The Incomparable

00:00:00 ◼   ► the impound horrible comcast number 32 [TS]

00:00:13 ◼   ► welcome back to be uncomfortable podcast [TS]

00:00:15 ◼   ► i am doing smell your host i am joined [TS]

00:00:17 ◼   ► today by our usual book club rogues [TS]

00:00:20 ◼   ► gallery if you ignore the last book club [TS]

00:00:23 ◼   ► podcast which I wasn't on and in fact [TS]

00:00:25 ◼   ► only listened to yesterday but let's [TS]

00:00:28 ◼   ► ignore that because i had more in on it [TS]

00:00:30 ◼   ► and therefore it doesn't count [TS]

00:00:31 ◼   ► so our usual our usual book club rogues [TS]

00:00:33 ◼   ► gallery Glenn Fleischman joins us hello [TS]

00:00:35 ◼   ► Glenn hi thanks for having me thanks for [TS]

00:00:38 ◼   ► reading the book as always [TS]

00:00:39 ◼   ► Scott McNulty also quite literally [TS]

00:00:41 ◼   ► gentleman who has read the book [TS]

00:00:42 ◼   ► yes yes you have read the book I concur [TS]

00:00:47 ◼   ► alright thank you for confirming and [TS]

00:00:48 ◼   ► joining us yet another person who is [TS]

00:00:51 ◼   ► capable of reading things and speaking [TS]

00:00:53 ◼   ► about them you wouldn't think this would [TS]

00:00:55 ◼   ► be rare with our group and yet [TS]

00:00:57 ◼   ► thank you too Lisa Schmeisser who joins [TS]

00:00:59 ◼   ► us again today I learned how to read for [TS]

00:01:02 ◼   ► this podcast that's right reading will [TS]

00:01:04 ◼   ► get you far and you know why because [TS]

00:01:06 ◼   ► reading is fundamental [TS]

00:01:08 ◼   ► take a look at it in a book a Reading [TS]

00:01:11 ◼   ► Rainbow mhm so our subject today on the [TS]

00:01:15 ◼   ► book club is actually short stories and [TS]

00:01:18 ◼   ► in particular we're going to look at a [TS]

00:01:19 ◼   ► short story collection along with some [TS]

00:01:21 ◼   ► loose assorted short stories by AI [TS]

00:01:24 ◼   ► believe seattle-based author is that [TS]

00:01:26 ◼   ► right Glenn that is my understanding i [TS]

00:01:28 ◼   ► know people who know him a guy named ted [TS]

00:01:30 ◼   ► chang who doesn't ted chang doesn't have [TS]

00:01:33 ◼   ► a massive output of writing he seems to [TS]

00:01:38 ◼   ► be a slow writer a methodical writer but [TS]

00:01:41 ◼   ► he released just a few years ago a short [TS]

00:01:43 ◼   ► story collection called stories of your [TS]

00:01:45 ◼   ► life and others and it was recommended [TS]

00:01:48 ◼   ► to be by Greg NOS our good friend and [TS]

00:01:50 ◼   ► member of the podcast you decided not to [TS]

00:01:52 ◼   ► show up tonight even though he [TS]

00:01:53 ◼   ► recommended the book to me [TS]

00:01:54 ◼   ► thanks Greg but teaching has been has [TS]

00:01:59 ◼   ► been critically acclaimed he's won the [TS]

00:02:02 ◼   ► award has been nominated for lots of [TS]

00:02:03 ◼   ► awards in the hole in the science [TS]

00:02:05 ◼   ► fiction writing community and he's a [TS]

00:02:08 ◼   ► good writer so I thought we would we [TS]

00:02:10 ◼   ► would talk a little bit about these [TS]

00:02:12 ◼   ► books if you haven't [TS]

00:02:13 ◼   ► error that the short stories if you [TS]

00:02:14 ◼   ► haven't read them I I doubt we're gonna [TS]

00:02:16 ◼   ► get some deep down into the spoilers but [TS]

00:02:18 ◼   ► if so will fire off the spoiler horn but [TS]

00:02:21 ◼   ► with so many short stories it's really [TS]

00:02:23 ◼   ► not about the big magic nations of plot [TS]

00:02:26 ◼   ► like it is with novels it's a lot about [TS]

00:02:27 ◼   ► just a sort of taking that that journey [TS]

00:02:30 ◼   ► and and and getting a little nugget of [TS]

00:02:32 ◼   ► the story so so anyway Ted Chang I think [TS]

00:02:36 ◼   ► we've all read some or all of the stuff [TS]

00:02:39 ◼   ► that he's written not sure how to [TS]

00:02:40 ◼   ► approach this guy i don't really want to [TS]

00:02:42 ◼   ► go down a bulleted list of of every [TS]

00:02:44 ◼   ► single short story he's written although [TS]

00:02:46 ◼   ► we could maybe start by talking about a [TS]

00:02:48 ◼   ► particular story that you found [TS]

00:02:51 ◼   ► interesting in some way and I'm gonna [TS]

00:02:52 ◼   ► throw to glen because he's in seattle [TS]

00:02:54 ◼   ► he's got the home court advantage [TS]

00:02:56 ◼   ► we should talk we can talk about themes [TS]

00:02:58 ◼   ► after we talked about stories i think [TS]

00:02:59 ◼   ► it's a lot of things run through this [TS]

00:03:00 ◼   ► but I think story of my story of your [TS]

00:03:03 ◼   ► life is to me it's one of the best [TS]

00:03:06 ◼   ► pieces that story in this collection is [TS]

00:03:08 ◼   ► one of the best pieces of writing that [TS]

00:03:11 ◼   ► I've read ever have to say because it he [TS]

00:03:14 ◼   ► does something that I have the same [TS]

00:03:16 ◼   ► feeling when i read certain you know [TS]

00:03:18 ◼   ► terrifically cerebral science-fiction [TS]

00:03:23 ◼   ► authors like I'm looking I'm looking [TS]

00:03:24 ◼   ► across the room at the massive anthem [TS]

00:03:27 ◼   ► which has its own bookshelf for instance [TS]

00:03:29 ◼   ► the extensions and FM i think it's i [TS]

00:03:31 ◼   ► think it takes up a quarter of the space [TS]

00:03:32 ◼   ► of my living room to hold it and and [TS]

00:03:36 ◼   ► when i read an mi felt like oh it was [TS]

00:03:38 ◼   ► painful to read initially because he was [TS]

00:03:40 ◼   ► rewriting my brain as i wrote as i read [TS]

00:03:42 ◼   ► it and i felt too much smaller extent [TS]

00:03:45 ◼   ► story of your life requires that you as [TS]

00:03:49 ◼   ► you read it you are a dealing with the [TS]

00:03:52 ◼   ► different tenses that the first person [TS]

00:03:54 ◼   ► author whose up the professor is [TS]

00:03:57 ◼   ► professor of linguistics opposes maybe [TS]

00:03:59 ◼   ► that the best way to describe her and [TS]

00:04:02 ◼   ► she she's talking about the future as [TS]

00:04:06 ◼   ► the present and the past sort of as the [TS]

00:04:09 ◼   ► past and it's confusing where she's at [TS]

00:04:12 ◼   ► and she seems to be talking to an infant [TS]

00:04:14 ◼   ► and as a story involves she's moving [TS]

00:04:17 ◼   ► backwards and forwards through time and [TS]

00:04:19 ◼   ► you think always this one of these time [TS]

00:04:21 ◼   ► travel stories you get precognitive [TS]

00:04:23 ◼   ► powers and what it turns out to be is so [TS]

00:04:26 ◼   ► like most mundane and remarkable at the [TS]

00:04:29 ◼   ► same time that it's I find it kind of [TS]

00:04:31 ◼   ► mind-blowing like I've never read a [TS]

00:04:33 ◼   ► concept in science fiction [TS]

00:04:34 ◼   ► that's so beautifully encompass the [TS]

00:04:36 ◼   ► notions of free will and predestination [TS]

00:04:39 ◼   ► and all that stuff while also being a [TS]

00:04:42 ◼   ► good story and being good sci-fi and it [TS]

00:04:45 ◼   ► really moving me one of the things [TS]

00:04:47 ◼   ► that's it i think this is a classic ted [TS]

00:04:49 ◼   ► chang characteristic is that your [TS]

00:04:51 ◼   ► narrator is not to be trusted but it's [TS]

00:04:54 ◼   ► not an unreliable narrator in the sense [TS]

00:04:55 ◼   ► of like everything she says is a lie but [TS]

00:04:57 ◼   ► more like you really have to read it [TS]

00:04:59 ◼   ► carefully because she's telling you [TS]

00:05:00 ◼   ► things that seem to be absolute facts [TS]

00:05:02 ◼   ► and then anybody in the story like wait [TS]

00:05:04 ◼   ► a minute and i think i've read some of [TS]

00:05:05 ◼   ► these stories three or four maybe this [TS]

00:05:06 ◼   ► one probably five times as many more I [TS]

00:05:09 ◼   ► over the years and on multiple readings [TS]

00:05:13 ◼   ► are like she she refuses to knowledge [TS]

00:05:16 ◼   ► how she's changed reality how she's [TS]

00:05:19 ◼   ► changed from future you know she's [TS]

00:05:20 ◼   ► saying it's impossible and that's part [TS]

00:05:22 ◼   ► of the malleability of of Chinese [TS]

00:05:24 ◼   ► writing is that he is really fascinated [TS]

00:05:26 ◼   ► with the notion of how much is under our [TS]

00:05:28 ◼   ► own control how much to outside forces [TS]

00:05:30 ◼   ► whether it's God or aliens or God aliens [TS]

00:05:33 ◼   ► you know God kings and King gods are in [TS]

00:05:36 ◼   ► charge of us are robots human beings and [TS]

00:05:39 ◼   ► their power is derived from strange [TS]

00:05:41 ◼   ► motive force like all these things but [TS]

00:05:43 ◼   ► what is actually allowing us to make [TS]

00:05:45 ◼   ► decisions what we think is along this [TS]

00:05:47 ◼   ► make decisions and how do we ascend [TS]

00:05:49 ◼   ► beyond that and so this is I think this [TS]

00:05:52 ◼   ► is like the perfect gem of a story both [TS]

00:05:55 ◼   ► on a larger scale inside all the [TS]

00:05:56 ◼   ► collections to it's funny that you [TS]

00:05:58 ◼   ► mentioned the idea that this is a [TS]

00:06:00 ◼   ► hacking your brain a little bit like [TS]

00:06:01 ◼   ► like you you said about an mi believe on [TS]

00:06:03 ◼   ► a previous podcast as well [TS]

00:06:05 ◼   ► not because that he's got me that's [TS]

00:06:07 ◼   ► actually the that's actually the point [TS]

00:06:09 ◼   ► of the story as well is that the the [TS]

00:06:13 ◼   ► main characters brain is hacked by her [TS]

00:06:17 ◼   ► understanding of this language which as [TS]

00:06:19 ◼   ► an old com major I I throw it back to [TS]

00:06:21 ◼   ► the sapir-whorf hypothesis that the way [TS]

00:06:23 ◼   ► your language describes the world [TS]

00:06:25 ◼   ► becomes the way you view the world and [TS]

00:06:28 ◼   ► it's taken to this kind of wacky sci fi [TS]

00:06:30 ◼   ► xtreme here where you've got an alien [TS]

00:06:32 ◼   ► race that doesn't essentially doesn't [TS]

00:06:34 ◼   ► believe in linear time there's this [TS]

00:06:36 ◼   ► whole concept that you know the universe [TS]

00:06:38 ◼   ► there is free will and yet the [TS]

00:06:39 ◼   ► same time every event in the time [TS]

00:06:41 ◼   ► history of the universe before you know [TS]

00:06:43 ◼   ► past and future it is happening [TS]

00:06:45 ◼   ► simultaneously and is sort of part of a [TS]

00:06:47 ◼   ► crystal or something like that and so [TS]

00:06:48 ◼   ► their concept of past present future [TS]

00:06:51 ◼   ► doesn't really exist and so as she [TS]

00:06:53 ◼   ► learns their language this is which has [TS]

00:06:55 ◼   ► got some crazy name it's like every race [TS]

00:06:58 ◼   ► her perception yeah it changes her [TS]

00:07:00 ◼   ► actual perception of time so that by the [TS]

00:07:02 ◼   ► time you get to the end and she's [TS]

00:07:04 ◼   ► learned heptapod be she good and she can [TS]

00:07:08 ◼   ► no longer perceive time when she can she [TS]

00:07:11 ◼   ► can perceive time in both ways because [TS]

00:07:13 ◼   ► she's learning this language but it is [TS]

00:07:15 ◼   ► that it's kind of Wow [TS]

00:07:17 ◼   ► far out man but it's it's in some ways [TS]

00:07:20 ◼   ► it's just what a good short story should [TS]

00:07:22 ◼   ► do right which is change your way of [TS]

00:07:24 ◼   ► thinking in some way except on this [TS]

00:07:26 ◼   ► crazy you know sci-fi scale with the [TS]

00:07:29 ◼   ► personal touch of her talking to her [TS]

00:07:32 ◼   ► child also throw in so there's a lot of [TS]

00:07:34 ◼   ► stuff in the blender the thing i noticed [TS]

00:07:36 ◼   ► when i was reading through the the [TS]

00:07:37 ◼   ► stories is I came to think of three [TS]

00:07:40 ◼   ► stories as sort of an interrelated [TS]

00:07:42 ◼   ► triptik on understand which is about a [TS]

00:07:44 ◼   ► guy who undergoes an experimental [TS]

00:07:47 ◼   ► treatment and becomes massively [TS]

00:07:51 ◼   ► intelligence it's what it's like flowers [TS]

00:07:53 ◼   ► for algernon yeah to the 10th power [TS]

00:07:55 ◼   ► yep you know only without the only [TS]

00:07:57 ◼   ► without the hideous regression but I saw [TS]

00:07:59 ◼   ► understand story of your life and 72 [TS]

00:08:02 ◼   ► letters as complementary works and the [TS]

00:08:05 ◼   ► reason I saw them Leslie is because in [TS]

00:08:07 ◼   ► every single one of them the power of [TS]

00:08:10 ◼   ► language to shape reality and to shape [TS]

00:08:13 ◼   ► perception is a pivotal part of the [TS]

00:08:15 ◼   ► story and what it reminded me of was the [TS]

00:08:18 ◼   ► plot point in snow crash where well you [TS]

00:08:21 ◼   ► know when when it turns out that there [TS]

00:08:23 ◼   ► is the generative grammar at the union [TS]

00:08:25 ◼   ► Steffensen bars very heavily from noam [TS]

00:08:27 ◼   ► chomsky early on linguistic theories [TS]

00:08:29 ◼   ► that you know there's a generative [TS]

00:08:31 ◼   ► generative grammar that is used to [TS]

00:08:32 ◼   ► describe reality as we know if you can [TS]

00:08:34 ◼   ► hack the grammar you can have human [TS]

00:08:35 ◼   ► behavior and i found that those ideas [TS]

00:08:38 ◼   ► were very subtly interwoven especially [TS]

00:08:40 ◼   ► through understand where the whole point [TS]

00:08:43 ◼   ► of the story is that the protagonist is [TS]

00:08:45 ◼   ► taken down by somebody who's grasp the [TS]

00:08:47 ◼   ► rules of the grammar faster than he has [TS]

00:08:49 ◼   ► and in story of your life the [TS]

00:08:52 ◼   ► protagonist at the center of it learns a [TS]

00:08:54 ◼   ► whole new grammar thanks to pod be and [TS]

00:08:57 ◼   ► that radically altered her perception of [TS]

00:08:59 ◼   ► space and time and then in 72 letters it [TS]

00:09:03 ◼   ► was the ability to assign a specific [TS]

00:09:06 ◼   ► etymology to a phenomena that is going [TS]

00:09:10 ◼   ► to change the way an entire species [TS]

00:09:12 ◼   ► reproduces and is going to fundamentally [TS]

00:09:13 ◼   ► alter human society couple generations [TS]

00:09:15 ◼   ► down the line and I found it fascinating [TS]

00:09:17 ◼   ► that he kept returning to this theme of [TS]

00:09:21 ◼   ► you know once you can decode the grammar [TS]

00:09:24 ◼   ► you can take you can decode reality or [TS]

00:09:26 ◼   ► once you alter a language you can alter [TS]

00:09:28 ◼   ► the outcome of reality it seems very [TS]

00:09:30 ◼   ► very much reflective of his day job [TS]

00:09:33 ◼   ► which is as a technical writer who [TS]

00:09:35 ◼   ► documents code you know it it deals with [TS]

00:09:37 ◼   ► closed systems and the idea that once [TS]

00:09:39 ◼   ► you decode once once you've been [TS]

00:09:41 ◼   ► mystified the system and set down the [TS]

00:09:42 ◼   ► boundaries and what the outcomes are [TS]

00:09:44 ◼   ► going to be in order to change the [TS]

00:09:46 ◼   ► outcome all you have to do is is is [TS]

00:09:47 ◼   ► understand manipulate the parameters i [TS]

00:09:50 ◼   ► want to read a very short passage to [TS]

00:09:52 ◼   ► take a lead from Jason style is [TS]

00:09:54 ◼   ► carefully marked stuff in previous [TS]

00:09:55 ◼   ► podcast to read on this this requires a [TS]

00:09:58 ◼   ► spoiler or I think it does get away with [TS]

00:10:00 ◼   ► more of the story of your life away but [TS]

00:10:01 ◼   ► it says them it's a I don't have the [TS]

00:10:03 ◼   ► page 107 in a some addition here [TS]

00:10:06 ◼   ► uh-huh and it's the this the first [TS]

00:10:09 ◼   ► person narrator narrator is talking [TS]

00:10:10 ◼   ► about how about a was the spoken [TS]

00:10:12 ◼   ► language and have to plot B is this [TS]

00:10:13 ◼   ► written language that they've been [TS]

00:10:14 ◼   ► working at it like a simultaneous [TS]

00:10:16 ◼   ► writing where you write the whole [TS]

00:10:17 ◼   ► concept all at once but you seem to need [TS]

00:10:19 ◼   ► to know the entire outcome to write the [TS]

00:10:22 ◼   ► idea Graham that the sort of resident [TS]

00:10:25 ◼   ► rub presentation of the idea such as [TS]

00:10:27 ◼   ► before I learn how to think and heptapod [TS]

00:10:29 ◼   ► be my memories crew like a column of [TS]

00:10:31 ◼   ► cigarette ash laid down by the [TS]

00:10:33 ◼   ► infinitesimal sliver of combustion that [TS]

00:10:35 ◼   ► was my consciousness marking the [TS]

00:10:36 ◼   ► sequential present after I learned at [TS]

00:10:38 ◼   ► the top heptapod be new memories fell [TS]

00:10:40 ◼   ► into place like gigantic blocks each one [TS]

00:10:43 ◼   ► measuring years in duration and though [TS]

00:10:45 ◼   ► they didn't arrive in order or land [TS]

00:10:46 ◼   ► continuously they soon composed a period [TS]

00:10:49 ◼   ► of five decades is the period period [TS]

00:10:51 ◼   ► during which i don't have to hide be [TS]

00:10:52 ◼   ► well enough to thinking it starting [TS]

00:10:54 ◼   ► during my interviews with flapper and [TS]

00:10:55 ◼   ► raspberry the two aliens and ending with [TS]

00:10:57 ◼   ► my deaf [TS]

00:10:58 ◼   ► and for me that encapsulates the stories [TS]

00:11:00 ◼   ► just terrifying thing where she is [TS]

00:11:02 ◼   ► gaining not only the perception of the [TS]

00:11:04 ◼   ► future but the perception of how she [TS]

00:11:06 ◼   ► perceives the future as well it's it's a [TS]

00:11:09 ◼   ► beautiful passages and it's also one of [TS]

00:11:12 ◼   ► the things I've noticed his linguistic [TS]

00:11:14 ◼   ► seems to be something that several sites [TS]

00:11:16 ◼   ► by authors tend to return to over and [TS]

00:11:17 ◼   ► over again for example r us at all [TS]

00:11:21 ◼   ► familiar with from suzette elgin Hayden [TS]

00:11:25 ◼   ► don't know what naughty that's not us [TS]

00:11:28 ◼   ► not even Scott you stop the band Lisa [TS]

00:11:31 ◼   ► she wrote a trilogy although the third [TS]

00:11:34 ◼   ► book as is the case in many trilogies [TS]

00:11:36 ◼   ► the book was many many years after the [TS]

00:11:37 ◼   ► first two and goes off in the whole [TS]

00:11:39 ◼   ► wacky we're direction but the premise of [TS]

00:11:42 ◼   ► her first two books is that alien races [TS]

00:11:45 ◼   ► have made contact with humans and as a [TS]

00:11:48 ◼   ► result linguists have managed to [TS]

00:11:50 ◼   ► consolidate most of the political [TS]

00:11:51 ◼   ► economic power [TS]

00:11:53 ◼   ► I like that imagine academics must love [TS]

00:11:59 ◼   ► those books [TS]

00:12:00 ◼   ► well in there i think one of the reasons [TS]

00:12:02 ◼   ► she's not widely known is because it's [TS]

00:12:04 ◼   ► also set in a dystopian future where [TS]

00:12:06 ◼   ► women have been reduced to legal channel [TS]

00:12:08 ◼   ► and so what the books talk about is the [TS]

00:12:11 ◼   ► way women create a subversive language [TS]

00:12:13 ◼   ► of their own to foment social rebellion [TS]

00:12:15 ◼   ► and it actually fails but aside from [TS]

00:12:18 ◼   ► that down or outcome what's really [TS]

00:12:19 ◼   ► fascinating is how interwoven through [TS]

00:12:21 ◼   ► the books um is the contention that the [TS]

00:12:25 ◼   ► more aware you become of how language is [TS]

00:12:28 ◼   ► put together the more where you become [TS]

00:12:30 ◼   ► of how your perceptions of the world are [TS]

00:12:32 ◼   ► assembled and that by altering one or [TS]

00:12:34 ◼   ► altering the other you know you can [TS]

00:12:36 ◼   ► change the way you think and that [TS]

00:12:37 ◼   ► changes the way you communicate or you [TS]

00:12:39 ◼   ► can change the way you communicate and [TS]

00:12:41 ◼   ► that in turn will influence your [TS]

00:12:42 ◼   ► perceptions and create a feedback loop [TS]

00:12:44 ◼   ► that alters the outcomes of what you [TS]

00:12:46 ◼   ► want to do i think not surprising the [TS]

00:12:48 ◼   ► writers would get into this stuff given [TS]

00:12:50 ◼   ► them the entire idea of writing [TS]

00:12:52 ◼   ► something is to put words in a sequence [TS]

00:12:55 ◼   ► that causes an audience to have a [TS]

00:12:58 ◼   ► reaction and behave in a certain way or [TS]

00:13:01 ◼   ► think in a certain way that is what a [TS]

00:13:03 ◼   ► writer does so you know but you but you [TS]

00:13:06 ◼   ► know the way Chang does it as he puts it [TS]

00:13:08 ◼   ► in this kind of amazing a very well [TS]

00:13:10 ◼   ► executed [TS]

00:13:11 ◼   ► I was going to say sci-fi trapping [TS]

00:13:14 ◼   ► although a lot of his stuff is is is [TS]

00:13:16 ◼   ► weirder than that even I mean I [TS]

00:13:18 ◼   ► understand is a very almost cyberpunk [TS]

00:13:21 ◼   ► kind of story about this guy who [TS]

00:13:23 ◼   ► infiltrates the computer networks and [TS]

00:13:26 ◼   ► because he's super intelligent and he [TS]

00:13:28 ◼   ► finds he's got a counterpart in a [TS]

00:13:30 ◼   ► essentially have this little motion [TS]

00:13:32 ◼   ► high-speed simultaneously dual-band [TS]

00:13:35 ◼   ► story of your life has wacky aliens who [TS]

00:13:38 ◼   ► appear and our are like big octopus [TS]

00:13:41 ◼   ► aliens but he's got some other other [TS]

00:13:45 ◼   ► stories that are in a very different [TS]

00:13:48 ◼   ► tower of Babylon and a story that's not [TS]

00:13:51 ◼   ► in his collection the merchant at the [TS]

00:13:53 ◼   ► alchemist gate are both stories that [TS]

00:13:56 ◼   ► have a middle eastern flavor and our are [TS]

00:13:59 ◼   ► clearly sort of sci-fi or fantasy in one [TS]

00:14:02 ◼   ► way and yet in and they don't have that [TS]

00:14:04 ◼   ► flavor at all there that it's an [TS]

00:14:06 ◼   ► entirely different much more exotic you [TS]

00:14:08 ◼   ► know not your usual setting for a for a [TS]

00:14:11 ◼   ► sci-fi story so we kind of goes all over [TS]

00:14:13 ◼   ► the place [TS]

00:14:14 ◼   ► yeah and i will say that the tower of [TS]

00:14:16 ◼   ► Babylon was my least favorite story and [TS]

00:14:20 ◼   ► it is the first one in the compilation [TS]

00:14:23 ◼   ► so I thought folks this is not going [TS]

00:14:25 ◼   ► well you know I you warned me about that [TS]

00:14:27 ◼   ► and I went back some like life all the [TS]

00:14:29 ◼   ► stories were great and then went back [TS]

00:14:30 ◼   ► was like oh yeah that one's a little you [TS]

00:14:33 ◼   ► know tedious [TS]

00:14:34 ◼   ► yeah well I mean yeah it's a guy [TS]

00:14:36 ◼   ► ascending the tower and it goes on it [TS]

00:14:39 ◼   ► does go on to build and then at the end [TS]

00:14:41 ◼   ► there kind of is this where it went [TS]

00:14:45 ◼   ► oh you know it kind of reminded me of [TS]

00:14:48 ◼   ► some of James Morrow's work are you guys [TS]

00:14:50 ◼   ► familiar jamesemorrow know it's only [TS]

00:14:52 ◼   ► dream only but only got daughter where [TS]

00:14:55 ◼   ► somebody raises the the immaculately [TS]

00:14:58 ◼   ► conceived daughter of god on telling [TS]

00:15:01 ◼   ► Jehovah Jehovah more jobs body falls to [TS]

00:15:04 ◼   ► earth manage a close [TS]

00:15:06 ◼   ► he's one of my favorite authors he did a [TS]

00:15:08 ◼   ► collection of short stories Bible [TS]

00:15:09 ◼   ► stories for adults where he also has a [TS]

00:15:12 ◼   ► Tower of Babel story a better one [TS]

00:15:16 ◼   ► oh yeah oh yeah except James burrows a [TS]

