Reading, Short And Deep #235
Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The Cave Of Discord by Charles Gleig
Here’s a link to a PDF of the story.
The Cave Of Discord was first published in The Windsor Magazine, March 1906 .
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The SFFaudio Podcast #568 – The Men In The Walls by William Tenn, read by Phil Chenevert.
This UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK (3 hours 36 minutes) comes to us courtesy of LibriVox. The Men In The Walls was first published in Galaxy, October 1963.
The next SFFaudio Podcast will feature our discussion of it!
Posted by Jesse Willis
Reading, Short And Deep #209
Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss A Baby Tramp by Ambrose Bierce
Here’s a link to a PDF of the story.
A Baby Tramp was first published in The Wave, August 29, 1891.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Reading, Short And Deep #194
Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The Altar by Robert Sheckley
The Altar was first published in Fantastic, July-August 1953.
Here’s a link to the PDF of the story.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
The SFFaudio Podcast #520 – Foster, You’re Dead by Philip K. Dick; read by Mike Vendetti. This is an unabridged reading of the story (45 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Paul Weimer, Marissa Vu, and Evan Lampe.
Talked about on today’s show:
medium length, Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, public domain, the Philip K. Dick estate lied, fraudulent, pretty good, Ballantine Books, published in the Soviet Union, communist propaganda, paying his taxes on the rubles, appropriate, magazine supplement to Pravda, America gone mad with capitalist solutions to the problem of nuclear fallout, preppers, the whole society is deluded, preppers in reality, zombie apocalypse bag, what’s in your bug-out bag, survivalists, nuclear war, practicing for the bug-out, its mainstream, sharpening their knives, no STEM, the gym instructor, a psychological breakdown, stop, drop and roll, duck and cover, anachronistic, Electric Dreams, a documentary about life in China, we don’t have to worry about terrorism, x-rays at every subway shop, police are your friends, schools with face-recognition software, wow!, no masks for tricking cameras, a good thing, Safe And Sound, the commons vs. the private, not a satire, gender flipped, a kid has a nervous breakdown story, Tony And The Beetles, looking at the map and wondering how far you have to be to avoid being nuked, become a C.H.U.D., trying to survive in the subways, traumatizing, The Day After (1983), Reagan saw the TV movie?, kind of odd, summit talks with Mikhail Gorbachev, the adaptation doesn’t get into the history of civil defense, bomb shelters, post-apocalyptic literature, The Blitz, FEMA?, that part of being a citizen has atrophied, we don’t find out what a “P” is “anti-P” anti-preparedness, let’s get that same feeling, the United States was going crazy, school was agony as always, watertight baskets, NATS circling above, civil defense drones, private taxes, a preparedness rating, a prequel to the Fallout games, the 1950s-cyber-future, find the berries that won’t poison him, pretty monstrous, Fallout communities, a failed social experiment, Pip-boys, the Dex of the adaptation, a cellphone, all iPhone elements, it didn’t know what to do with what it had done, admission 50cents, the sirens are going off and this poor little kid doesn’t have 50cents to get into the public fallout shelter, with his audiobooks!, cooing and crying, a place of safety and security, the quest for safety, guns and gas-masks forever, how the NRA functions, to be fair, collecting, guys are collectors, Jay Leno’s garage, gun collecting, gun technology, gonna have to go to Linux this year!, guns can do jobs, the only purpose that the government has is to protect citizens collectively, the satire, our own personal navies, look at all these kids, this hippie kid, a Toyota Prius, “sheep”, “Hey, Mom-shirt!”, consumerism, C.C. McApp, fidget spinners, And All The Earth A Grave by C.C. MacApp, they made death so attractive, humans are jack-asses, harrowing, the boy is traumatized, commodification, all human relations are commodified, undercooked, unsaid, the whole end reveal, the clumsiest reveal, executive/government person, manufacture a fake attack, disinformation, manipulated into action, mental illness, trying to control the society more an more, a metaphor for insane security theater, Russia Russia Russia, Galaxy, December 1963, the dad has the right attitude, psychologically damaged by everyone around him, more for the PKD Rhetorizer: running a retail business, real wood furniture, a mistake, another drill?, so embedded (in a bubble), what did they think of it in the Soviet Union, a status symbol, a car has a utility, now you need an apartment that looks good on Instagram, let’s go out for a drink, make safety expensive, the world outside of the suburb, when you’re in a in a bubble, Reeboks are the only kind of shoe that’s cool to wear, Rambo II, you’re