Over at Pseudopod, I recently read a horror story called "Crawlspace" by one Russell Bradbury-Carlin. Here's the link: http://pseudopod.org/2012/11/16/pseudopod-308-the-crawlspace/
It has a pretty terrifying premise: the crawlspace under a couple's new house appears to be haunted. But the story takes a fairly unpredictable turn, and instead of being afraid of the crawlspace, the main character seems drawn to it, almost eager to get in there among the chatty dead.
I suppose I've become spoiled, having a show as lengthy and open as I do, where I can chat with Big about the stories we read, their strengths (and very occasionally, their weaknesses), my feelings about them, and other notions they brought up in me. So I find it a bit frustrating not to be able to do so with this story as well.
But it's always an honor when somebody asks me to read or perform in one of their shows, and Pseudopod is pretty popular and well-regarded, so I imagine "Crawlspace" will introduce as many listeners to me as it will Bradbury-Carlin.
Terrifying story.
ReplyDeleteAnd Rish, your reading of it made me very sympathetic to the character. Which only made it even eerier.
Thanks?
See, I thought it was an unscary story with a terrifying premise. I was puzzled at the decisions the author made in telling it.
DeleteBut if it scared/enthralled/disturbed you, then that means I was wrong.
Cool reading.
ReplyDeleteCould you do a TGMG episode discussing the story ?
We COOOOOOOOOULD, I suppose, but often, we are asked to read/participate in stories that we wouldn't have bought for our show, and every once in a while, we didn't care for the story at all.
DeleteIs it cool to bash somebody else's story? Or somebody else's podcast, for that matter? We're far from perfect on our show (though a hell of a lot closer than Clownpod, I can't avoid mentioning), and I'd hate it if EscapePod did an episode talking about what a waste of bandwidth our podcast is. Plus, the editors and hosts of these other shows have asked us to volunteer our talents for their programmes, and it might be considered anything from impolite to unforgivably unprofessional to use our forum to complain about the stories they paid good money to run.
I'm not talking about that episode we did about the werewolf story, by the way. Yes, it may have appeared that I took half an hour to complain about a story someone else ran, but the difference is, I actually liked that werewolf story. I think it had a great premise and there was a lot of talent involved in the writing, but it just beggared my understanding as to why the author would write it the way he did (in second person, etc.). I thought it might be beneficial to examine that, to try and figure out what he might have been shooting for. And since I never heard from that author, he either wasn't bothered by our discussion, or more likely, never heard it.
Sometimes there are stories that capture my imagination (like "Thorns Like The Tips Of Trees") that I'd love to do a regular episode about, and sometimes, I'd like to talk about the production (such as the Cast Macabre where I put in sound effects, only to have them removed as background noise), but there are often stories I couldn't help but be criticial of.
For example, there's an upcoming Rish Outfield reading somewhere where I absolutely hated the story. I'm using the word "hate" here. Like, the way I feel about Bjork. Now, I not only don't want anybody else to listen to that story, but I'm ashamed that I participated in it. Is it alright to talk about that in an episode?
Probably not, but I don't know for sure.