00:15:19 ◼   ► lot angrier than Ted chanc so it's you [TS]

00:15:22 ◼   ► can't really read him when you're [TS]

00:15:23 ◼   ► feeling bad about yourself for Humanity [TS]

00:15:25 ◼   ► because you'll end up just you know Oh [TS]

00:15:26 ◼   ► what is the what is the meaning of it [TS]

00:15:28 ◼   ► all but he's worth reading if you're not [TS]

00:15:30 ◼   ► if you're in a calm emotionally level [TS]

00:15:32 ◼   ► black towing job is as a good one [TS]

00:15:36 ◼   ► because they you know he got dies and [TS]

00:15:39 ◼   ► remind his corpse floating in the ocean [TS]

00:15:40 ◼   ► just amuses me so so Lisa to you have am [TS]

00:15:46 ◼   ► is your is your sort of pick for the [TS]

00:15:48 ◼   ► story that you found most interesting is [TS]

00:15:49 ◼   ► that is that understand or is it the [TS]

00:15:51 ◼   ► trip ticket or do you have something [TS]

00:15:52 ◼   ► else [TS]

00:15:53 ◼   ► the triptych i thought was fascinating [TS]

00:15:54 ◼   ► automatic perspective and I thought that [TS]

00:15:57 ◼   ► perhaps tells you a lot about ideas that [TS]

00:15:59 ◼   ► that the author is perpetually chewing [TS]

00:16:01 ◼   ► over my favorite story out of all of [TS]

00:16:03 ◼   ► them and i'm not sure this wasn't the [TS]

00:16:05 ◼   ► collections exhalation right I think [TS]

00:16:08 ◼   ► that's not in the collection yeah i [TS]

00:16:10 ◼   ► really enjoyed exhalation a lot of the [TS]

00:16:13 ◼   ► process of this this piece that an [TS]

00:16:16 ◼   ► anatomist from its particular species [TS]

00:16:18 ◼   ► like the robots with the iron lungs is [TS]

00:16:20 ◼   ► that you under yeah who undertakes to [TS]

00:16:22 ◼   ► detect his own brain and and discovers [TS]

00:16:24 ◼   ► that their unit that the universe is in [TS]

00:16:25 ◼   ► fact shrinking it was a chase and thank [TS]

00:16:28 ◼   ► you for sucking all the beauty that's [TS]

00:16:30 ◼   ► general practice with what is good god [TS]

00:16:32 ◼   ► is so I I got to say that was the [TS]

00:16:34 ◼   ► nominee there's a hugo and how many last [TS]

00:16:36 ◼   ► year and I and I got to the list and I i [TS]

00:16:38 ◼   ► got to that one like no Chet chang and I [TS]

00:16:40 ◼   ► red nose like wow this is a story about [TS]

00:16:43 ◼   ► some sentient robots who are who have [TS]

00:16:46 ◼   ► evolved from an iron lung machine [TS]

00:16:49 ◼   ► yeah okay and they use gold and they use [TS]

00:16:52 ◼   ► gold to conduct their thoughts and he [TS]

00:16:53 ◼   ► figures that a relationship and then [TS]

00:16:55 ◼   ► says okay by the way we're all doomed [TS]

00:16:57 ◼   ► so i'm writing this down because [TS]

00:16:58 ◼   ► eventually our universe is going to wind [TS]

00:17:00 ◼   ► down but maybe somebody who's a [TS]

00:17:01 ◼   ► different species will find us and it [TS]

00:17:03 ◼   ► was the combination of the investigative [TS]

00:17:05 ◼   ► spirit in the story and the tragedy of [TS]

00:17:08 ◼   ► an entire species dying due to the law [TS]

00:17:10 ◼   ► of physics and the hopefulness of [TS]

00:17:12 ◼   ► discovery and I thought wow this is [TS]

00:17:14 ◼   ► pretty much encapsulated so what one [TS]

00:17:17 ◼   ► would hope would be the best of any [TS]

00:17:18 ◼   ► sentient species so i really liked the [TS]

00:17:20 ◼   ► story i think i think it has a lot in [TS]

00:17:24 ◼   ► common with his most recent work the [TS]

00:17:28 ◼   ► lifestyle goals lifecycle of software [TS]

00:17:30 ◼   ► objects in that and going back to him [TS]

00:17:32 ◼   ► being a tech writer it is about that [TS]

00:17:34 ◼   ► process and and you know there is that [TS]

00:17:36 ◼   ► something technical about some of the [TS]

00:17:38 ◼   ► stuff that [TS]

00:17:39 ◼   ► he writes especially those two stories [TS]

00:17:40 ◼   ► where it's about investigating and [TS]

00:17:43 ◼   ► learning you know whether it's [TS]

00:17:44 ◼   ► developing software or being this [TS]

00:17:46 ◼   ► sentiment among machine that learns [TS]

00:17:48 ◼   ► about the universe [TS]

00:17:50 ◼   ► I'm sorry that I sucked everything out i [TS]

00:17:52 ◼   ► didn't i didn't really I didn't really [TS]

00:17:54 ◼   ► like that story it was i was in it and i [TS]

00:17:56 ◼   ► think i was actually so excited it was [TS]

00:17:57 ◼   ► by ted chang and I read it and I was [TS]

00:17:58 ◼   ► that kind of a letdown but I thought it [TS]

00:18:00 ◼   ► was very creative i I think that it was [TS]

00:18:02 ◼   ► a little bit mind-blowing in the sense [TS]

00:18:04 ◼   ► that it is about this really weird alien [TS]

00:18:07 ◼   ► what you know creature who is still [TS]

00:18:09 ◼   ► striving to understand the universe [TS]

00:18:11 ◼   ► around it but would you agree that one [TS]

00:18:13 ◼   ► of the Ted changs I think great [TS]

00:18:15 ◼   ► characteristic is that it's clear he's [TS]

00:18:17 ◼   ► always exploring an incredible creep [TS]

00:18:19 ◼   ► conceit and sometimes it's like a sketch [TS]

00:18:21 ◼   ► like you look at an artist working it's [TS]

00:18:22 ◼   ► like that's the pencil they didn't fill [TS]

00:18:24 ◼   ► it in but it's still sort of interesting [TS]

00:18:26 ◼   ► and are in writers don't usually have [TS]

00:18:27 ◼   ► their writers notebooks get published or [TS]

00:18:29 ◼   ► they talk about their ideas and I feel [TS]

00:18:31 ◼   ► sometimes like ted chang for [TS]

00:18:33 ◼   ► understanding works as we started out [TS]

00:18:34 ◼   ► very deliberately so this is the body of [TS]

00:18:36 ◼   ► his work and you know you're pissed i'm [TS]

00:18:37 ◼   ► sort of guy like I wish I'd novels from [TS]

00:18:40 ◼   ► this fellow and I don't think he works [TS]

00:18:41 ◼   ► that way but I think some of these [TS]

00:18:43 ◼   ► stories like that it's like this is a [TS]

00:18:45 ◼   ► fascinating idea sketched out briefly [TS]

00:18:47 ◼   ► and a in a well-written fashion but it's [TS]

00:18:49 ◼   ► not a story you know it's an idea [TS]

00:18:52 ◼   ► it's a conceit and all of the stories [TS]

00:18:53 ◼   ► had a great conceit at the center and i [TS]

00:18:57 ◼   ► think that you know how that's a common [TS]

00:18:58 ◼   ► complaint with sci-fi authors in general [TS]

00:19:01 ◼   ► right that their ideas are better than [TS]

00:19:03 ◼   ► their writing [TS]

00:19:04 ◼   ► no I didn't we say that you get you end [TS]

00:19:06 ◼   ► up with one good idea and you read if [TS]

00:19:08 ◼   ► you're lucky and you put a novel around [TS]

00:19:09 ◼   ► it because that like the first podcast i [TS]

00:19:12 ◼   ► think it's true i'm still waiting for my [TS]

00:19:13 ◼   ► good idea but I think that changs hit he [TS]

00:19:17 ◼   ► is such a good writer and his ideas are [TS]

00:19:20 ◼   ► so unique that I think that like you [TS]

00:19:22 ◼   ► said I think it's a shame that he hasn't [TS]

00:19:23 ◼   ► written a novel sure how would we care [TS]

00:19:27 ◼   ► about them i think the lifecycle of [TS]

00:19:28 ◼   ► software objects which is a very long [TS]

00:19:30 ◼   ► work actually shit makes me wonder what [TS]

00:19:33 ◼   ► the tip the the theoretical ted chang [TS]

00:19:35 ◼   ► novel would would be like because I [TS]

00:19:38 ◼   ► think lifecycle of software objects is [TS]

00:19:40 ◼   ► not one of his better works it's one of [TS]

00:19:42 ◼   ► his longer works but I I'm not sure I i [TS]

00:19:44 ◼   ► actually prefer it to some of the time [TS]

00:19:46 ◼   ► 3i it feels like a very thin idea spread [TS]

00:19:49 ◼   ► out it's like a Saturday Live sketch [TS]

00:19:51 ◼   ► turned into a movie it's a little bit [TS]

00:19:53 ◼   ► loud last night at the roxbury thought I [TS]

00:19:55 ◼   ► was being heart [TS]

00:19:56 ◼   ► yeah night at the Roxbury 00 and you [TS]

00:19:59 ◼   ► thought meet with the iron lung machine [TS]

00:20:01 ◼   ► was hard but I had to try to top you are [TS]

00:20:03 ◼   ► some authors who are much better with [TS]

00:20:05 ◼   ► their ideas because they're in this tiny [TS]

00:20:07 ◼   ► little bubble and you know just enough [TS]

00:20:09 ◼   ► about it to get you sinking into the old [TS]

00:20:11 ◼   ► what if and and it lets you explore the [TS]

00:20:14 ◼   ► idea but there's not so much detail [TS]

00:20:16 ◼   ► where you can pay attention to whether [TS]

00:20:17 ◼   ► this this world is built out of plywood [TS]

00:20:19 ◼   ► or wow this item is another profound [TS]

00:20:21 ◼   ► isn't supposed to be what we have a [TS]

00:20:23 ◼   ► great pitching stories this world is [TS]

00:20:25 ◼   ► built out of plywood no matter what my [TS]

00:20:27 ◼   ► classic example of that is Nancy crisis [TS]

00:20:29 ◼   ► beggars in spain which is a really good [TS]

00:20:30 ◼   ► marbella um you know it's basically what [TS]

00:20:33 ◼   ► happens if you create a class of people [TS]

00:20:34 ◼   ► who'd ever need to sleep and its [TS]

00:20:37 ◼   ► antennae and it's a fantastic short [TS]

00:20:39 ◼   ► story and velour novella but when she [TS]

00:20:42 ◼   ► stretched out to a novel and then again [TS]

00:20:44 ◼   ► made a trilogy you lost the original [TS]

00:20:47 ◼   ► cool idea which is how fundamentally [TS]

00:20:52 ◼   ► altered someone's character when they [TS]

00:20:53 ◼   ► don't have that downtime when they don't [TS]

00:20:55 ◼   ► dream when they're constantly 24-7 you [TS]

00:20:58 ◼   ► lose that really cool idea and it turned [TS]

00:21:00 ◼   ► instead into this really weird this [TS]

00:21:01 ◼   ► mishmash of bioengineering and class [TS]

00:21:05 ◼   ► warfare and and americans are dumb and [TS]

00:21:07 ◼   ► consume too much and I would have rather [TS]

00:21:10 ◼   ► that she had just stopped with the short [TS]

00:21:12 ◼   ► story you know Greg bears great novella [TS]

00:21:16 ◼   ► blood music got turned and he turned it [TS]

00:21:18 ◼   ► into a novel and exactly the same thing [TS]

00:21:20 ◼   ► happened he added some some sort of [TS]

00:21:22 ◼   ► dubious action scenes and he starts [TS]

00:21:24 ◼   ► earlier in the story and does a lot of [TS]

00:21:27 ◼   ► expansion of of stuff that you know that [TS]

00:21:31 ◼   ► the short story or or novella novelera [TS]

00:21:34 ◼   ► you know whatever the smaller work is [TS]

00:21:36 ◼   ► pared back to the things that are [TS]

00:21:38 ◼   ► required to tell the story and and you [TS]

00:21:41 ◼   ► know it may not necessarily be that way [TS]

00:21:44 ◼   ► if you start with a novel but if you [TS]

00:21:45 ◼   ► start with a short story and expanded [TS]

00:21:47 ◼   ► you can you can sort of see that that [TS]

00:21:49 ◼   ► it's really the stuff that would have [TS]

00:21:51 ◼   ► thrown out right at the stuff that [TS]

00:21:52 ◼   ► wasn't essential and suddenly it's the [TS]

00:21:54 ◼   ► padding and it's kind of disappointing [TS]

00:21:56 ◼   ► or you don't like the direction it goes [TS]

00:21:58 ◼   ► in for example David Mary second one of [TS]

00:22:01 ◼   ► my favorite short story authors for [TS]

00:22:02 ◼   ► science fiction and one of the most [TS]

00:22:04 ◼   ► poignant short [TS]

00:22:05 ◼   ► oh and he's been one of the most [TS]

00:22:06 ◼   ► poignant science fiction short stories [TS]

00:22:07 ◼   ► of a red titled we were out of our minds [TS]

00:22:10 ◼   ► with joy and i love that story if it has [TS]

00:22:13 ◼   ► stuck with me ever since I read it back [TS]

00:22:14 ◼   ► in 1995 i will occasionally read it and [TS]