walkman isn’t a SONY Walkman, a school assembly about something political that kids can do nothing about, only in a memory, presented with the flag, it can be read as a bitter memory, the time you met Donald Trump, double think, double feeling, 10 years ago, the same president, he looked just like he does on TV, make the people afraid enough, Watchmen, you couldn’t even imagine how scary it is, A Boy And His Dog by Harlan Ellison, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, the president is the chief of the chamber of commerce, the Soviets are a complete enigma, boring technology, “Pay up more, Bob.”, the climate change apocalypse, New Zealand is a fallout shelter for the rich, Kim Dotcom, it was cheap, which countries will be the safest?, standing on the outside watching the helicopters fly away, radon, how to spot a terrorist, “if you see something, say something”, living in bubbles, domes?, did you see the map?, desertified, how the deserts are moving east, the place where they grow the food/fuel, soybeans, invest now!, the after show, Jesse asked for a show like Electric Dreams to be made, Jesse regrets, Jesse is being punished, hear-gel, somebody in the writer’s room got a medal for that one, the mean girls vs boy bullies, gender flipping, the mom doesn’t have the same kind of concerns, analogous, a representative of her bubble, you’re undermining everything that you came here for, what’s going on?, trapped outside, ooh a library scene!, a decision/explanation, to remove the ambiguity, communist or anti-communist or capitalist, unfragile, programmed, mind control, it doesn’t make any sense, backflash, something is wrong, could they do a straight-up adaptation?, we have evidence, the ideas behind a story, a story about consumerism, a show about Medicare for all, become your own doctor, nobody forces you to buy guns, wouldn’t this be a cool opening scene, basic writing problems, bracelets, the transformation of wants into needs, cellphones are necessities, the coercion is peer pressure, mandatory, corporate capitalism, android vs. Apple, Samsung, the explanation is bunk, they didn’t bother to make it make sense, Runciter High, just trying to be cute, fan-service, make it meaningful, eXistenZ (1999), how to get people onside, feeling burned, never wish for a TV show, the magic genie podcast, Evan’s review of Foster, You’re Dead, the final stages of capitalism, neo-liberalism, Bradley is now Chelsea Manning, “the wall” and the “government shutdown”, a collective threat, how the Great Wall of China got built, The Hanging Stranger, unless they can find a way of profit by building a wall then any government expenditure is bad, ground level, this is all ridiculous, Foster is a little kid, looking back, cold war, lacking perspective, excluded, reasons to be afraid, how cool is this story?, such a tragic image, we wanted to see that story, Jesse takes it all back, Jesse made a Monkey’s Paw wish, they’re not harming Philip K. Dick’s brand (nor are they helping), Ubik, Philip K. Dick would be delighted, the premise of this story,
One day I saw a newspaper headline reporting that the President suggested that if Americans had to buy their bomb shelters, rather than being provided with them by the government, they’d take better care of them, an idea which made me furious. Logically, each of us should own a submarine, a jet fighter, and so forth. Here I just wanted to show how cruel the authorities can be when it comes to human life, how they can think in terms of dollars, not people.
that’s cool,
By the way — the above mentioned story was picked up by Ogonek, the largest circulation Soviet weekly (1,500,00). They even drew a number of archaic, foul illustrations for it … so I have more readers in the USSR than in this country. An odd situation. I never got a cent for the reprint; I wrote to Ogonek, asking for a copy of the magazine, but they didn’t answer the letter.
he’s very happy about this, its not foul at all, a weird relationship with reality, communists are the greatest threat ever, reporting people to the FBI, a liar and delusional, what would you be thinking reading this in the Soviet Union?, people say all sorts of stupid stuff, isn’t it a really good satire, The Trigger Effect (1996), paranoia, a mini version of Cold War paranoia, mass hysteria, mass consumerism hysteria, why are we doubling down on Beanie Babies, competitors going going all Beanie Babies, Cabbage Patch Kid, how bizarre it was, not just about nuclear war, I want my dishwasher, my clothes washer, a new car every year as a status symbol, a new iPhone every year, Nanny by Philip K. Dick, the twist is that the nannies fight each-other, planned obsolescence, dual use, the ultimate in consumerism satire, Sales Pitch, not funny, just scary.
Posted by Jesse Willis
The SFFaudio Podcast #437 – The Turning Wheel by Philip K. Dick, read by Mike Vendetti (this audiobook comes to us courtesy of Mike Vendetti). This is a complete and unabridged reading of the story (52 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Paul Weimer, Mr Jim Moon, Marissa, and Mirko Stauch.
