PC219: The Circle Harp

[chemistryguy]

OK, I think I must have totally missed the point of this one.

** SPOILER ALERT **

I could not for the life of me understand the lady's choice to take the circle harp over Heart. The circle harp produces exquisite music like no other but is very difficult to play, can't be tuned by human hands and dropping it once renders it completely useless. Why keep a pretty but useless instrument over one that works? I'm probably being too literal but honestly, I can't figure the metaphor there.

And I'm afraid that I, too, found the narration difficult. Believe me, I understand the difficulties in finding a voice for a character. However, this one seemed an odd choice.

The choice of the circle harp over her heart is to strive for perfection.  From what I understood, she could tune the instrument, but it might take decades.  I have a picture in my mind of what the instrument looks like, and sounds impossible to simply tune one string.  Being a circle, the tension on one string is dependent on all the others. 

And this is what draws the circle heart to her.  She walked the unknown in the story, and now walks that path again (metaphorically) in trying to master the circle harp.  She realizes how difficult the task ahead is, but is willing to try anyway.

Losing her "heart" just plain sucks, though.

[kibitzer]

@chemistryguy -- Yup, OK, I can go with that. Thanks

[Listener]

I found the reader's cadence to be annoyingly slow and strangely syncopated. The fake accent was unbearable.

I agree. I listened for about three minutes, couldn't stop thinking "Forrest Gump", and had to turn it off. Sorry. Not that I mind that accent/cadence, but if a performer is going to use it, it has to be justified very early in the story proper, and it wasn't.

[pixelante]

I will have to make a note not to listen to stories narrated by Rashida Smith while driving, she has a very sleepy drawl.

[Occam]

I must admit that initially I thought the reader's cadence was a bit slow, but I later came to admire it.  The slow precise focus in the reading mirrors the protagonist's surefooted journey up the mountain, and it's somewhat melodic in a way (kind of like the harp she plays?).  Would I want every reading to be this slow? No, probably not...but I guess it matches the story pretty well.

The story itself was fantastic, and I really appreciated the obvious symbolism.  Meh, can't say I really liked the protagonist's decision to go with the circle harp though.  I can understand what Dr. Williams was trying to illustrate (possibly), but I can't really agree.  Call it being young, but being a musician myself I can safely say that one can play complex, unfamiliar tunes on a simple, familiar instruments. It's really just a matter of how much effort one wishes to put in.  Life would be a bit dull and lonely if one constantly tossed out the familiar for the unfamiliar just because it's new, uncontrollable, and...expansive?  Hopefully the main character won't eventually become bored with the circle harp...It would be quite horrible if she had to go up the mountain once more to pick up a triangular one.  I don't think her "heart" would be able to take it...

[Mav.Weirdo]

I personally thought the style of reading was quite well suited to the story. I think this is my favorite Podcastle story this year.

[iwishihadwings]

I found this one very enjoyable, the way it was worded and how it ended just pulled me in.