00:22:17 ◼   ► still get choked up over it it is the [TS]

00:22:20 ◼   ► first chapter of his 2005 novel counting [TS]

00:22:23 ◼   ► heads and you know I ran out paid for [TS]

00:22:25 ◼   ► the hardcover which i never do read the [TS]

00:22:27 ◼   ► book and ended up just bitterly [TS]

00:22:29 ◼   ► disappointed because he took well he [TS]

00:22:31 ◼   ► took the short story it was of course [TS]

00:22:32 ◼   ► the first chapter of the book and don't [TS]

00:22:35 ◼   ► get me wrong i think he did some very [TS]

00:22:36 ◼   ► creative things in the book and I admire [TS]

00:22:39 ◼   ► that he had the courage to take his [TS]

00:22:40 ◼   ► characters and pushed in different [TS]

00:22:42 ◼   ► directions but it they weren't the [TS]

00:22:44 ◼   ► directions and the ideas that I had sort [TS]

00:22:47 ◼   ► of taken away from the short story they [TS]

00:22:49 ◼   ► were his vision and as a result its I [TS]

00:22:51 ◼   ► sort of had a bad taste in my mouth [TS]

00:22:52 ◼   ► because you know you finish the short [TS]

00:22:54 ◼   ► story and you've had this little shared [TS]

00:22:55 ◼   ► experience and you've got your little [TS]

00:22:58 ◼   ► bubble of perception about how you've [TS]

00:22:59 ◼   ► digested the story and the author sure [TS]

00:23:01 ◼   ► has their bubble of perception but you [TS]

00:23:03 ◼   ► have this nifty Levin diagram that [TS]

00:23:05 ◼   ► overlaps whereas with a novel that every [TS]

00:23:08 ◼   ► of overlap becomes much much smaller [TS]

00:23:10 ◼   ► relative to the size of the work so [TS]

00:23:12 ◼   ► there's a much more room for [TS]

00:23:13 ◼   ► disappointment on the readers part that [TS]

00:23:15 ◼   ► is interesting is I have I read that [TS]

00:23:17 ◼   ► book [TS]

00:23:18 ◼   ► oh maybe two years ago and i really [TS]

00:23:20 ◼   ► liked it and I had no idea it was a [TS]

00:23:21 ◼   ► short story but he had written any kind [TS]

00:23:24 ◼   ► of short story [TS]

00:23:24 ◼   ► oh yeah he's got a collection that came [TS]

00:23:27 ◼   ► out like 2007 but we're out of our minds [TS]

00:23:29 ◼   ► of joy think it first appeared in [TS]

00:23:31 ◼   ► mirrored shades [TS]

00:23:33 ◼   ► um I remember reading an idiot eat it [TS]

00:23:35 ◼   ► might have been in the year's best [TS]

00:23:36 ◼   ► science fiction anthology but i do I [TS]

00:23:38 ◼   ► definitely remember reading I can't [TS]

00:23:39 ◼   ► remember which anthology i read in the [TS]

00:23:40 ◼   ► first so Scott you had no idea that no I [TS]

00:23:43 ◼   ► had and I thought the the novel was [TS]

00:23:45 ◼   ► great so clearly i'm glad i didn't read [TS]

00:23:48 ◼   ► the short story because they looked [TS]

00:23:49 ◼   ► disappointed [TS]

00:23:50 ◼   ► no I like the novel on one level but it [TS]

00:23:52 ◼   ► was terribly disappointing and another [TS]

00:23:53 ◼   ► level that makes sense well because [TS]

00:23:55 ◼   ► because you know you're seeing you're [TS]

00:23:57 ◼   ► aware of the things that are not [TS]

00:23:58 ◼   ► necessary for the what you felt was the [TS]

00:24:00 ◼   ► main thrust of the you know the story [TS]

00:24:02 ◼   ► lifecycle software objects i mean i [TS]

00:24:04 ◼   ► think you can argue that one of the [TS]

00:24:07 ◼   ► reasons that it might be a little bit [TS]

00:24:08 ◼   ► disappointing i'm not sure if everybody [TS]

00:24:10 ◼   ► I mean Glen and I seem to think that way [TS]

00:24:11 ◼   ► is is that there's a little bit of [TS]

00:24:14 ◼   ► misdirection because i think because the [TS]

00:24:15 ◼   ► sci-fi trope that's on display there is [TS]

00:24:18 ◼   ► this whole idea of art [TS]

00:24:19 ◼   ► official intelligences and you know do [TS]

00:24:21 ◼   ► that we've seen I mean they're Star Trek [TS]

00:24:22 ◼   ► episodes about this right is it alive [TS]

00:24:24 ◼   ► and doesn't have rights and all of these [TS]

00:24:26 ◼   ► things and in the end I sort of felt [TS]

00:24:29 ◼   ► like what I was actually reading and I [TS]

00:24:31 ◼   ► actually like the story better if I [TS]

00:24:32 ◼   ► think of it this way is it's about it is [TS]

00:24:35 ◼   ► literally about the abandonment of [TS]

00:24:37 ◼   ► software and not about people at all [TS]

00:24:39 ◼   ► it's about the fact that technology and [TS]

00:24:42 ◼   ► software you know even things that are [TS]

00:24:44 ◼   ► incredibly well loved and popular [TS]

00:24:46 ◼   ► inevitably there is the there is the end [TS]

00:24:49 ◼   ► of the life cycle [TS]

00:24:50 ◼   ► yeah where they where where nobody uses [TS]

00:24:52 ◼   ► Microsoft Word 5.1 anymore right [TS]

00:24:55 ◼   ► everybody this is my problem with them [TS]

00:24:56 ◼   ► toys story to the one problem i had with [TS]

00:24:58 ◼   ► that movie [TS]

00:24:59 ◼   ► this will sound like i'm talking like I [TS]

00:25:00 ◼   ► just woke up in the middle of the [TS]

00:25:01 ◼   ► conversation LOL when looking back was [TS]

00:25:04 ◼   ► no was the what's the connection is [TS]

00:25:05 ◼   ► jesse idea yet you have a bit where [TS]

00:25:08 ◼   ► she's thrown into a box and abandoned on [TS]

00:25:10 ◼   ► the side of the road was this horrible [TS]

00:25:13 ◼   ► like I watched and I was filled with [TS]

00:25:14 ◼   ► this this horrible void filled universal [TS]

00:25:18 ◼   ► dread that was because it was like you [TS]

00:25:20 ◼   ► know there's already this huge conceit [TS]

00:25:22 ◼   ► that the toys are only sort of alive [TS]

00:25:24 ◼   ► when they're around kids or when they're [TS]

00:25:25 ◼   ► not around kids but they sort of [TS]

00:25:26 ◼   ► experience their lives only through this [TS]

00:25:29 ◼   ► mediation of children and then it's like [TS]

00:25:30 ◼   ► goodbyes pulling out the window you're [TS]

00:25:33 ◼   ► not important anymore and it sounds like [TS]

00:25:34 ◼   ► toy story 3 I haven't seen it yet [TS]

00:25:36 ◼   ► starts with a little bit of that same [TS]

00:25:37 ◼   ► fear oh it actually goes through [TS]

00:25:39 ◼   ► throughout honestly fifties and there's [TS]

00:25:41 ◼   ► something about that like where where [TS]

00:25:43 ◼   ► you're the kind of empathy you have with [TS]

00:25:45 ◼   ► I mean I think life cycle of software [TS]

00:25:47 ◼   ► objects i don't mean to compare tonight [TS]

00:25:49 ◼   ► the rocks breaks it's not horrible [TS]

00:25:50 ◼   ► anymore like it has that sense of being [TS]

00:25:52 ◼   ► stretched way too thin to transparency [TS]

00:25:55 ◼   ► but he has that idea of like there's [TS]

00:25:57 ◼   ► this incredible loyalty between the that [TS]

00:26:00 ◼   ► designers and Donna and and the thing [TS]

00:26:03 ◼   ► that she makes because the thing that [TS]

00:26:05 ◼   ► she makes becomes real as real as [TS]

00:26:08 ◼   ► anything else so i think that i think [TS]

00:26:10 ◼   ► you're right that it actually is trying [TS]

00:26:12 ◼   ► to represent that feeling of a banding [TS]

00:26:14 ◼   ► stuff that still may be used for what [TS]

00:26:17 ◼   ► you think it's things like you know hey [TS]

00:26:19 ◼   ► here's this ipod that I i used in the [TS]

00:26:21 ◼   ► delivery room when we had you know when [TS]

00:26:23 ◼   ► we had one of our kids you know and [TS]

00:26:25 ◼   ► there's this level of sentimentality [TS]

00:26:27 ◼   ► over or it's like oh yeah i used to use [TS]

00:26:29 ◼   ► that computer i use that program you [TS]

00:26:31 ◼   ► know I think it [TS]

00:26:32 ◼   ► technology a2 and not just sort of [TS]

00:26:35 ◼   ► inanimate objects like like a stuffed [TS]

00:26:38 ◼   ► animals you know you have this sort of [TS]

00:26:40 ◼   ► the this life cycle and and by [TS]

00:26:42 ◼   ► personifying and these artificial [TS]

00:26:44 ◼   ► intelligence creations that makes an [TS]

00:26:46 ◼   ► interesting sight again it with the [TS]

00:26:48 ◼   ► interesting sci-fi wrapper around [TS]

00:26:49 ◼   ► something else is trying to say but in [TS]

00:26:51 ◼   ► the end I thought it was actually like [TS]

00:26:53 ◼   ► me the the most this is another one of [TS]

00:26:55 ◼   ► those where I'm liking it more now that [TS]

00:26:57 ◼   ► i think about it then when I was [TS]

00:26:58 ◼   ► actually reading it it's it's it's in [TS]

00:27:00 ◼   ► some ways the most artful way to [TS]

00:27:01 ◼   ► describe this sort of natural process [TS]

00:27:03 ◼   ► that things things move on and although [TS]

00:27:07 ◼   ► they seem important eventually we we all [TS]

00:27:09 ◼   ► just abandoned them and it's not that [TS]

00:27:11 ◼   ► they'd it's not the story of everything [TS]

00:27:13 ◼   ► dies because that's different this is [TS]

00:27:15 ◼   ► eventually everything that we make is [TS]

00:27:18 ◼   ► abandoned and and you may get you know [TS]

00:27:21 ◼   ► you may be on the end of the bell curve [TS]

00:27:23 ◼   ► with it like those people who have the [TS]

00:27:25 ◼   ► the Apple to convention every year and [TS]

00:27:28 ◼   ► the human convention every year but [TS]

00:27:30 ◼   ► HyperCard forever yeah but in the end [TS]

00:27:32 ◼   ► but you know just like the ai's in the [TS]

00:27:35 ◼   ► life cycle of software objects and even [TS]

00:27:37 ◼   ► the greatest supporters of of this [TS]

00:27:39 ◼   ► technology and as it becomes outmoded [TS]

00:27:41 ◼   ► and it's not compatible with new [TS]

00:27:43 ◼   ► hardware and all these things that the [TS]

00:27:45 ◼   ► computer users no happen you know it [TS]

00:27:47 ◼   ► they just you know they fade away and [TS]

00:27:49 ◼   ► and in this case it's poignant because [TS]

00:27:51 ◼   ► they're sort of these sentient creatures [TS]

00:27:53 ◼   ► who basically get put in a box and it's [TS]

00:27:56 ◼   ► not like they died as much as they just [TS]

00:27:58 ◼   ► ceased to move forward and that's the [TS]

00:28:00 ◼   ► end this was the most negatively [TS]

00:28:03 ◼   ► sentimental story I thought and that's [TS]

00:28:05 ◼   ► saying a lot given that the collection [TS]

00:28:06 ◼   ► also features of a parent group grieving [TS]

00:28:09 ◼   ► the death of a child [TS]

00:28:10 ◼   ► uh-huh regretting the idea i thought [TS]

00:28:13 ◼   ► there was something I thought that I [TS]

00:28:14 ◼   ► thought there was some elements of pesos [TS]

00:28:16 ◼   ► in that were perhaps not necessary and I [TS]

00:28:19 ◼   ► understand they may be there to amplify [TS]

00:28:21 ◼   ► his point because changa said well I [TS]

00:28:22 ◼   ► wrote this book this story to point out [TS]

00:28:24 ◼   ► i don't think a is going to work until [TS]

00:28:27 ◼   ► people value that value it enough to [TS]

00:28:29 ◼   ► pour in a lot of time and effort and [TS]

00:28:31 ◼   ► love into what they're doing man and i [TS]

00:28:35 ◼   ► think it's an admirable point but when [TS]

00:28:37 ◼   ► you make the delay is incredibly cute [TS]

00:28:40 ◼   ► and you give them a pigeon grammar [TS]

00:28:42 ◼   ► because all they're just learning how to [TS]

00:28:43 ◼   ► speak and you know it looks like wacky [TS]

00:28:46 ◼   ► lovable cartoon characters but yeah and [TS]

00:28:48 ◼   ► at the end and they have an adorable and [TS]

00:28:50 ◼   ► they have adorable little avatar that [TS]

00:28:52 ◼   ► are specially printed before them [TS]

00:28:53 ◼   ► another day another would've worn by the [TS]

00:28:56 ◼   ► way which is not great I think he's [TS]

00:28:58 ◼   ► really putting a lot of that they're put [TS]

00:28:59 ◼   ► in porn event yeah right resolution [TS]

