, and thus is discouraged in story threads.



robertcday

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Reply #56 on: April 14, 2012, 02:11:17 PM
You are right,
I am wrong,
let's shake on this,
and call it gone.
'sides which, there are more important things in life: the footy just kicked off!  ;D
Robert.

fanaticus, meaning "insanely but divinely inspired"


LaShawn

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Reply #57 on: May 09, 2012, 04:18:38 PM
That was...horrible. That was horrible and wonderful. That was wonderful and horrible and DAMN YOU FERRETT AND DAVE FOR MAKING ME CRY.

This was probably one of the most hardest and bravest stories I've ever heard. I would venture to say that it crosses all three genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror. With all the controversial elements in it, this could have gone so wrong, but Ferrett really pulled it off and made all the characters sympathetic. And with Dave's reading was...damn. I'm going to say this is the best reading he's ever done. EVER.

I'm going to recommend this story to my feminist book club. There's lot in here for us to...uh...chew over.

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Fenrix

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Reply #58 on: January 03, 2013, 01:13:28 AM
Wow. First of all, thank you for the strong rating before the story, that was a good call. Second of all, thanks for having Dave do the narration, I can't imagine anyone else reading this story. Third of all, yes this was an Escape Pod story, but it sure could (should?) also have been a Pseudopod story! Fenrix, we accidentally got another one for ya! :P

If this was over on PseudoPod, folks would be complaining about the sunshine and unicorns of love and acceptance in it.

Fun story, ElectricPaladin. It would be an amusing Easter egg for this or a related story made it to a flash fiction contest.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


CharlieWhiskey

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Reply #59 on: December 13, 2013, 03:53:09 PM
The song Demons by Imagine Dragons has been getting a lot of radio airplay by me and every time I hear it, I can't help but think of the lyrics as a 3-way conversation between the plumber, the lawyer, and the Chinese weapon.  Also reminded me of how powerful and awesome this story is.



Unblinking

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Reply #60 on: June 17, 2014, 05:22:43 PM
I put this as #27 on my Best Podcast Fiction of All Time list:
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/06/the-best-podcast-fiction-of-all-time-21-30/