Author Topic: EP464: Red Dust and Dancing Horses  (Read 12650 times)

InfiniteMonkey

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Reply #25 on: October 27, 2014, 11:41:08 PM
I don't really have anything to add, except to the discussion of how easy it seemed for a 12 year old girl to build a robot horse.
My suspension of disbelief broke a couple of times when she was talking/thinking about it

I know 8 year olds today who work on Arduinos. It's not too big a stretch to think slightly older kids in the future might build robots, especially if the components are lying around and she's part of a tech-heavy colony.



Max e^{i pi}

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Reply #26 on: October 28, 2014, 07:13:49 AM
@SpareInch & InfiniteMonkey
Ugh, you guys. Partial quotes deserve the death sentence!  >:( Or at least a verbal flogging.
Two sentences in to that paragraph I explained how I got over it! And it boils down to exactly what you said!!
The thing I couldn't get over so easily was the apparent maturity level of the protagonist.

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Nny

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Reply #27 on: October 29, 2014, 04:37:46 PM
Just wanted to say my wife and I really liked this story. My wife loves horses, and now that our life has changed to the point that she can no longer have one, she really resonated with this story more than she expected. Well, we both did!



FireTurtle

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Reply #28 on: November 05, 2014, 03:01:41 AM
Breaking my long posting hiatus to comment on this story. (Then will wander off to resurrect a few dead threads.) Wow. This one pushed a lot of memory buttons for me. Personal life buttons. Where to start..
First, my mom is and was a huge Roy Rogers fan. Huge. She won a writing contest about Roy way way back in the day and got some golden pistols as a prize. Boy does her geek daughter wish she'd kept those.  ;D
Second, my sister was the horse crazy one. Horse. Crazy. By the time I came along eight years later she had a whole collection of plastic horses and elaborate horsey set-ups that pretty much would be the envy of any fan-girl ever. We actually ended up with a ranch and actual live horses so there was definitely a happy ending, and I can report that having the actual live animals available does nothing to cure the horse-craziness. It infected me as well.
Third, I've seen Trigger. That Trigger. The stuffed one. He l "lived"  (and perhaps still does?)io the Gene  Autry museum which is quite near the LA Zoo. And..where I picked up the poster with the quote "The emancipation of women may not have begun with the vote, nor in the cities where they arrived signs and marched, but when they mounted a good cow horse and noticed how different and fine the view" that remains on my wall to this day.

So, to say this story spoke to me would be an understatement. The little girl that I was recognized that horses aren't just beautiful, but powerful. With them we can see farther, go longer and sit taller than we'd ever dreamed. A horse is freedom and friendship in one package.
I won't say I didn't step back a little and wonder about the logistics of "build-a-horse" workshop. But, if you can get to Mars and colonize it I'm willing to suspend disbelief about the challenges of building your own horsey substitute. The contemplation of thieving I found completely believable, for the record.
I was well pleased with the direction the story took at the end. It's a rare thing to see the sweet desire of a child for the unattainable be transformed into a lesson about the value of remembrance but not worship of the past as well as the great part passion can play in great acts of creativity.

All in all, a nice quiet and contemplative interlude.
Thanks, Escapepod for reminding me why I love you so.

“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.”
Ursula K. LeGuin


dSlacker

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Reply #29 on: November 10, 2014, 02:21:47 AM
I'm with the overall consensus that it's a good story that would be great if it had some tension - it's good solid potatoes, but needs some steak.



hardware

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Reply #30 on: November 17, 2014, 09:00:30 AM
Sympathetic story no doubt, and a rather well imagined mars colony (although I think americans totally overestimate how much space colonization will resemble the romantic notion of the old west). It never rose to any higher level though, perhaps it all seemed to resolve itself a bit too easy to really engage?



CryptoMe

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Reply #31 on: June 04, 2015, 04:23:38 AM
Liked the story. Thoroughly enjoyed the comments. Thanks folks...