00:29:02 ◼   ► enough to express I want to be [TS]

00:29:03 ◼   ► independent but I'm still really cute [TS]

00:29:05 ◼   ► and really dependent so and there's just [TS]

00:29:07 ◼   ► a lot of buttons being pushed there at [TS]

00:29:09 ◼   ► that I thought way not to mention the [TS]

00:29:11 ◼   ► romantic subplot what you felt was just [TS]

00:29:14 ◼   ► you know again we service all very [TS]

00:29:16 ◼   ► you're not content on consummated or [TS]

00:29:19 ◼   ► even fulfilling and all but you know [TS]

00:29:21 ◼   ► it's the old like why do people like [TS]

00:29:23 ◼   ► ladybugs and hate cockroaches because [TS]

00:29:26 ◼   ► okay yeah or disrepute well so cute [TS]

00:29:29 ◼   ► cockroaches what's wrong with you well [TS]

00:29:30 ◼   ► this story also points out what I like [TS]

00:29:32 ◼   ► to think of as the animal problem in [TS]

00:29:34 ◼   ► science fiction [TS]

00:29:35 ◼   ► um which is that a lot of authors tend [TS]

00:29:38 ◼   ► to assume know in the future things will [TS]

00:29:40 ◼   ► be extinct in the future animals will [TS]

00:29:42 ◼   ► not be up something people even think [TS]

00:29:45 ◼   ► about anymore i can remember the first [TS]

00:29:47 ◼   ► time I read count 0 by william gibson [TS]

00:29:49 ◼   ► there was a throwaway line about horses [TS]

00:29:50 ◼   ► going extinct that just threw me for a [TS]

00:29:52 ◼   ► loop because I I was like can you [TS]

00:29:54 ◼   ► imagine a world without horses and yet [TS]

00:29:56 ◼   ► that was supposed to do in the future [TS]

00:29:57 ◼   ► courses they're extinct and in you know [TS]

00:30:01 ◼   ► this chanc story on ax is a zoo keeper [TS]

00:30:03 ◼   ► who is obviously rendered obsolete [TS]

00:30:05 ◼   ► either because the user closing down or [TS]

00:30:08 ◼   ► animals r dot have died or whatever and [TS]

00:30:11 ◼   ► I just keep wondering why there can't be [TS]

00:30:14 ◼   ► good science fiction where there are [TS]

00:30:18 ◼   ► entities other than humans and [TS]

00:30:20 ◼   ► artificial intelligence [TS]

00:30:22 ◼   ► why do we have to kill other species [TS]

00:30:23 ◼   ► Williams heptapods will occasionally [TS]

00:30:27 ◼   ► you'll get to occasional get dolphins [TS]

00:30:29 ◼   ► for example like how it turns out the [TS]

00:30:30 ◼   ► aliens have been talking with the [TS]

00:30:31 ◼   ► dolphins the whole time left [TS]

00:30:33 ◼   ► David Bradley is David wrote a whole [TS]

00:30:35 ◼   ► series of we should all about that [TS]

00:30:37 ◼   ► sometimes I love those [TS]

00:30:38 ◼   ► I did too in high school my god yes in [TS]

00:30:41 ◼   ► high school now I feel really amateur [TS]

00:30:42 ◼   ► right yeah i just discovered them and I [TS]

00:30:46 ◼   ► i love i love the alien love scenes in [TS]

00:30:49 ◼   ► the seventeen-year-old girl reading [TS]

00:30:50 ◼   ► about lifting dolphins all my god [TS]

00:30:53 ◼   ► gorillas don't forget the ground was [TS]

00:30:54 ◼   ► it's like all right into [TS]

00:30:55 ◼   ► dragons are gonna rip we're all going to [TS]

00:30:57 ◼   ► regress and talk about their future [TS]

00:30:59 ◼   ► popular because clearly i think mr. [TS]

00:31:01 ◼   ► McNulty is not be consultants favorite [TS]

00:31:03 ◼   ► story at however i was going to ask [TS]

00:31:05 ◼   ► I'm sorry what ah that is true so i have [TS]

00:31:08 ◼   ► to that I like what's expected of us [TS]

00:31:12 ◼   ► which is probably the shortest shorts [TS]

00:31:14 ◼   ► underneath those in the was it in the [TS]

00:31:15 ◼   ► collection [TS]

00:31:17 ◼   ► no it's only extended part of its not [TS]

00:31:21 ◼   ► the so the one that is a good story it [TS]

00:31:23 ◼   ► basically you know it's about they [TS]

00:31:26 ◼   ► create this to someone crazy device that [TS]

00:31:28 ◼   ► all you do is push a button and it [TS]

00:31:30 ◼   ► lights up a light but the twist is that [TS]

00:31:32 ◼   ► the light lights up right before you [TS]

00:31:34 ◼   ► push the button and that leads people [TS]

00:31:36 ◼   ► down the road they realized that they [TS]

00:31:39 ◼   ► don't have free will and beautiful [TS]

00:31:41 ◼   ► society crumbles and people kill each [TS]

00:31:43 ◼   ► other and it's wonderful [TS]

00:31:44 ◼   ► they fall into catatonia exactly and [TS]

00:31:47 ◼   ► something like a page and a half long so [TS]

00:31:49 ◼   ► they're say there's a a story in the [TS]

00:31:53 ◼   ► year's best scientific every year I by [TS]

00:31:54 ◼   ► the gardener on a precipice because this [TS]

00:31:57 ◼   ► is it desired is I don't know but it's [TS]

00:32:00 ◼   ► one of those it's could be friendship [TS]

00:32:01 ◼   ► could be americanized but the year's [TS]

00:32:04 ◼   ► best science fiction anthology which is [TS]

00:32:05 ◼   ► great read it's worth you know I i [TS]

00:32:07 ◼   ► highly recommend it sits at you know you [TS]

00:32:09 ◼   ► get 30 short stories that you can take a [TS]

00:32:12 ◼   ► whole year to read them if you want and [TS]

00:32:13 ◼   ► just partial amount and there's some [TS]

00:32:15 ◼   ► really mind-blowing stuff in there but [TS]

00:32:16 ◼   ► there's a story in there and i can't i [TS]

00:32:19 ◼   ► can't think of the name of it now but [TS]

00:32:20 ◼   ► basically it's premise is very similar [TS]

00:32:23 ◼   ► which is the that uh that there are [TS]

00:32:27 ◼   ► studies that suggest which is true that [TS]

00:32:29 ◼   ► when they monitor somebody and they're [TS]

00:32:32 ◼   ► going to make a decision like to reach [TS]

00:32:33 ◼   ► out and press a button that they there [TS]

00:32:39 ◼   ► the moment where they decided to press [TS]

00:32:41 ◼   ► the button and reach out and press it [TS]

00:32:43 ◼   ► they're already moving to press it and [TS]

00:32:46 ◼   ► the idea is that that our consciousness [TS]

00:32:49 ◼   ► is not actually the decider of what [TS]

00:32:52 ◼   ► happens but more like the record keeper [TS]

00:32:55 ◼   ► of the decision so and what they what [TS]

00:32:58 ◼   ► they say in the short story is that is [TS]

00:33:00 ◼   ► that we're like the the Queen in the [TS]

00:33:02 ◼   ► castle and all of her servants come and [TS]

00:33:05 ◼   ► report to her about what's going on but [TS]

00:33:09 ◼   ► I you know but the servants do all the [TS]

00:33:11 ◼   ► work so we you know we're not in charge [TS]

00:33:14 ◼   ► were just the the the like the minutes [TS]

00:33:17 ◼   ► of the meeting executive function and [TS]

00:33:20 ◼   ► and in short story what happens is [TS]

00:33:22 ◼   ► there's this drug that makes you forget [TS]

00:33:24 ◼   ► that gets you high that kids take and if [TS]

00:33:27 ◼   ► you overdose on it it basically wipes [TS]

00:33:29 ◼   ► out your you're the queen of the castle [TS]

00:33:32 ◼   ► and so then a new person comes in and [TS]

00:33:35 ◼   ► they have all your memory all the [TS]

00:33:36 ◼   ► memories of this other character but [TS]

00:33:39 ◼   ► it's not the same person but very [TS]

00:33:42 ◼   ► similar in in like 15 times the length [TS]

00:33:44 ◼   ► Scott of the story that same idea that [TS]

00:33:47 ◼   ► that you know is it free will is it not [TS]

00:33:50 ◼   ► are you really the person who's making [TS]

00:33:52 ◼   ► any of the decisions or you or you just [TS]

00:33:54 ◼   ► the the the receipt right and I my [TS]

00:33:57 ◼   ► favorite part of the the story is at the [TS]

00:33:59 ◼   ► end so basically it's a letter basically [TS]

00:34:02 ◼   ► that sent from the future to the past [TS]

00:34:03 ◼   ► right [TS]

00:34:04 ◼   ► warning people about this and at the end [TS]

00:34:06 ◼   ► you know he said you don't have free [TS]

00:34:08 ◼   ► will so why am I telling you this [TS]

00:34:10 ◼   ► and the last line is something like [TS]

00:34:12 ◼   ► because I have to because he has no free [TS]

00:34:14 ◼   ► will so he has to send this letter [TS]

00:34:15 ◼   ► because it is predestined and there's [TS]

00:34:18 ◼   ► that he can't do anything about well you [TS]

00:34:19 ◼   ► know what this reminds me of is that [TS]

00:34:20 ◼   ► it's an isaac asimov story forgotten [TS]

00:34:22 ◼   ► it's a classic story where this guy is a [TS]

00:34:25 ◼   ► history professor studying like he's [TS]

00:34:28 ◼   ► trying he spent his whole career trying [TS]

00:34:29 ◼   ► to dispute the fact that Carthaginians [TS]

00:34:32 ◼   ► eight babies or something when they went [TS]

00:34:34 ◼   ► to war or something like that and he [TS]

00:34:36 ◼   ► finds there's some kind of institute [TS]

00:34:38 ◼   ► that's that uses from like time viewing [TS]

00:34:40 ◼   ► and they can look at events in the far [TS]

00:34:42 ◼   ► past and but they keep blaming it on [TS]

00:34:45 ◼   ► time for him that his pursuits 22 [TS]

00:34:47 ◼   ► trivial and so he meets a physicist at a [TS]

00:34:51 ◼   ► party this young guy and guys like well [TS]

00:34:53 ◼   ► you know if someone can do it this is a [TS]

00:34:55 ◼   ► this video is the argument the argument [TS]

00:34:57 ◼   ► that if you know someone can do [TS]

00:34:59 ◼   ► something if you don't know how then you [TS]

00:35:01 ◼   ► go and figure out how to do it because [TS]

00:35:02 ◼   ► someone else has and which has been [TS]

00:35:05 ◼   ► repeated throughout the history of [TS]

00:35:06 ◼   ► software hardware development sometimes [TS]

00:35:08 ◼   ► for someone thinks someone else is done [TS]

00:35:10 ◼   ► and they haven't they make the [TS]

00:35:11 ◼   ► breakthrough so in this story this [TS]

00:35:13 ◼   ► business is like well I should be that [TS]

00:35:14 ◼   ► hard because they've already done it so [TS]

00:35:15 ◼   ► they figure out he figures out a way he [TS]

00:35:17 ◼   ► and the scientists [TS]

00:35:18 ◼   ► the researcher managed to create a [TS]

00:35:21 ◼   ► machine less than view but the trick is [TS]

00:35:22 ◼   ► it doesn't feel the distant past he's [TS]

00:35:24 ◼   ► back like one-second anywhere in the [TS]

00:35:27 ◼   ► world so they get burst in at the last [TS]

00:35:30 ◼   ► minute I like the time police you know [TS]

00:35:31 ◼   ► time place the time you are police were [TS]

00:35:32 ◼   ► like oh my god you know what you've done [TS]

00:35:34 ◼   ► you spread this knowledge now we all [TS]

00:35:36 ◼   ► live in a glass bubble always no one's [TS]

00:35:38 ◼   ► actions will ever be unnoticed again [TS]

00:35:40 ◼   ► because everyone can have one of these [TS]

00:35:41 ◼   ► things and then you know the twist was [TS]

00:35:43 ◼   ► they only talked about things happening [TS]

00:35:45 ◼   ► in the far past the people wouldn't [TS]

00:35:46 ◼   ► think about turning the time you're back [TS]

00:35:48 ◼   ► one second you've destroyed us all [TS]

00:35:50 ◼   ► oh so what's your other pics my other [TS]

00:35:55 ◼   ► favorite as hell is the absence of God [TS]

00:35:58 ◼   ► really want you can get through that 1i [TS]

00:36:02 ◼   ► I like a I was raised Roman Catholic so [TS]

00:36:05 ◼   ► I like things with religion goes hardly [TS]

00:36:08 ◼   ► haha that's why we're gonna get through [TS]

00:36:10 ◼   ► another former Catholic somebody got it [TS]

00:36:14 ◼   ► that's the one where the guy's wife is [TS]

00:36:16 ◼   ► like killed me by the heavenly [TS]

00:36:18 ◼   ► visitation [TS]

00:36:18 ◼   ► yeah like an angel appears and then [TS]

00:36:21 ◼   ► there's collateral damage she gets [TS]

00:36:24 ◼   ► killed [TS]

00:36:24 ◼   ► yeah so finally in the in the the [TS]

00:36:26 ◼   ► setting of the story angels appear on a [TS]

00:36:29 ◼   ► semi-regular basis and they you know [TS]

