Drabblecast 269 - Bright Lights

[StalinSays]

Feature: Bright Lights by Robert Reed
Drabble: Aversion Therapy by Nathan Lee



Thursday, January 17th, 2013
The water fountains are low. The lockers are empty. The summer air is warm but there are people in the classrooms. People are talking, are moving. A female emerges from the nearest classroom. She is fully grown. She has dyed hair and competing odors and all of her teeth. Showing her teeth, she asks, “Are you the teacher?”

“YES. YES, I AM.”

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Art by Bo Kaier

Twabble: “ I woke up this morning wrapped in my true love's arms. It would have been better if they'd still been attached to his body. ” by Emily

[mightytwix]

Good story, I really enjoyed the development to the conclusion. And i think it is great that the author put in a strong transgendered character, I cannot think of the last story to do so. Salutations to the author!

[strawman]

Nice, although if our public school security routinely lets people who sound like that into the classroom, it sure would prove the problem isn't guns.

It's also a little disorienting to transition so quickly from "Ominous Norm" to "Cheerful Norm" in the outro.

I wondered that exorcism could be so quick. Then I realized it's all recorded, so what sounds like instantaneous deliverance is probably a week of head spinning and green vomit that you can simply edit out.

Still, if I may suggest, it would make for an interesting episode to leave that part in on some future show.

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

It's also a little disorienting to transition so quickly from "Ominous Norm" to "Cheerful Norm" in the outro.

Are you nuts?! That kind of radical mood swing is awesome! And face it, we all know that one day Norm (or is that what they say about me) will snap.

As for the story, parts of it had me rolling my eyes, but I remember the whole podcast being enjoyable (listened in the midst of a road trip).

Not sure why the seemingly tangential idea of sexual orientation kept popping up in the story. In the end, it seemed irrelevant. I got the impression that the author was pushing a few bits of dogma whether they helped the story or not.

[tbaker2500]

I really like this story. It was engaging and ominous without being needlessly dark. But I have admit that I didn't fully understand it. That is possibly on purpose, since this is a riff on alien abduction. But why, exactly, were the aliens teaching us how to survive and sending us to far away places? Is it because our infrastructure was knocked out? Well, they did that! So that's a self-fulling prophecy. (I do admit I had to listen in two parts, after falling asleep last night.)

[strawman]

Not sure why the seemingly tangential idea of sexual orientation kept popping up in the story. In the end, it seemed irrelevant. I got the impression that the author was pushing a few bits of dogma whether they helped the story or not.

Yeah, it is kinda like an awkward LGBT product placement.
But beyond pointlessness, it raises the rather relevant question: if you are specifically aiming to populate the universe, sending LGBT's would be the ultimately stupid way to do it.

Still, a nice touch of irony, no?

[StalinSays]

Yeah, it is kinda like an awkward LGBT product placement.
But beyond pointlessness, it raises the rather relevant question: if you are specifically aiming to populate the universe, sending LGBT's would be the ultimately stupid way to do it.

It was odd to me, initially. But I took the 'boy-girl' thing as aspect of the alien's extreme frankness and robot'esque 'data in' thought process. I also didn't think it necessarily implied homosexuality, as much as hermaphroditic / androgynous anatomy. Either way, it sounded like transformations were in store for survivors: the alien was capable of assuming human form, presumably through technology, and the reason adults weren't being transported is that they were too set in their ways. It could be a mission to grab humans less as prep for future 'repopulating' more as prep for physiological 'conversions.'

But why, exactly, were the aliens teaching us how to survive and sending us to far away places? Is it because our infrastructure was knocked out?

I don't think there was an immediate apocalypse taking place; I understood the loss of electricity as a result of the transport laser being used. The grim view the alien held of humanity and future depopulation was (I'd assume) a projection based on our specie's lack of 'survival knowledge.' My takeaway was this was a calculated attempt at eugenics. Maybe the followup to historic panspermia.

[strawman]

Any thoughts on why he offered to sacrifice himself at the end?

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

Well, he did say he was tired or done or something and that he was chock full o' goodies. So maybe a final part of the mission called for him to be killed and dissected.

But I like to think he had that rare (nowadays) kind of nobility, like Timothy McVeigh, to realize that he had much to atone for and to gracefully accept justice.

So refreshingly different from today's all-pervasive mantra of: Deny, Deny, Deny, Blame, Deflect, Counterattack with tangential lies that your media buddies seldom investigate, and -- if all else fails -- cry on national TV.

[StalinSays]

Any thoughts on why he offered to sacrifice himself at the end?

I'm with ASID: tired/done. I think the alien's 'purpose' was to arrive on earth and prepare us for survival. His purpose was fulfilled. For whatever reason (too old?) he wasn't making the next journey, so to be of further use he was offering himself up in ceremonial fashion. Use every part of the buffalo.

[tbaker2500]

I'm still not fulling on board with them preparing us for survival. It seems more like they were harvesting us, changing us significantly and moving on. Kinda like the Borg. Of course they TELL us they are training us for survival.

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

Yeah, not helping us. The story plot actually mirrors the actions of a virus more than the Borg.

Convert part of the host into clones of yourself, not assimilate the host's good parts. Then, once you've replicated enough, send massive quantities of spores out to infect others.

You may make slight changes to the host, to make it a more hospitable environment for yourself, and you don't want to kill the host organism because that (a) destroys a base after only one use, (b) often triggers harsher defenses against yourself.

[StalinSays]

Yeah, not helping us. The story plot actually mirrors the actions of a virus more than the Borg.

Convert part of the host into clones of yourself, not assimilate the host's good parts. Then, once you've replicated enough, send massive quantities of spores out to infect others.

You may make slight changes to the host, to make it a more hospitable environment for yourself, and you don't want to kill the host organism because that (a) destroys a base after only one use, (b) often triggers harsher defenses against yourself.

That makes a lot of sense. Presumably the alien's sense of 'survival ready' could be terrifically warped and dissonant with our own.

You thought that was bad? You shoulda seen what the other guy woulda done..