psychology – Page 11

CBC Radio One: Ideas – MISTAKES WERE MADE

Aural Noir: Online Audio

I mentioned the paperbook called Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) in The SFFaudio Podcast #023.

So, here’s the thing. Sometimes I push the limits. I sometimes tell you about stuff that, if you only look at it head-on, doesn’t really sound much related to Science Fiction, Fantasy or even Aural Noirish Mystery etc.. But, this one really is related (or so I’m convincing myself).

If you don’t buy that, just pretend I’m right in this case and go with the fiction. Listen for the Casablanca (see Aural Noir!) reference within this enlightening interview.

Have a listen to CBC Radio’s Ideas host Paul Kennedy talking to Elliot Aronson about why the ending of Casablanca isn’t very realistic (cognitive dissonance). This particular interview appeared in The Best Of Ideas podcast back in Summer 2008.

CBC Radio One: Ideas – MISTAKES WERE MADE – BY OTHERS!
1 |MP3| – 53 Minutes 30 Seconds [INTERVIEW]
Podcaster: CBC Radio One’s The Best Of Ideas
Podcast: 2008
Why do people dodge responsibility when things fall apart? Why can’t political figures own up to their blunders? What’s behind so many domestic fights? The distinguished social psychologist Elliot Aronson tells us about the power of cognitive dissonance.

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. Free Apocalypse Al!

FREE LISTENS Review: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Review

The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James
Source: Librivox
25 Zipped MP3s
Length: 5 hr, 43 min UNABRIDGED
Reader: Nichole Doolin

The book: A young lady, charmed by a young gentleman in London, agrees to take up a job as a governess to his orphaned niece and nephew. After arriving at the country estate where the children live, the governess begins to see figures around the estate that do not seem to fit with any of the servants currently living there. She learns from other servants that the former governess, Miss Jessel, and her lover, Peter Quint, died mysteriously shortly before she was hired. Are the figures she has been seeing the ghosts of this couple or is it all in her mind?

James keeps up this ambiguity throughout the book, constructing dialogues and events that seem diabolical under one viewpoint and another perfectly innocent by another. The book is told from the 1st person perspective of the governess. This narrator is the only one who seems to notice the ghosts and their effects on the children, but we as readers are not sure we can trust this young lady. The degree to which James draws out the governess’s decent into horror is a bit frustrating at times, but really, this is a short book and a classic in psychology.

Rating: 7/10

The reader: Ms. Doolin sounds like a professional. Her reading is polished, using pauses and inflection to great effect. I found it interesting to compare the voice of the narrator from the first chapters where she is bright and innocent to the later where you can hear the suspicion in her voice. The other characters are not given full-fledged voices, but Ms. Doolin alters her diction and pitch enough to let us know who is talking. The recording is clean and noiseless.

Posted by Seth

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Stories Collection #005

SFFaudio Online Audio

The “Short Science Fiction Collections” from LibriVox are FREE and FUN! Here’s the latest, which includes mostly new stories (a couple of stories previously recorded by other narrators). My recommended listens from this collection include: Summit, Crossroads Of Destiny and A Matter Of Magnitude. Also, listen to The Untouchable and Quiet, Please, if only for the voice of new narrator Jerome Lawson. Lawson is trying and achieving distinctive voices for each character – it’s not polished to perfection yet, but he’s really got something there. Lawson also has great sound set-up too. I’d like to hear more of his work in the next collection – or in novella or novel length work. And, thanks to all the narrators and the administrators at LibriVox for these! We appreciate it folks!

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 005
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 5.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
“Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, originally published between 1931 and 1962, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.”