00:36:32 ◼   ► bring tidings from God and they also [TS]

00:36:35 ◼   ► happen to cause earthquakes and all [TS]

00:36:38 ◼   ► kinds of things and people died and i [TS]

00:36:40 ◼   ► think their act of god they're not sure [TS]

00:36:42 ◼   ► Bob exactly which is I think of anybody [TS]

00:36:45 ◼   ► throw a part of the whole story and at [TS]

00:36:49 ◼   ► the end and so people died and then i [TS]

00:36:51 ◼   ► guess during when you want an angel is [TS]

00:36:53 ◼   ► around and someone dies you can see [TS]

00:36:55 ◼   ► where their soul goes so they know if [TS]

00:36:58 ◼   ► someone is going to heaven or hell and [TS]

00:37:01 ◼   ► it's very depressing story if you get [TS]

00:37:03 ◼   ► all the way to the end but yeah I i [TS]

00:37:06 ◼   ► enjoyed it [TS]

00:37:07 ◼   ► we'll see that's anxious because you are [TS]

00:37:10 ◼   ► black heart because they have like an 18 [TS]

00:37:12 ◼   ► and there's a character who was born so [TS]

00:37:16 ◼   ► it there's another part of the story [TS]

00:37:17 ◼   ► where people go to where they think an [TS]

00:37:20 ◼   ► angel is going to appear because when an [TS]

00:37:22 ◼   ► angel appears the light of God proceeds [TS]

00:37:24 ◼   ► it and when light of God hits people it [TS]

00:37:27 ◼   ► can cure them of disease or it can [TS]

00:37:30 ◼   ► unfortunately change their DNA [TS]

00:37:32 ◼   ► so that bad things happen and there's a [TS]

00:37:35 ◼   ► character in the story who was born [TS]

00:37:37 ◼   ► without legs and so she refuses to go [TS]

00:37:40 ◼   ► after an angel because she wants to she [TS]

00:37:44 ◼   ► wants people to accept their limitations [TS]

00:37:45 ◼   ► and be happy with who they are living [TS]

00:37:47 ◼   ► their life trying to come across a [TS]

00:37:49 ◼   ► random event that will make their life [TS]

00:37:51 ◼   ► better and then through a series of [TS]

00:37:53 ◼   ► events she happens to be in an area [TS]

00:37:56 ◼   ► where an angel appears and she gets her [TS]

00:37:58 ◼   ► legs back and everyone's like oh now [TS]

00:38:00 ◼   ► you're you know you're it kind of ruins [TS]

00:38:03 ◼   ► your whole character and then later on [TS]

00:38:06 ◼   ► she's an angel again and her she becomes [TS]

00:38:09 ◼   ► blind but not only blind she becomes a [TS]

00:38:11 ◼   ► creature who never had site so i thought [TS]

00:38:14 ◼   ► that she lost her eyes but she never was [TS]

00:38:17 ◼   ► she never had site uh-huh that's what [TS]

00:38:19 ◼   ► that's a really weird story is right [TS]

00:38:21 ◼   ► here stupid but I like weird stories [TS]

00:38:24 ◼   ► good for you it's nothing like that I'm [TS]

00:38:26 ◼   ► he reminds us of the short stories that [TS]

00:38:29 ◼   ► he's written in this collection we were [TS]

00:38:30 ◼   ► talking earlier about other kinds of [TS]

00:38:32 ◼   ► short story collections and things like [TS]

00:38:33 ◼   ► that again and again azimoff reference i [TS]

00:38:36 ◼   ► think i read too much as them off of the [TS]

00:38:37 ◼   ► child and my I was tainted [TS]

00:38:39 ◼   ► I don't anything everything this is the [TS]

00:38:43 ◼   ► future is all about psychohistory if not [TS]

00:38:46 ◼   ► go history think of zero at wawa serious [TS]

00:38:49 ◼   ► about Susan Calvin for president but the [TS]

00:38:54 ◼   ► thing I was thinking about was his he [TS]

00:38:55 ◼   ► had a short short collections but he [TS]

00:38:58 ◼   ► cannot which were super short stories [TS]

00:38:59 ◼   ► like a page and sometimes less and I [TS]

00:39:02 ◼   ► love their sort of a regressive tendency [TS]

00:39:04 ◼   ► is that you know there's sort of this is [TS]

00:39:06 ◼   ► the reason short stories involve was [TS]

00:39:07 ◼   ► that there were magazines too pretty [TS]

00:39:09 ◼   ► short stories that they weren't there [TS]

00:39:10 ◼   ► were the one amazing and all these great [TS]

00:39:12 ◼   ► science fiction magazines for thriving [TS]

00:39:15 ◼   ► in the thirties through the early [TS]

00:39:16 ◼   ► sixties or seventies that the they were [TS]

00:39:20 ◼   ► place people to write a certain length [TS]

00:39:21 ◼   ► that so much they could afford to pay [TS]

00:39:23 ◼   ► and people can better write that link [TS]

00:39:24 ◼   ► that ring novel length and you know that [TS]

00:39:26 ◼   ► being able to sell massive numbers of [TS]

00:39:28 ◼   ► science fiction novels this great [TS]

00:39:29 ◼   ► tradition of short stories [TS]

00:39:31 ◼   ► and in science fiction but i love the [TS]

00:39:33 ◼   ► fact that like people also write these [TS]

00:39:35 ◼   ► crazy short things that are like you [TS]

00:39:37 ◼   ► know and then the regressive parties [TS]

00:39:38 ◼   ► like between twitter and i think was it [TS]

00:39:40 ◼   ► wired magazine had a five-word fiction [TS]

00:39:42 ◼   ► contest that which was great and it was [TS]

00:39:44 ◼   ► one of them was about the future i have [TS]

00:39:48 ◼   ► to go look it up with something about [TS]

00:39:49 ◼   ► like time of us even five words told the [TS]

00:39:52 ◼   ► whole story that time wraps around and [TS]

00:39:55 ◼   ► it was like the best of the best one is [TS]

00:39:57 ◼   ► is a four for sale [TS]

00:40:00 ◼   ► baby shoes unused that doesn't take up [TS]

00:40:03 ◼   ► on the anyway which is great which is [TS]

00:40:05 ◼   ► for sale baby she's never worn [TS]

00:40:07 ◼   ► yeah that's it that's it so that's all [TS]

00:40:09 ◼   ► you need right six words explore 548 was [TS]

00:40:13 ◼   ► a man of few words to yeah but I like [TS]

00:40:15 ◼   ► that thing that you can have many [TS]

00:40:17 ◼   ► honorary higher because we like short [TS]

00:40:20 ◼   ► stories required short stories require a [TS]

00:40:23 ◼   ► lot of inference like a novel you can [TS]

00:40:25 ◼   ► stretch out and reckon you can learn the [TS]

00:40:27 ◼   ► landscape and the language and have your [TS]

00:40:29 ◼   ► brain rewired but a short story you have [TS]

00:40:31 ◼   ► to have sort of one central concept you [TS]

00:40:33 ◼   ► have to have to concede or some concedes [TS]

00:40:35 ◼   ► you have to tell it and we fill in the [TS]

00:40:37 ◼   ► rest you know that's I think what least [TS]

00:40:39 ◼   ► it was talking about like when you take [TS]

00:40:40 ◼   ► the short story two novel link all the [TS]

00:40:41 ◼   ► stuff we filled in becomes explicit and [TS]

00:40:44 ◼   ► you know becomes over and becomes less [TS]

00:40:45 ◼   ► interesting so I love these super short [TS]

00:40:47 ◼   ► swear it's like in like 200 words have [TS]

00:40:50 ◼   ► told this entire universe see when i was [TS]

00:40:52 ◼   ► in high school and college all I wrote [TS]

00:40:54 ◼   ► short stories and when i first tried to [TS]

00:40:56 ◼   ► write a novel it was fascinating because [TS]

00:40:58 ◼   ► I I got to see it from the other [TS]

00:40:59 ◼   ► direction when the short story you do [TS]

00:41:01 ◼   ► want to be concentrated here's my idea [TS]

00:41:03 ◼   ► I need to get from point A to point B [TS]

00:41:04 ◼   ► i'm going to do all the pieces that will [TS]

00:41:06 ◼   ► get me from point A to point B and i'm [TS]

00:41:07 ◼   ► done where is it a novel it's like well [TS]

00:41:09 ◼   ► okay I sort of know where I'm going [TS]

00:41:11 ◼   ► there a whole lot of characters i'm [TS]

00:41:13 ◼   ► going to detail all the all the steps [TS]

00:41:15 ◼   ► and I was surprised how easily i went [TS]

00:41:18 ◼   ► the longest story i had ever written was [TS]

00:41:20 ◼   ► about 10,000 words or nine thousand [TS]

00:41:22 ◼   ► words and you know and in 30 days i [TS]

00:41:24 ◼   ► wrote 50,000 and the the novel ended up [TS]

00:41:27 ◼   ► being a hundred and fifty thousand words [TS]

00:41:28 ◼   ► so you know but I think that's the [TS]

00:41:31 ◼   ► difference is if you go into it knowing [TS]

00:41:32 ◼   ► you're writing that length your approach [TS]

00:41:34 ◼   ► is very different and that's maybe where [TS]

00:41:37 ◼   ► the expansions fall apart is that you [TS]

00:41:39 ◼   ► know you're taking a short story premise [TS]

00:41:42 ◼   ► and just kind of inflating it instead of [TS]

00:41:44 ◼   ► saying no no this isn't that this is a [TS]

00:41:46 ◼   ► whole different kind of thing [TS]

00:41:48 ◼   ► uh-huh + 10 + 140 quatloos on the [TS]

00:41:56 ◼   ► newcomer but he has the ideas for me [TS]

00:42:12 ◼   ► really I mean he is you know he's he's [TS]

00:42:14 ◼   ► clearly when you talk to other [TS]

00:42:15 ◼   ► science-fiction writers and readers [TS]

00:42:17 ◼   ► that's like Chang is the science fiction [TS]

00:42:20 ◼   ► writers writer like he's the guy they [TS]

00:42:23 ◼   ► all like oh its head sank because he [TS]

00:42:25 ◼   ► writes so beautifully because he has [TS]

00:42:27 ◼   ► every story writes is a different story [TS]

00:42:29 ◼   ► even if there's some of the concept we [TS]

00:42:30 ◼   ► talking common he doesn't seem to reuse [TS]

00:42:32 ◼   ► central conceit even if there's any of [TS]

00:42:34 ◼   ► the themes are big but the conceits are [TS]

00:42:36 ◼   ► different so they're always like you [TS]

00:42:38 ◼   ► read about people but it's like all back [TS]

00:42:39 ◼   ► I like that kind of found an interview [TS]

00:42:41 ◼   ► with him where he said he was asked if [TS]

00:42:44 ◼   ► he has a novel in many said i don't know [TS]

00:42:46 ◼   ► if i get an idea for one sure but I I [TS]

00:42:48 ◼   ► don't ever expect to make a living being [TS]

00:42:50 ◼   ► a writer so I'm happy to just sort of [TS]

00:42:52 ◼   ► crank out a short story every now and [TS]

00:42:53 ◼   ► then which is interesting he doesn't [TS]

00:42:55 ◼   ► have any aspirations even though he's [TS]

00:42:57 ◼   ► this you know really praised writer he's [TS]

00:42:59 ◼   ► like yeah you know I'm not gonna I'm not [TS]

00:43:01 ◼   ► gonna do that may just be that he knows [TS]

00:43:03 ◼   ► that the volume that is required is not [TS]

00:43:05 ◼   ► something he can do i don't know well [TS]

00:43:07 ◼   ► some of some of us are Stephen King and [TS]

00:43:09 ◼   ► some of us are touch and sometimes [TS]

00:43:10 ◼   ► wonder if the if there is an inherent [TS]

00:43:14 ◼   ► tension between telling a good story and [TS]

00:43:16 ◼   ► exploring the limits of an idea within a [TS]

00:43:18 ◼   ► storytelling context because for example [TS]

00:43:22 ◼   ► i will argue with Harold Bloom even that [TS]

00:43:25 ◼   ► Stephen King is a fantastic story [TS]

00:43:27 ◼   ► terrible a short story on both in short [TS]

00:43:30 ◼   ► story and even novelistic form and I [TS]

00:43:33 ◼   ► think one of the reasons he is because [TS]

00:43:34 ◼   ► he doesn't necessarily necessarily [TS]

00:43:36 ◼   ► tackle big ideas he just strings [TS]

00:43:39 ◼   ► together event event event event event [TS]

00:43:41 ◼   ► so it in such a way where you want to [TS]

00:43:43 ◼   ► find out what happens next [TS]

00:43:45 ◼   ► whereas when you're exploring an idea [TS]

00:43:48 ◼   ► it's a different well and here we go [TS]

00:43:51 ◼   ► back to the beginning of the podcast is [TS]

00:43:52 ◼   ► a different framework of perception [TS]

00:43:53 ◼   ► because what you're trying to do is [TS]

00:43:54 ◼   ► you're begging [TS]

00:43:55 ◼   ► up against the sides of the idea and [TS]

00:43:57 ◼   ► what about this oh there that happens [TS]

00:43:59 ◼   ► but what about that oh that's how that [TS]

00:44:00 ◼   ► carries out and you're taking the idea [TS]

00:44:02 ◼   ► to its logical conclusion but that's not [TS]

00:44:04 ◼   ► necessarily the same thing as crafting a [TS]

