CoW Ep. 203: The Universe Dress

[danooli]

Episode 203: The Universe Dress by Laura-Marie Steele

• Narrated by Dani Daly
• Audio production by Jeremy Carter
• A Cast of Wonders original!

Laura-Marie Steele is a writer from Canterbury, England. Her work can also be found in Black Treacle Magazine, and you can follow her on Twitter.

Dani Daly is a frequent narrator for Cast of Wonders and has been a slush reader since the Spring of 2015. You last heard her when she hosted her Staff Pick Episode in January. Come and see her in our forums where she also serves as the Cast of Wonders Community Manager, or on Twitter.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of weddings. Some women plan weddings from childhood. They draw pictures of the dress they’d like to wear and collect magazine cuttings of flowers or venues, but not me. I’d never even thought about it before. I’d always seen myself as the adventurous type, trekking off alone across the world. Maybe that was why I felt strange, staring at myself in the mirror, on the day of my own wedding.

Click here to listen to Episode 203
Click here to read the text of the story

Tags: acceptance, aliens, Cast of Wonders, confidence, culture clash, Dani Daly, family, Jeremy Carter, Laura-Marie Steele, marriage, Science Fiction, wedding, Young Adult fiction

 

[Unblinking]

Hmmm.... 

I liked the character in this one.  And the description of her relationship with her fiancee was cool.

But...  I feel like I missed something here.  Apparently he gave her the wedding dress as a way for her to explore and bypass her own wedding.  But...  why even arrange all the wedding stuff if both the bride and groom take action to avoid the marriage happening?  Why all the ceremony, all the world attention, all the talk of alien races uniting in marriage, and then whoosh oops it didn't happen.

For much of the story, she also just seemed... kind of confused.  She kept asking variations of "How did I end up here?" and along this line there seemed to be more questions than answers, somehow.  Maybe it was just meant to be pre-wedding jitters, but there was enough of it that I started to really question she is of sound mind, whether she has been hypnotized or mind-wiped or something.  Was I the only one?  Was that supposed to be the impression?

[danooli]

I saw her as being something of a rebellious teenager. This may be an incorrect assumption, but in the story she refers to her bedroom as being hers for 19 years, so I guess she's still a teen. That, coupled with Anna wondering "Was I actually going to go through with this just because other people said I shouldn’t?" led me to that conclusion.

(I was also a rebel as a youth - and still am to a degree. If someone tells me something is a bad idea, I...tend to want to do it.)

[Devoted135]

I definitely saw her as a confused teen who has allowed herself to get caught up in something way bigger than she initially realized. She seemed to have started this relationship out of rebellion and then it escalated way out of her control as governments and media took up the story. (How could she break up with him after that interview on the Tonight Show?) Her friends and family have bought in to the hype, though thankfully her mom at least seems to realize that maybe this isn't a good idea. I'm glad that her fiance gave her a way out if she wanted to take it.

(Am I the only who sees a metaphor for child/teen stars gone wild?)

[Fenrix]

Thought about this while listening to the story: