Drabblecast 296 – 5 Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

Feature: Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain by Cat Rambo
Drabble: The Octopus Train by Jason Jones
Genres: Romance Sci-Fi



Monday, September 16th, 2013
Over the years, Tikka’s job as a Minor Propagandist for the planet Porcelain’s Bureau of Tourism had shaped her way of thinking. She dealt primarily in quintets of attractions, lists of five distributed by the Bureau: Five Major China Factories Where the Population of Porcelain Can Be Seen Being Created; Five Views of Porcelain’s Clay Fields; Five Restaurants Serving Native Cuisine at Its Most Natural.

Episode Art: Caroline Parkinson (Twitter)

Twabble: “ My old girlfriend said she slept like a baby. I didn't realize she meant she woke up every two hours lying in her own feces. ” by Swamp

[Cwpants]

I was listening to this at work and sat in complete shock at one particular point in the story (what are the forum rules about referencing key plot points?). I was entranced, forgetting my duties, as Tikka endured her ordeal. I appreciated the commentary on the toll relationships take on us. I think we do give of ourselves something irretrievable when we give our hearts to those for whom we care. This story was beautiful, sad, and powerful. I loved it!

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

(what are the forum rules about referencing key plot points?)

If it's a spoiler, especially when the shows only been out for less than a month, please either refrain or place it inside a spoiler tag set.

EG:

Code: Select all

[spoiler]Revelation, or potentially inflammatory stuff, goes here.[/spoiler]

[Cwpants]

Thanks, ASID! Is my post kosher?

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

Looks okay to me.

[Varda]

Yeeeikes! Are we in Lovecraft Month overtime, or what? Here I was expecting a nice romance after a month of excellent horror, and instead here we are. Between the drabble and the feature, this episode had a dark, alien quality to it.

I'm not complaining at all. The story was excellent, beautiful, and horrifying, and I'm a Cat Rambo fangirl through and through. I suppose the metaphor is how in some ways love causes us to give up a piece of ourselves, but the real insight (and horror) of this story is love as an act of tourism: passing through a life, taking a souvenir, and leaving someone broken in your wake.

Then there's the overarching metaphor about race/class with both the different types of clay people, and the fact that the Planet Porcelain is working so hard to attract rich offworld tourists. While on the human level, this story has something to say about love, on a macro level it works as an exploration of cultural tourism, such as when rich white people fly to Africa to appropriate native culture and then write books about it.

[Beth Peters]

YES! Cat Rambo knocks it out of the park with this one, so very wicked! Like her previous Drabblecast story, Amid the Words of War, Rambo demonstrates that she excels at dreaming up extremely interesting and alien worlds and characters and then injecting a great deal of human empathy into them and thecircumstances they face. It really makes you see and think about "human" things like war/family/sacrifice (Amid Words of War) and love/sex (Porcelain) in a new light, by overlapping them on top the "alien".
There was SO much world packed into this short story. The tour guide angle was a great device to enable the author to hint at many intriguing facets to Planet Porcelain (classicism, historical events, diet, flora&fauna) and the multi-verse in general (I want to go to chocolate planet!)
Very well done.

Also, this must be "List Month" on Drabblecast? Last week we had "20 Ways the Desert Could Kill You"...

[Spindaddy]

I loved this story... with its strange little twist. While I don't want to break any spoiler rules, I must say I'm glad it wasnt the ending i suspected.

[StalinSays]

Also, this must be "List Month" on Drabblecast? Last week we had "20 Ways the Desert Could Kill You"...

You're going to love 10 Reasons the Aliens Invaded next week. We got bought out by Buzzfeed, what can I say?

[Varda]

Also, this must be "List Month" on Drabblecast? Last week we had "20 Ways the Desert Could Kill You"...

You're going to love 10 Reasons the Aliens Invaded next week. We got bought out by Buzzfeed, what can I say?

Maybe it should go the other way. Great things would happen the day the Drabblecast bought out Buzzfeed. Downside: all the lists would be in units of 100: 100 Ways to Get Infested with Worms, 100 Characters in 100 Words or Less, 100 Signs You Might Be Dating Connor Choadsworth...

[chemistryguy]

I just have this to say regarding her love interest:

Spoiler:

What a f***ing jackass.

[tbaker2500]

chemistry guy stole what I was going to say, but I'm going to say it anyway.

What a total bastard. That really shocked me. A very unpleasant surprise. But, ultimately, a great one, for it made this story not just a good one, but a great one.

[cinnamon]

Well that escalated quickly, to somewhere I wasn't expecting.

I feel like I have to go take ten showers in a row now.

[strawman]

Very pretty story. Society is getting its head around the idea of leaving no trace of our explorations in the wilderness. Seems to me it would be a good thing to respect others to the same extent, people being more valuable than places or things. And if you must leave a trace of yourself, let it be something that adds rather than takes.

Nice one.

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

chemistry guy stole what I was going to say, but I'm going to say it anyway.

What a total bastard. That really shocked me. A very unpleasant surprise...

Ditto.

I hate stories like this where somebody gets away with total douche-baggery. And it's a felony and possible capital crime, to boot! If I want that, I can just walk around the neighborhood or turn on the news.

How about the cops at least get called? An angry brother? Lynch mob? Something?

[El Barto]

Great story. Great comments here. That ending was so unexpected until I thought, "oh wait, he's a HUMAN."

[tamarbucks]

Beautifully written. Gorgeous piece. A beautifully flawed china doll. She reminded me of Connie in "Where are you going, where have you been" by Joyce Carrol Oates.