00:44:06 ◼   ► linear narrative that is riveting that [TS]

00:44:09 ◼   ► makes people want to find out what the [TS]

00:44:10 ◼   ► next step is Harold Bloom up by the way [TS]

00:44:12 ◼   ► also failed to show up for the podcast [TS]

00:44:14 ◼   ► tonight so well he forgot his microphone [TS]

00:44:16 ◼   ► just under sail [TS]

00:44:18 ◼   ► I think he also failed Jim Scott were [TS]

00:44:21 ◼   ► you gonna say something [TS]

00:44:23 ◼   ► uh yes I was speaking you know thinking [TS]

00:44:26 ◼   ► about novels as commerce i can imagine [TS]

00:44:29 ◼   ► you know there's a lot of work to make a [TS]

00:44:31 ◼   ► threat level after I've ever written but [TS]

00:44:33 ◼   ► i can't imagine it is [TS]

00:44:34 ◼   ► yeah easy but I didn't do it [TS]

00:44:37 ◼   ► attention as we you know establish takes [TS]

00:44:42 ◼   ► a long time to write so he would have to [TS]

00:44:43 ◼   ► put a lot of effort into it and frankly [TS]

00:44:45 ◼   ► i'm sure it would be a lovely novel but [TS]

00:44:47 ◼   ► I don't think it would sell all that [TS]

00:44:49 ◼   ► well just because it's not i don't you [TS]

00:44:52 ◼   ► get the sense he's almost like a [TS]

00:44:53 ◼   ► musician's musician right exactly what I [TS]

00:44:56 ◼   ► don't think this is not gonna be a harry [TS]

00:44:57 ◼   ► potter right so why don't we go here we [TS]

00:45:00 ◼   ► go again once again you have the [TS]

00:45:01 ◼   ► exploration of ideas versus the ability [TS]

00:45:03 ◼   ► to craft a compelling narrative right [TS]

00:45:05 ◼   ► it's drama that's what i'm going to wear [TS]

00:45:07 ◼   ► section of it fun [TS]

00:45:09 ◼   ► this actually reminds me a bit of the [TS]

00:45:10 ◼   ► assume all of you already seen the Funny [TS]

00:45:12 ◼   ► or Die Harry Met Sally sequel [TS]

00:45:14 ◼   ► yes yes yes so they're actually reminds [TS]

00:45:18 ◼   ► me like the ted chang around to be a [TS]

00:45:20 ◼   ► little that it's like you know he could [TS]

00:45:22 ◼   ► take these incredibly like beautiful sad [TS]

00:45:25 ◼   ► subtle ideas and turn into a novel and [TS]

00:45:27 ◼   ► then if you just have that one idea like [TS]

00:45:28 ◼   ► the Empire's he could make a million [TS]

00:45:30 ◼   ► like all I guess that won't work well it [TS]

00:45:32 ◼   ► so i want to mention my to ted chang [TS]

00:45:36 ◼   ► stories because we don't ask you I i I'm [TS]

00:45:39 ◼   ► just sitting right over here Jason that [TS]

00:45:41 ◼   ► social your favorite what are your [TS]

00:45:44 ◼   ► favorite oh it doesn't matter now you've [TS]

00:45:46 ◼   ► destroyed everything you ruin every [TS]

00:45:48 ◼   ► muscle is not a more adult i'm going to [TS]

00:45:50 ◼   ► go in my room probably pick bad ones [TS]

00:45:51 ◼   ► anyway [TS]

00:45:52 ◼   ► exactly actually what's funny as i am [TS]

00:45:55 ◼   ► going to mention two stories that that [TS]

00:45:58 ◼   ► none of you mentioned I was waiting for [TS]

00:46:01 ◼   ► the inevitable somebody to mention these [TS]

00:46:03 ◼   ► stories and nobody did one of them i [TS]

00:46:04 ◼   ► mentioned earlier which is the merchant [TS]

00:46:06 ◼   ► and the alchemist gate which I really [TS]

00:46:07 ◼   ► like it's [TS]

00:46:09 ◼   ► it's about a guy who goes into a shop in [TS]

00:46:11 ◼   ► Baghdad and a man is there who has this [TS]

00:46:14 ◼   ► arch and the arch will take you 20 years [TS]

00:46:18 ◼   ► into the future and and theoretically it [TS]

00:46:23 ◼   ► will take you 20 years into the past but [TS]

00:46:25 ◼   ► only after it's been operational for 20 [TS]

00:46:27 ◼   ► years [TS]

00:46:27 ◼   ► logically but he came his son runs a [TS]

00:46:31 ◼   ► shop in Cairo that also has an arch and [TS]

00:46:34 ◼   ► that's been in operation for a while so [TS]

00:46:35 ◼   ► you can go forward or backward in time [TS]

00:46:37 ◼   ► and then the main character ends up well [TS]

00:46:40 ◼   ► first there are amusing scenes where he [TS]

00:46:41 ◼   ► sticks his arm through it and waves it [TS]

00:46:43 ◼   ► doesn't come out the other side and all [TS]

00:46:45 ◼   ► of that and they look through and they [TS]

00:46:46 ◼   ► see who's on the other side it's like [TS]

00:46:48 ◼   ► the guy but he's all 20 years older but [TS]

00:46:51 ◼   ► he ends up his wife died 20 years before [TS]

00:46:54 ◼   ► and a horrible accident and so he goes [TS]

00:46:56 ◼   ► to Cairo and goes back through to 20 [TS]

00:46:59 ◼   ► years in the past and then comes back to [TS]

00:47:00 ◼   ► Baghdad and you know it is on one level [TS]

00:47:03 ◼   ► it is just sort of how many different [TS]

00:47:04 ◼   ► explorations can we have the idea of you [TS]

00:47:08 ◼   ► know you can go forward or backward in [TS]

00:47:09 ◼   ► time 20 years but the the way that it's [TS]

00:47:12 ◼   ► done in this almost Arabian Nights sort [TS]

00:47:14 ◼   ► of style and there are these these [TS]

00:47:16 ◼   ► legendary tales that the man who runs [TS]

00:47:18 ◼   ► the shop tells about different [TS]

00:47:19 ◼   ► characters and the whole you know sort [TS]

00:47:21 ◼   ► of horrible tragic things that happen to [TS]

00:47:23 ◼   ► them when they went through into the [TS]

00:47:25 ◼   ► past or the future just you know and i [TS]

00:47:28 ◼   ► really i really like it it's actually [TS]

00:47:29 ◼   ► not like a lot of his other stories and [TS]

00:47:31 ◼   ► that it is this kind of fantastical you [TS]

00:47:35 ◼   ► know a kind of amusing also somewhat [TS]

00:47:38 ◼   ► tragic but also some parts of it are [TS]

00:47:40 ◼   ► kind of funny and anyway I like it a lot [TS]

00:47:43 ◼   ► I think I that stuck with me I I in fact [TS]

00:47:46 ◼   ► i'd look back and realize that that was [TS]

00:47:48 ◼   ► a ted chang story because I hadn't [TS]

00:47:49 ◼   ► realized that but so I love that story I [TS]

00:47:52 ◼   ► don't know if you guys read that but i [TS]

00:47:53 ◼   ► love that story i read i just went today [TS]

00:47:55 ◼   ► for the first time and I I thought it [TS]

00:47:57 ◼   ► was it was a beautifully self-contained [TS]

00:47:59 ◼   ► it's his take on arabian nights and yeah [TS]

00:48:01 ◼   ► i really i really enjoyed that part of [TS]

00:48:03 ◼   ► it with a time portal my only problem is [TS]

00:48:05 ◼   ► why would the main character after he [TS]

00:48:07 ◼   ► talks to the the shopkeeper any of the [TS]

00:48:10 ◼   ► shopkeeper tells these stories where it [TS]

00:48:12 ◼   ► didn't work out the way anyone thought [TS]

00:48:13 ◼   ► it would [TS]

00:48:14 ◼   ► and yet he still goes through and you [TS]

00:48:16 ◼   ► know it's not going to work out the way [TS]

00:48:17 ◼   ► he thinks is going to but then I saw you [TS]

00:48:19 ◼   ► light went on and he had to push the [TS]

00:48:21 ◼   ► button exactly is going to say but [TS]

00:48:22 ◼   ► then this is this theme that touching [TS]

00:48:24 ◼   ► explorers and that you don't really have [TS]

00:48:25 ◼   ► free will and everything is predestined [TS]

00:48:27 ◼   ► so no matter what you do it doesn't [TS]

00:48:28 ◼   ► matter because it's going to happen [TS]

00:48:29 ◼   ► anyway hope is the engine that pushes [TS]

00:48:31 ◼   ► you forward but it has no impact on what [TS]

00:48:34 ◼   ► happens when that everything ends [TS]

00:48:36 ◼   ► tragically assistant his worldview the [TS]

00:48:39 ◼   ► ted chang worldview so the other story [TS]

00:48:41 ◼   ► that I really like is liking what you [TS]

00:48:42 ◼   ► see a documentary Rosalia which is which [TS]

00:48:46 ◼   ► is about the concept that they're there [TS]

00:48:48 ◼   ► is this procedure that can be done where [TS]

00:48:49 ◼   ► they put this little helmet on you and [TS]

00:48:51 ◼   ► it basically it flips a switch in your [TS]

00:48:53 ◼   ► brain and you can no longer you can no [TS]

00:48:56 ◼   ► longer detect whether somebody is [TS]

00:48:58 ◼   ► attractive or unattractive it's shallow [TS]

00:49:02 ◼   ► helped em I suppose if we want to catch [TS]

00:49:05 ◼   ► generally brother's involved along with [TS]

00:49:07 ◼   ► the night at the roxbury sure but i'm [TS]

00:49:10 ◼   ► going to raise the tone of his condition [TS]

00:49:12 ◼   ► i really thank you and now you used to [TS]

00:49:15 ◼   ► give us crazy words that are only in the [TS]

00:49:17 ◼   ► dictionary and now you bring up movies [TS]

00:49:19 ◼   ► like I've suffered brain damage and [TS]

00:49:21 ◼   ► obviously they put on the little helmet [TS]

00:49:22 ◼   ► this is like this is like the worst-case [TS]

00:49:24 ◼   ► scenario when you read that Chang [TS]

00:49:26 ◼   ► stories instead of an alternate your [TS]

00:49:27 ◼   ► brain for the better with expanded [TS]

00:49:29 ◼   ► consciousness and nonlinear time [TS]

00:49:30 ◼   ► difference even to an aficionado of SNL [TS]

00:49:33 ◼   ► movies it's so off so like what like [TS]

00:49:35 ◼   ► what you see and it's on a college [TS]

00:49:37 ◼   ► campus and there's some sort of politics [TS]

00:49:38 ◼   ► about about this that there's just some [TS]

00:49:41 ◼   ► of the students who went to schools I [TS]

00:49:43 ◼   ► think of private schools where where [TS]

00:49:45 ◼   ► this procedure was mandatory and the [TS]

00:49:47 ◼   ► ideas imagine going to high school and [TS]

00:49:49 ◼   ► having nobody be able to tell the pretty [TS]

00:49:51 ◼   ► people from the average looking people [TS]

00:49:54 ◼   ► from the ugly people that they're just [TS]

00:49:55 ◼   ► all people and you have to judge them on [TS]

00:49:57 ◼   ► their personality which is interesting [TS]

00:49:59 ◼   ► you know in and of itself that is taken [TS]

00:50:01 ◼   ► to this other level which is that at [TS]

00:50:03 ◼   ► this college campus they are talking [TS]

00:50:05 ◼   ► about making it mandatory or not and [TS]

00:50:08 ◼   ► some of the kids who are coming from [TS]

00:50:09 ◼   ► these private schools are debating [TS]

00:50:11 ◼   ► whether they should have it turned off [TS]

00:50:14 ◼   ► or not and there's the whole issue of [TS]

00:50:16 ◼   ► this pace of asymmetry right where we're [TS]

00:50:21 ◼   ► like this apparently with one of the [TS]

00:50:22 ◼   ► main characters in it [TS]

00:50:23 ◼   ► she's beautiful her boyfriend was in [TS]

00:50:26 ◼   ► high school is unattractive but she [TS]

00:50:28 ◼   ► loved him and didn't realize he was [TS]

00:50:29 ◼   ► unattractive and she but she doesn't [TS]

00:50:32 ◼   ► she's now sort of thrown in with the [TS]

00:50:33 ◼   ► sharks because there are people there [TS]

00:50:35 ◼   ► who are talking to her not because of [TS]

00:50:37 ◼   ► her personality but because she's [TS]

00:50:38 ◼   ► beautiful and she doesn't even realize [TS]

00:50:40 ◼   ► she's beautiful and I just I thought [TS]

00:50:42 ◼   ► that was a really fascinating [TS]

00:50:43 ◼   ► exploration of that again that core idea [TS]

00:50:46 ◼   ► which is what if there was this [TS]

00:50:48 ◼   ► technology available to make what we [TS]

00:50:51 ◼   ► would think would be like a perfect [TS]

00:50:53 ◼   ► thing which is to eliminate judging [TS]

00:50:55 ◼   ► people by their looks and then take it [TS]

00:50:57 ◼   ► to the extreme of well it would really [TS]

00:50:59 ◼   ► be that simple and they would actually [TS]

00:51:02 ◼   ► be kind of a mess and there are lots of [TS]

00:51:04 ◼   ► ramifications which is something science [TS]

