Drabblecast 218 - Orange

[StalinSays]

Feature: Orange by Susan Forest



Friday, October 7, 2011
photographs of an orange. The result is always the same.
First I remove the previous orange from the spike in front of the black
velvet backdrop and replace it with a new orange. I set an incandescent
spotlight out of frame as a light source...

Episode Sponsor You Shall Never Know Security by J.R. Hamantaschen
Christopher Munroe
Susan Forest
R.E. Chambliss

Art by Rodolfo Arredondo

[Polecat]

Hey, have I missed something? is this Apocalypse guilt Month or something?
Last week nobody is innocent, we´ll all end up being followed by zombie corpses for taking part in the inevitable consumer madness that consumes our globe - this week we´re all fungal spores infecting our orange of a planet until we destroy it and have to leave ("give me a new world, this one's broken").
Not cheerful subject matter.
On the other hand, I ENJOYED IT! Renee Chambliss as a childlike god watching a metaphorical orange decompose was excellent casting (although I did keep expecting her to metamorphose into an amphibious Dragon ), and Norm's deadpan relating of catastrophic events contrasted very effectively. Given our geinial host's sense of humour, I half-expected him to finish the episode with a mawkish version of N. Young's "After the Gold Rush". I am grateful for small mercies.

Respectfully

The Polecat

[Discodave]

Another interesting story for Drabblecast. I have to agree with Polecat, about the apocalyptic feel DC has had these last couple episodes. The dead following us, and the comparison to us as fungi/parasites who feed on our "orange". I did, however really like the stop motion narration of the story. Especially in the end when she explains the little puffs of silvery fungus dust that dissipates into open space in hopes to flee a crumpling shell of what home used to be. It’s one thing to read or write an apocalyptic story that exhibits emotion from characters about the end of the world, but to have a story that makes the reader uneasy about what one must truly endure to survive the end times, that is something haunting.

My wife and I were joking, at first, about the end of the world and what it will probably be like. Once I explained my pandemic idea and explained, on a tangent, about how hard it would be to keep my wife and child safe from harm, and as a man, it’s my duty to do so. We also discussed all the complications that might arise, such as the mad mobs of people, who will mindlessly, yet consciously, destroy anyone who threatens their safety. Good stuff.

[Unblinking]

Hm. Definitely some interesting imagery in this one, which makes it notable. It came off as pretty lecturey though, especially so soon after the zombie actuary one.

So, I gather, since the world described was exactly like ours, that the orange is metaphorical, that we are not actually living on an orange? I was kind of hoping from the beginning portions that it was describing a civilization that actually evolved on the surface of an orange, sort of like an apocalyptic "Horton Hears a Who" where the elephant finds a world of people living on a fuzzball.

[tbaker2500]

Hey, nice episode! I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The juxtaposition was perfect, and the narrations was great! 4 out of 5 stars. (have planets around them)

[j-m]

I love the way the two stories came together on this one. I knew it was talking about the same thing from different perspectives, but when the spores started shooting off it all came together beautifully! Fantastic!

Woot for my first twabble being put on this one! So cool

[harper]

And a fine twabble it was sir!

Actually, I loved the Drabble in this one too, as well as the main story. All around win of an episode! The still-photo orange vignettes were a great device, I thought this really worked. Really put me there and gave me a chill thinking about the rushed panic, getting in a small pod with my girlfriend, being put to sleep and launched out into space. And that only if we were the lucky ones!

This reminded me of one of my favorite Drabblecast stories from the archives, the Beekeepers, that had the alien bugs pollinating and swarming throughout the universe like creepy space locust botflys. It's even freakier to think about humans in that role.

PS> I appreciate that Norm didn't even touch all those different world accents. Though I have a feeling he probably could have somehow pulled it off.