Talked about on today’s show:
clearness be with me, novelette, Science Fiction Stories, issue 2, 1954, the far future of The Faith Of Our Fathers, an ambush ending, Brian Aldiss, I wish he wasn’t on speed, adrenaline or heroin hit, really funny, the most hilarious thing ever, walking around Hollywood, cruel glee, Sigma 2 Foxtrot, full of ideas, building a world step by step, small hints, not Dick’s best story, The Philip K. Dick Fans page, baffled by, pointing to something, the plot, what are we supposed to make of the ending, another turn of the wheel, penicillin, a return to reality, false beliefs, the next world, the tinkerists, a parade, a secular meeting, taken on too much, a racist and anti-racist story, awkwardness in his own body, PKD was a cauc, an interest in the numinous, a repairman, ambivalence, crapsack future, post apocalyptic dystopia, a Yellow Peril story, Indians ascendant, the lowly caucs, rotations of karma, circles within circles, humour, the PKD stand-in character, “my mind is still impure”, denial of education, entertainment, food, bardley class, some sort of satire, Scientology, Dianetics, A.E. van Vogt, John W. Campbell, there’s not much science in it, self-helpy, therapy replacement, psychotherapy for the afflicted, did Dick ever go to a Scientology meeting, Lawrence Sutin, phhh, Elron Hu (Bard), pretty crazy, in the center, e-meters, Aleister Crowley, apocryphal stories, Lester del Rey, founding a religion, Michael Shermer, the Robert A. Heinlein anecdote, the Harlan Ellison anecdote, what is religion for?, The Man In The High Castle, even the caucs of Detroit, the colonial governor, what is the purpose of religion?, how strange a man, a born liar, a similar mentality to Trump, a serious mental illness, a system, persuasion, the appeal of any religion, offering answers, tradition, social structure, what do they say?, they look with their blank stares, creepy, free test, no eye contact, Sung Wu, this is what the real world’s like, so much fear, it will jangle you, deprogrammed, the medicine, bad days, mental crisis, free floating anxiety, existential angst, this electronic device is not going to hurt you, free (at first), haters, every cult, the Westboro Baptists, Cults!, rusty and unoiled, a jammed disposal slot, any stable society is menaced by cults, are we stable society, teetering on the brink, blind to the rot, rationalize, this is fine, do not repair, do not fix, shooting bullets with a rusty gun, deterministic nature of their faith, predetermined, divine will, a cheap argument, the lowest class, off to Spain, a silent messenger, the basic catechisms, busy mixing, a hairy cauc sweating and galumphing around like a neanderthal, one of PKD’s wives must have called him an neanderthal, Mary And The Giant, technos, pale and unhealthy like nocturnal insects, othering the Caucasians, I’m pretty hairy myself, lascivious looks, human dimensions, incessant whining, laughing and wincing, full of hypocrisy, the robots, “clearness be with you”, welded to its waist, some tinkerist, a plow, legacy leftovers, the TV repairman part of PKD, science is good and engineering is great aspect, hoping for recycling, monorails everywhere, nuclear war, open sores, farming the ruins of Detroit, a cool image, Time Pawn, revisions, world-building, wanted more meat, nicotine or copper, insecticide, our brothers, reacting to Eastern Mythology, gnostic, I Ching, of course not, reading the Dick’s Exegesis, jangled with spirits of murders, Thetans, I wanna murder you right now, not my best self, externalize, a lascivious bastard, getting clear, on a spectrum, mental issues, so productive, maybe this will work, a marketable madness, negative thoughts, that’s the bad part, panic attacks, agoraphobia, depressions, the link between graphomania and mental depression, you wouldn’t see anything, sitting on Philip K. Dick’s shoulder, across the street with binoculars, it must be frightening, nobody has the answer, a powerful ending, a lot of reflection of our society, making animals suffer is bad, sorry spider, take it to the limit, hairy and sweaty, ultimately we’re smart and we have science and engineering, he ultimately believes that American industrialism is a good thing, penicillin is awesome, his only real giant point, its about empathy, kipple or gubble, back into organized states, old religions, a new world order, out of the ruins of the old society, deeply symbolic, they could make the same mistake, primitively wise, they suborn ’em, expiration dates on drugs, unpacking the brushed over, how do we know that it works?, a poor little fly on an alien planet, a self-deluded cult that’s taken over the world, we have no guarantees, to reboot Scientology, it would be VR, you’re jangled!, VR as a treatment for PTSD, I remember all of Blade Runner, I don’t need to watch it again, the Vangelis soundtrack, the cause of my jangles, that room, put yourself in a basket, the Mercer cult machine, no decent self-respecting woman, incredibly hairy, like apes!, ape-like, dealing with racism, a yellow man criticizing white men, a white ascendancy, a horizontal ascendancy, we’ll have to share the same outhouse, oh my Hubbard!, the black empathy box, Wilbur Mercer, an Empathy box, an E-Box, the virtual reality of Perky Pat, a regular person, you have to have so much knowledge going in, Roog, deciding to become a vegetable, what is he saying here?, did his wife say something to him?, why would anyone publish this?, no movie will be made of this (as it is), wishing it were a lot longer, Piper In The Woods, the Green Man, what’s he getting at here?, New Wave, why is that guy doing that?, is he New Wave before his time, Gonna Roll Them Bones by Fritz Leiber, things are like huh, Day Million by Frederik Pohl, pre-inoculated for the changes to come, a boy goes to prison for treason and comes out a girl (Chelsea Manning), turmoil and rage, I was thinking about this two decades ago, fifty years ago, a story aimed squarely at the heterosexual male, stick with me, still a love story, there’s something going on there, not meant for the ages, for lining your bird cage with, we’re clear, and marked as suppressive persons, vegans, what you gonna stop eating fruit, totally put off, kind of cute, The Misfits, is abstaining from alcohol a religion, not having to lie, the religious fervor has passed, 27 year old Toyota.
Posted by Jesse Willis