00:51:06 ◼   ► fiction does really well and I i really [TS]

00:51:08 ◼   ► enjoyed that about it was interesting as [TS]

00:51:10 ◼   ► its told in this documentary fashion and [TS]

00:51:12 ◼   ► I was actually thinking that might make [TS]

00:51:14 ◼   ► that might have actually made a good [TS]

00:51:16 ◼   ► novel in the sense that you could have [TS]

00:51:17 ◼   ► really expanded the world [TS]

00:51:19 ◼   ► I suppose it wouldn't have been had the [TS]

00:51:21 ◼   ► impact because it would have probably [TS]

00:51:22 ◼   ► been more like I try to picture a nice [TS]

00:51:24 ◼   ► sort of imagine it being like a Robert J [TS]

00:51:26 ◼   ► Sawyer kind of novel there's another [TS]

00:51:28 ◼   ► kind of you know overly expanded and [TS]

00:51:30 ◼   ► more young adults and I'm not sure [TS]

00:51:32 ◼   ► whether you know it would have worked [TS]

00:51:35 ◼   ► but I could see it because you could [TS]

00:51:37 ◼   ► talk about the you know the kids in high [TS]

00:51:39 ◼   ► school and their relationship and then [TS]

00:51:40 ◼   ► talk about them coming to college and [TS]

00:51:41 ◼   ► and it's not told him that way it's [TS]

00:51:43 ◼   ► holding this kind of quick cut soundbite [TS]

00:51:46 ◼   ► documentary style of these little bits [TS]

00:51:49 ◼   ► of clips later against each other [TS]

00:51:52 ◼   ► the neat part of it too is that I'm one [TS]

00:51:53 ◼   ► movie part is that he's got it's one of [TS]

00:51:55 ◼   ► his more you more interesting narrative [TS]

00:51:57 ◼   ► devices stories that uses but you have [TS]

00:52:00 ◼   ► not just the issue of some of that [TS]

00:52:04 ◼   ► technology to remove people's ability to [TS]

00:52:07 ◼   ► you know see what they see how people [TS]

00:52:09 ◼   ► really look for or against perceived [TS]

00:52:10 ◼   ► beauty right that's the thing is yeah [TS]

00:52:12 ◼   ► its preceding beauty comes with a great [TS]

00:52:14 ◼   ► word what is the word is callie callie's [TS]

00:52:16 ◼   ► what they call it read like Ali agnosia [TS]

00:52:18 ◼   ► which i think is exactly well I think [TS]

00:52:20 ◼   ► it's an actual thing that that there [TS]

00:52:21 ◼   ► they can be you have a stroke or or [TS]

00:52:24 ◼   ► something like that where where it just [TS]

00:52:26 ◼   ► turns off this thing in your brain and [TS]

00:52:27 ◼   ► then you can tell it's like the oliver [TS]

00:52:29 ◼   ► sacks kind of thing but there's an [TS]

00:52:31 ◼   ► actual story just like this that people [TS]

00:52:34 ◼   ► have people have a prospect nausea which [TS]

00:52:36 ◼   ► the inability to recognize faces right [TS]

00:52:39 ◼   ► so you can see features but you can't [TS]

00:52:41 ◼   ► just be all over South the man who [TS]

00:52:42 ◼   ► mistook his wife for a hat and you was [TS]

00:52:44 ◼   ► part of that part of that thing that's [TS]

00:52:46 ◼   ► very interesting once once you know [TS]

00:52:47 ◼   ► about prosopagnosia [TS]

00:52:49 ◼   ► discover that some he thinks that five [TS]

00:52:50 ◼   ► to ten percent of the population in the [TS]

00:52:52 ◼   ► US has some form of it and once you read [TS]

00:52:54 ◼   ► about prospect nosy it's like reading a [TS]

00:52:56 ◼   ► touching story suddenly got metal ask [TS]

00:52:57 ◼   ► the people you know who have it by how [TS]

00:53:00 ◼   ► they behave towards you before you talk [TS]

00:53:01 ◼   ► to them and after you start a [TS]

00:53:03 ◼   ► conversation however that said if that [TS]

00:53:06 ◼   ► said one of the things that's that's [TS]

00:53:08 ◼   ► fascinating stories at the bit [TS]

00:53:10 ◼   ► underlying so we're talking about one [TS]

00:53:12 ◼   ► thing this cali going to turn on and off [TS]

00:53:13 ◼   ► so that you can proceed whether other [TS]

00:53:15 ◼   ► people are beautiful or not or what they [TS]

00:53:17 ◼   ► look like I guess if you've received [TS]

00:53:18 ◼   ► some perception of their attractiveness [TS]

00:53:20 ◼   ► I then at some point store you find out [TS]

00:53:22 ◼   ► that this this consortium that's trying [TS]

00:53:25 ◼   ► to advertise trying to lobby against the [TS]

00:53:28 ◼   ► college and in cali has developed this [TS]

00:53:30 ◼   ► new even more horrible technology that [TS]

00:53:33 ◼   ► allows them to directly influence people [TS]

00:53:35 ◼   ► through like my Croatoan so they [TS]

00:53:37 ◼   ► probably right add at the college that [TS]

00:53:39 ◼   ► leaves everyone voting against turning [TS]

00:53:42 ◼   ► kalyan as a mandatory thing and then [TS]

00:53:44 ◼   ► it's discovered that the the advertising [TS]

00:53:46 ◼   ► firm is just horrible new thing that [TS]

00:53:47 ◼   ► never needs to get total ban against [TS]

00:53:49 ◼   ► because it will allow you know every [TS]

00:53:51 ◼   ► dictator in the world to absolutely rule [TS]

00:53:54 ◼   ► all the people in it [TS]

00:53:55 ◼   ► yeah because it bypasses your rational [TS]

00:53:57 ◼   ► brain goes straight to the stuff that [TS]

00:53:59 ◼   ► you're hardwired to recognize attractive [TS]

00:54:00 ◼   ► or influenza 00 so like the route all [TS]

00:54:03 ◼   ► the the root language that we speak in [TS]

00:54:05 ◼   ► our brains strange yeah strange attach a [TS]

00:54:07 ◼   ► story all that the thing I was gonna say [TS]

00:54:09 ◼   ► by the way is so there is a real there's [TS]

00:54:11 ◼   ► a story of one of our sexes of [TS]

00:54:12 ◼   ► nonfiction bits about a woman who has [TS]

00:54:15 ◼   ► problems with magnolia and chief [TS]

00:54:17 ◼   ► she's a beautiful woman has no idea she [TS]

00:54:19 ◼   ► is now a model i believe and she falls [TS]

00:54:21 ◼   ► in love the guy she was in love with [TS]

00:54:22 ◼   ► this origin is a clown because feature [TS]

00:54:24 ◼   ► so he is this feature so malleable and [TS]

00:54:27 ◼   ► broadly he's apparently a really goofy [TS]

00:54:29 ◼   ► looking guy who cares I'm like is [TS]

00:54:31 ◼   ► awesome but why is that awesome you [TS]

00:54:33 ◼   ► start to examine the reasons for it all [TS]

00:54:34 ◼   ► becomes extremely convoluted perhaps [TS]

00:54:37 ◼   ► it's because I look like a clown i'm [TS]

00:54:38 ◼   ► wearing a red button nose right now as [TS]

00:54:40 ◼   ► we speak [TS]

00:54:41 ◼   ► Crossing your body shoes whenever the [TS]

00:54:43 ◼   ► other that's right maybe we all say you [TS]

00:54:45 ◼   ► know it's all unfair you should judge [TS]

00:54:47 ◼   ► what's on the inside man [TS]

00:54:48 ◼   ► neta and that story it's like well the [TS]

00:54:51 ◼   ► grade but it kind of doesn't you know [TS]

00:54:54 ◼   ► it's not so simple and if you do that [TS]

00:54:57 ◼   ► then there is the flip side which is [TS]

00:54:58 ◼   ► they that that woman gives a speech and [TS]

00:55:00 ◼   ► everybody's like hey [TS]

00:55:02 ◼   ► she's right we should do what she says [TS]

00:55:04 ◼   ► and it turns out that they're they're [TS]

00:55:06 ◼   ► all being influenced the other way so [TS]

00:55:09 ◼   ► but before we wrap up I wanted to give [TS]

00:55:11 ◼   ► everybody a chance if they if there's [TS]

00:55:13 ◼   ► something out there that they that's a [TS]

00:55:15 ◼   ► short story not by ted chang that they [TS]

00:55:18 ◼   ► want to to mention a favorite or a [TS]

00:55:21 ◼   ► favorite author who does short stories [TS]

00:55:22 ◼   ► or potpourri really now it's now's the [TS]

00:55:26 ◼   ► chance [TS]

00:55:26 ◼   ► anybody have anything i'm going to [TS]

00:55:28 ◼   ► recommend David are you sec um it that [TS]

00:55:31 ◼   ► because everybody should read we were [TS]

00:55:33 ◼   ► out of our minds with joy and he does [TS]

00:55:35 ◼   ► have a short story collection on I would [TS]

00:55:37 ◼   ► also recommend reading James Morrow's [TS]

00:55:38 ◼   ► Bible stories for adults but again read [TS]

00:55:40 ◼   ► it when you're not in a bad mood and on [TS]

00:55:44 ◼   ► final guys that is that because it's [TS]

00:55:46 ◼   ► going to put you in a bad mood or [TS]

00:55:47 ◼   ► rebellious oh yeah okay yes um [TS]

00:55:49 ◼   ► there-there was married when you're [TS]

00:55:51 ◼   ► headed toward a bad mood now they're [TS]

00:55:53 ◼   ► fantastic stories I mean he has a [TS]

00:55:55 ◼   ► beautiful story about a couple that [TS]

00:55:56 ◼   ► inadvertently gives birth to a planet [TS]

00:55:58 ◼   ► and it is one of it is one of the [TS]

00:56:01 ◼   ► sweetest stories i have ever read about [TS]

00:56:02 ◼   ► what makes a family and what people do [TS]

00:56:04 ◼   ► for their children and and what it means [TS]

00:56:07 ◼   ► to have to let the child go and you know [TS]

00:56:10 ◼   ► it's I'd like to before I had children [TS]

00:56:12 ◼   ► and now that I have a daughter and I [TS]

00:56:14 ◼   ► reread the story it was a big lump in [TS]

00:56:16 ◼   ► the throat moment so but again there are [TS]

00:56:19 ◼   ► some remarkably better stories in there [TS]

00:56:21 ◼   ► so you kind of have to watch what you're [TS]

00:56:22 ◼   ► doing um and I'm going to also put in a [TS]

00:56:25 ◼   ► plug for an old-school story collection [TS]

00:56:27 ◼   ► that I I like to read whenever I'm [TS]

00:56:29 ◼   ► feeling perversely in the mood for [TS]

00:56:31 ◼   ► pickup which is a william gibson's [TS]

00:56:34 ◼   ► collection burning chrome hmm good stuff [TS]

00:56:37 ◼   ► in there there are there are a lot of [TS]

00:56:38 ◼   ► good stories in there i especially like [TS]

00:56:40 ◼   ► the one about and event against if it [TS]

00:56:44 ◼   ► sounds depressing but it's not really i [TS]

00:56:45 ◼   ► especially like the one about the people [TS]

00:56:47 ◼   ► who have to bring back who have to bring [TS]

00:56:49 ◼   ► back the astronauts who were picked up [TS]

00:56:51 ◼   ► and abducted by aliens on rapid olga and [TS]

00:56:54 ◼   ► her Stoga olga and her seashell but yeah [TS]

00:56:57 ◼   ► I would if you're looking for sci-fi [TS]

00:56:59 ◼   ► horror story collections start with [TS]

00:57:00 ◼   ► those [TS]

00:57:01 ◼   ► alright that's a fascinating story i [TS]

00:57:03 ◼   ► forgot i dread that reached I forget [TS]

00:57:05 ◼   ► that skips in yeah yeah no it'sit's [TS]

00:57:07 ◼   ► there they're very much a product of the [TS]

00:57:10 ◼   ► eighties when you take a look at oh it's [TS]

00:57:12 ◼   ► Soviet technology and and the perception [TS]

00:57:15 ◼   ► of [TS]

00:57:15 ◼   ► of how things are going to shake out and [TS]

00:57:17 ◼   ► of course the Japanese are going to run [TS]

00:57:18 ◼   ► the world but at the same time a lot of [TS]

00:57:20 ◼   ► the ideas that he follows from point A [TS]

00:57:22 ◼   ► to point B i find very timeless and [TS]

00:57:25 ◼   ► interesting to look at [TS]

00:57:26 ◼   ► so then what about you I was gonna [TS]

00:57:30 ◼   ► recommend something any more broadly [TS]

00:57:32 ◼   ► which is the James Tiptree awards the [TS]

00:57:36 ◼   ► it's a website tiptree dot RG and as [TS]

00:57:40 ◼   ► I've probably spoke about incest least [TS]

00:57:41 ◼   ► one of my favorite favorite authors and [TS]

00:57:43 ◼   ► eventually will organize enough of us [TS]

00:57:44 ◼   ► with some agenda to read tipsy and talk [TS]

00:57:48 ◼   ► about her work has her work and the the [TS]

00:57:51 ◼   ► awards are given two stories and novels [TS]

00:57:54 ◼   ► that represents something of her which [TS]

00:57:58 ◼   ► is not just like gender bending but [TS]

00:58:00 ◼   ► things that bring up and twist subvert [TS]