Stories included:

2BR02B
By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; Read by Hoosemon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
In the not so distant future an over-populated planet requires that every birth be balanced by a death. When Edward K. Whelig, Jr.’s wife births triplets he needs to find three people willing to enter a local suicide booth and give him the receipt…

The Burning Bridge
By Poul Anderson; Read by Alex C. Telander
1 |MP3| – Approx. 52 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Usually there are two “reasons” why something is done; the reason why it needs to be done, and, quite separate, the reason people want to do it. The foul-up starts when the reason-for-wanting is satisfied … and the need remains! This story was first published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine’s January 1960 issue.
*From Worlds of If, January 1962.

Circus
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Not a strange-looking man, Morgan thought. Rather ordinary, in fact. A plain face, nose a little too long, fingers a little too dainty, a suit that doesn’t quite seem to fit, but all in all, a perfectly ordinary looking man. *First published in 1963 in “The Counterfeit Man -More Science Fiction Stories”.

Crossroads of Destiny
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Alex C. Telander
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
No wonder he’d been so interested in the talk of whether our people accepted these theories! *First published in the July 1959 issue of Fantastic Universe Science Fiction magazine.

Egocentric Orbit
By John Cory; Read by Elanor
1 |MP3| – Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
It took a long time for human beings to accept that our little piece of meteoric rubble wasn’t the exact and absolute center of the Universe. It does appear that way, doesn’t it? It may not take so long for a spaceman to learn … First published in Astounding Science Fiction’s May 1960 issue.

A Matter Of Magnitude
By Al Sevcik; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
When you’re commanding a spaceship over a mile long, and armed to the teeth, you don’t exactly expect to be told to get the hell out … *First published in the pages of Amazing Science Fiction Stories, January 1960.

Quiet, Please
By Kevin Scott; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Groverzb knew what he wanted—peace and quiet. He was willing to scream his head off for it!
*First published in Worlds of If magazine’s November 1961 issue.

The Untouchable
By Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
“You can see it—you can watch it—but mustn’t touch!” And what could possibly be more frustrating … when you need, most violently, to get your hands on it for just one second… *From Analog magazine’s December 1960 issue.

Summit
By Mack Reynolds; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Almost anything, if it goes on long enough, can be reduced to, first a Routine, and then, to a Tradition. And at the point it is, obviously, Necessary. *First published in Astounding Science Fiction’s February, 1960 issue.

The Yillian Way
By Keith Laumer; Read by John Larmour
1 |MP3| – Approx. 37 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
The ceremonious protocol of the Yills was impressive, colorful—and, in the long run, deadly!

Subscribe to the podcast feed via this url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-vol-005.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of A War Of Gifts – An Ender Story by Orson Scott Card

SFFaudio Review

A War of Gifts – An Ender Story
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Scott Brick and Stefan Rudnicki
2 CDs – Approx. 2.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781593976316
Themes: / Science Fiction / Psychology / Christmas /
|LISTEN TO A CLIP! |

“The children come from many nations and many religions; and while they are being trained for war, religious conflict between them is not on the curriculum. But Dink Meeker, one of the older students, doesn’t see it that way. He thinks that giving gifts isn’t exactly a religious observation, and on Sinterklaaus Day he tucks a present into another student’s shoe. The War over Santa Claus will force everyone to make a choice.”

A War of Gifts is a Christmas story set on a space station near Earth. There, Zeck Morgan, an intelligent boy with a phenomenally retentive memory, sits as an unwanted draftee into a school for generals. His parents and he, are deeply religious, but since the students there come from every nation and religion on Earth no religious observance is allowed. So when two Dutch boys find a way to celebrate Sinterklaas Day Zeck maps out a plan to get himself home.

