Drabblecast 134 - Bone Sigh

[StalinSays]

http://pseudopod.org/2009/01/05/pseudop ... bone-sigh/

This is Bone Sigh's second pod appearance in 09. My preferred reading to be sure.

I re-listened Alasdair Stuart's interpretation as I worked on the cover (PS: thanks all for the feedback), and then followed with Norm's take. It's interesting how the narrator character seems to change. With Alasdair I felt the narrator was idiosyncratic and a bit disturbed, but still a loving father. I felt like 'the monster' was a predator, and his murder was in the spirit of justice. Same story, hearing it from Norm, I see his murder as a murder, the molestation as an assumption. I see a daughter who will be trapped in a twisted cycle of violence, a bad situation getting worse, not any kind of resolution. Quite a divide - all I can say is... neat.

[normsherman]

Yep. I heard a writing workshop today and the author got into the extinction of the professional writer in today's globalized net-world.
I was like c'mon dude, let's talk about changing up your business model.
You're living in an era where not only can you sell your reprints all over the place online--but since storytelling is such a unique medium, and audio fiction is really taking off-- you may be able to sell your "repods" over and over again.
We've run several stories that have been done in audio already, only because we think we can make it unique again.
Same as it ever was folks. Good stories will always get told over and over again, because they have the capacity to be told over and over again.

[revsleestaxx]

This story sounded very familiar or maybe the story line was familiar. But in either case it made me do quite a bit of googling on ritual scarring and tribal markings.
find the practice of scarification to be very interesting and I although I do have a couple of tattoos I maybe delve into a planned scar marking also. I do not think the lord has any creepy things to tell me or show my during my self-mutilation/beautification.
Thank you for the great story.

[phthalo]

I never like these stories about self-mutilation and I found the concept of a bonsai scar utterly unsettling (and not in a good, fun way). Exposing a child to that just made the whole thing much too heavy. Annabelle's Alphabet was one of the best Drabblecast stories yet, but this was just a bit too nasty for my tastes.

[m_a_kelly]

Creepy story. I liked it. I found myself wondering at the end if the Dad was going to let his daughter continue the "work" on his Bonsai scar. That thought totally freaked me out.

The "Mongolian Death Worm" bit was funny as hell.

[eric_marsh]

I first heard this on Pseudopod and didn't really care for it then. The idea of self-multilation is not appealing to me. So I listened to the first couple of minutes and then deleted it.

[khadi]

Funny how people fool themselves into seeing God in everything. Babies in India with four arms. Mary on burnt toast. The desperation in that, while extreme, isn't hard to relate to.

I'm not one for gore, but found this story effective, and certainly creepy. Who knows what weird fixations people are hiding.

[gord42]

Poster asked "What does Bone Sigh mean"

Play on bonsai, maybe?

Insert image of me hitting my head with an open palm while "D'oh!" appears in a brightly coloured word balloon. I never noticed that. Good call, Algernon Sydney Is Dead!

[ROU Killing Time]

I suppose it's my addiction to pun-ishment that leaves me scratching my head that there was ever a question about that. I got the Bone Sigh/Bonsai joke from reading the title and haven't even had a chance to catch up on the episode yet.

[myke_deschain]

Ohh... I liked this one.. I really felt for the dad.. I mean he seemed like an alright guy and I really want to believe that his ex-wife's new husband was really a monster. I really wanted to believe that the father was doing the right thing and just got a bad wrap... But towards the end I think he might have done a bad thing... But come now everyone's got their quirks right?

[Poppydragon]

Heard this first on Pseudopod and liked it then, thought Norms narration and production raised it another level though. It's seriously disturbing to listen to and made my imagination start to work overtime on where it went after that hotel room...

...would love to hear Norms take on The Reign of the Wintergod, another really uncomfortable listed that PP did earlier this year.

[dreamrock]

Really loved Bone Sigh, despite not being a horror fan. Constantly questioning the rationality of the narrator must be one of my joys in life. I will say that I think the narrator's murder of "the monster" qualifies as self-defense. Sure, the narrator broke into his house, but unless I missed something, "the monster" did attack first.

I'm willing to take the narrator's word at it when he implies that he didn't cut his ex-wife's brake lines, but I'm pretty sure "the monster" is not actually a pedophile.

At the end, I found myself wanting more body mods of my own (currently have my ears pierced at 10g, and one tattoo), but also really questioning the thought process behind that desire.

[myke_deschain]

...would love to hear Norms take on The Reign of the Wintergod, another really uncomfortable listed that PP did earlier this year.

yea... I really dont know if i could handle this read and produced with Norm at the helm... It quite intense when i heard it on PP

[Alasdair5000]

I read it as a play on Bonsai too, both literally and figuratively as I actually read this story for Pseudopod.

Hi it's Alasdair from Pseudopod by the way, how are you all doing?:)

This is one of my favorite Tim Pratt pieces, utterly horrible in a very flat, up front, lights on kind of way. This is one of the types of horror I like best and it was a real pleasure to hear Norm do such a kickass job of reading it:)

[ROU Killing Time]

I read it as a play on Bonsai too, both literally and figuratively as I actually read this story for Pseudopod.

Hi it's Alasdair from Pseudopod by the way, how are you all doing?:)

This is one of my favorite Tim Pratt pieces, utterly horrible in a very flat, up front, lights on kind of way. This is one of the types of horror I like best and it was a real pleasure to hear Norm do such a kickass job of reading it:)

Hey there Alasdair. Welcome to the madcap DC forums. Kudo's on all of you escape artists for inspiring Norm to take up podcasting, and Kudo's as well for your trinity of 'casts. I enjoy your guest appearances on EP and my 16 year old son is an avid fan of the Pseudopod. To quote him, "Like dad, these stories are too freaking awesome..."

[tbaker2500]

Yea. THAT's what he said. Uh huh.

[ROU Killing Time]

Yea. THAT's what he said. Uh huh.

he knows better than to use the other "f" word when his 5 year old sister is in the room.

he likes his allowance...

[myke_deschain]

Yea. THAT's what he said. Uh huh.

he knows better than to use the other "f" word when his 5 year old sister is in the room.

he likes his allowance...

ha! I didn't drop an F-bomb around my folks till I was about 20..

[Unblinking]

Unreliable narrator used well. I don't think the other guy was a pedophile, I think he just projected his hatred onto him To gave himself an excuse to act. That's the best part of unreliable narrators--you can't tell for certain from the text what's true or not! After-reading speculation is always fun.

I didn't care for the pun title, though. Clash pretty badly with the tone of the story.