Drabblecast 096 - L'wek and Sarah

YouTube · Post by **Kevin Anderson** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:53 pm

Really enjoyed the top 10 list of Badass animals. I'm gonna keep it at the ready, for when the kids start whining for another pet.

And thanks Norm for giving me the phrase Viscus Yum-Yum. One of my New Year's resolutions is to work it into a conversation. It also goes on my growing list of potential band names.

Richmazzer · Post by **Richmazzer** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:17 am

Yah, knowing the full title wouldn't have made me enjoy or understand it more than I did since I wouldn't have recognized any subtext pertaining to the Exposition of 1915.

adam · Post by **adam** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:52 am

i think the full title definitely adds some clarity and context in retrospect, but the story wasnt lost to me without it. in fact, sans title it led me to a completely different interpretation of it all from treeman- though treeman was clearly spot on with the authors intent i think. you get the impression it's the collision of 2 species from the opening of the earth after some disaster easily enough, and from several other suggestions i took it to be post-apocalyptic in the future actually. i didnt realize the girl was a ghost, i thought maybe she was one of the subterranean creatures, and when she walked through the man it was just a part of their abilities or something. i thought the hive queen was calling them back underground because she sensed the growing tension and potential route of violence things were taking with the humans, who blamed them in some way, but that some of them were staying topside anyway, so when l'wek said goodbye to her, and sorry she's dead etc.- its because she's as good as dead for not coming back down underground with him. i dont know maybe there were inconsistencies with my interpretation that i didn't catch but part of what i loove about vague stories like this is the ability to fill in the gaps yourself as it goes. leaving out the full title made it more vague, which left more gaps you needed to fill in, but it wasn't by any means unenjoyable either way- i found it rather brilliant. like, the author developed a whole world and situation, and drops you as the listener smack into the middle of it as if you fell in blind from a time-machine. and were you to drop in on it like that, you'd just be observing events and having to sort it all out through some confusion, just like listening to it. many of frank herberts short stories do the same (they tend to be long enough to eventually fill in most of the gaps, but just dont start off clarifying everything as they go).
so anyway, my conclusion is that setting is significant, but the story is good without it if you can still whip up one yourself that works.

man, i've been out of these forums for a long while. now that things have settled though, it's good to be back.

tastycakes · Post by **tastycakes** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:45 am

hey everybody, its adam!

tbaker2500 · Post by **tbaker2500** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 6:18 am

Adam!!

zZzacha · Post by **zZzacha** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:16 pm

tbaker2500 wrote:And don't mispronounce zzZacha on the podcast. She's got a rabbit she'll sic on you.

Well, thanks mister T. Baker! You totally rip my rap here. And I don't even know if that's an existing expression, but it has a nice flow, doesn't it.

Welcome to the forums, Treeman! Don't worry, I won't start nibbling until you mispronounce my name.

Mr. Tweedy · Post by **Mr. Tweedy** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:01 pm

strawman · Post by **strawman** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:10 pm

Mary Kate!

StalinSays · Post by **StalinSays** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:13 am

In the game Gears of War, enemy spawn points are called emergence holes.... and its the only thing I could think about during this story. Pop culture has K.O.'d my ability to appreciate art.

Mr. Tweedy · Post by **Mr. Tweedy** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:29 am

Hey, don't dis Gears as "not art." It's got some definite merits.

planish · Post by **planish** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:01 pm

This is just too weird not to share.

Essential background info - I was reading a thread on the kitebuilder.com forum about the early days of KAP (Kite Aerial Photography). One link led to another, and while I was waiting for something to finish loading I got up to do some dishwashing. While I was doing that, I played the tail end of Episode 100 on my iPod. Eventually I went back and sat at my computer while Norm was doing the story feedback for "L'wek and Sarah".

At the very moment Norm said something like this...

normsherman wrote:... The real title of this story is "L'wek and Sarah at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915"...

... and mentioned connection to the San Francisco earthquake, the screensaver canceled, revealing the hi-rez version of this image:

Caption: "San Francisco in Ruins, taken about six weeks after the 1906 earthquake"
From wikipedia article on George Lawrence, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_R._Lawrence

Is that eerie, or what?

Post by **normsherman** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:50 pm

Whoa. You wanna know what else is weird on top of this?
I was just recording something Samantha Henderson related for Escapepod and was doodling around, checking email and the forum and stuff at the same time, and referenced this story about 3 minutes before coming here and seeing it just brought up again.

Is there about to be another huge earthquake? Or is this a sign that Samantha Henderson is the 14th cylon?

Unblinking · Post by **Unblinking** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:35 pm

I am one of those who just didn't understand what was happening.

Regarding the title: Yeah, the longer title probably should've been used. But if that information is vital to understanding the story then it should be in the body of the story in some form or another anyway. You can do a lot of things with a title, but if the story makes less sense without it, that's not a problem with the title that's a problem with the story.

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Drabblecast 096 - L'wek and Sarah

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