Set in “battle school” of Orson Scott Card’s famous Ender’s Game novel, and concordant with the events of that book we learn of a new student who has more than one reason not to want to be there. First, Zeck is a pacifist, second he’s deeply religious. Both of these things are absolutely anathema in battle school. There’s plenty of rumination, and plenty of issues too, many of which will make people squirm to hear. Card does no preaching, but its clear he understands it. Which makes the novelette all the more interesting. Now I’ve read and heard several reviews about this novelette that were pretty negative (Sci-Fi Weekly, Beam Me Up, SFReviews.net). The reviewers complained either that it was a ‘cheap way to cash in’ or that it ‘wasn’t up to Card’s usual writing standards’. Some also attributed a kind of religious bias towards Christianity too. I think that most of this criticism is uncharitable. That said, A War Of Gifts will not set a new high standard for Card or for Science Fiction. But it wasn’t intended to either. It is a modest story, well written and like all of the recent “Ender tales” about Ender’s Game it is primarily about the minor characters. A War Of Gifts isn’t an independent story. You really must have read and enjoyed Ender’s Game to appreciate it, and then you must also realize that these character stories are all psychological stories – stories of the people in a science fiction world and not about the science fiction world itself. What card does is take a complex person and decode them into psychologically understandability. He does it with a humane and unjaded eye. If you come at it without a lot of preconceptions I think you can quite enjoy it – as I most certainly did.

Scott Brick and Stefan Rudnicki trade off reading chapters and points of view in a narrative dance that is both seamless and elegant. As Card himself says…

“The ideal presentation of any book of mine is to have excellent actors perform in an audio only format.”

And that’s what has happened here. This two CD set is small and will fit into the stocking of most any kid who’s a fan of Ender’s Game, be that kid atheist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or even Christian. Because as the kids at battle school say, Christmas is a national holiday, not a religious one.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Dark Pods – Two Audiostories

OnlineAudio

Here are a couple of dark treats before the holiday spirit consumes us all. Not for younger listeners!

From Escape Pod,
“Me and My Shadow” by Mike Resnick.
Read by Stephen Eley.
First appeared in Unauthorized Autobiographies and Other Curiosities, 1984.

Of course, even if we had met before, they couldn’t recognize me now. I know. I’ve spent almost three years trying to find out who I was before I got Erased — but along with what they did to my brain, they gave me a new face and wiped my fingerprints clean. I’m a brand new man: two years, eleven months, and seventeen days old. I am (fanfare and trumpets, please!) William Jordan. Not a real catchy name, I’ll admit, but it’s the only one I’ve got these days.

A dark story about a personality better left buried.

Available in [mp3] format hereYou can subscribe to the podcast feed via this url:
http://escapepod.org/podcast.xml

From Pseudopod,
“Finding Allison” by Glen Krish
Read by Alasdair Stuart

Disarming and cruel. Two words could sum up Allison’s smile, and that’s all he had left of her. Her smile hid right behind his eyes, pushing at his brain like a tumor — that angled, curt, and thick-lipped smile. Even the day before she left, they seemed collectively twined together, a seamless mass of flesh, two shadows of one body. Now he was alone with a gun in his lap.

Another dark story about personality, but in a very different way.
Available in [mp3] format here You can subscribe to the podcast feed via this url:
http://feeds.pseudopod.org/Pseudopod

Posted by David Tackett

2 John Kessel Audiobooks FREE on his website

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s a sweet find! John Kessel who’s story of A Clean Escape premiered on the new Masters Of Science Fiction anthology TV series a couple of Saturdays ago has made the original tale available to be heard as a regular audiobook reading on his website. Kessel, with help from friend, and fellow SF writer, James Patrick Kelly, has recorded his most adapted story and posted it for our listening pleasure. It was first published in 1985 in the pages of Asimov’s Science Fiction. Also available from Kessel is his short story, Some Like It Cold, which first appeared a 1994 issue of Omni. Grab the details for each below…

A Clean Escape
By John Kessel; Read by John Kessel
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: John Kessel’s website
Published: August 2007
A psychiatrist deals with a patient who seems to have lost his memory of the last twenty-four years. Or has he?

Some Like It Cold
By John Kessel; Read by John Kessel
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: John Kessel’s website
Published: August 2007
A time traveling talent scout from the future visits 1962 in search of his next recruit. But is she ready to come?

posted by Jesse Willis