The Drabblecast

Dinosaur
by Bruce Holland Rogers
read by Norm Sherman

Monster Talk
by Steve Calvert
read by Dave Thompson

The Curse of the Android’s Wife
by Bruce Boston
read by Julie Hoverson



Music by
Scott Shannon, Norm Sherman, Roland Dyens, Cliona Ni Dhuill

I hate to qwibble, (no really, I'm risking my spot as the #1 brown-noser on this here forum) but "The Curse of the Android's Wife" seemed too similiar and appeared too close to the "Little Brother-TM" episode. It was very difficult not to lay the two side by side and compare them, which I know isn't fair to either story. I had trouble reacting to the story itself because I was so busy noticing the similar themes and ideas (and events for that matter.)

I did like "Monster Talk" and "Dinosaur" which were engaging little short stories. That's one thing I like about the Trifecta episodes. The stories are meatier than a drabble, but not as heavy as a full-length short story. They are the buffallo wings of the literary world.

Damn, now I want to go to Hooter's. Are they open this late?

ROU Killing Time wrote: They are the buffallo wings of the literary world.

High Five, ROU. That's an ace.
I also had issue with the last Fecta, but was reminded not of Little Brother, but of Curse of the Alien's Wife by... Bruce Boston . Hey, wait a minute! Does this guy have a formula! If we see Curse of the Zombie's Wife by Bruce Boston, somebody's going to call you on that one. Bruce had better start cursing some husbands. If this had been a full feature, I would have felt cheated, but since it was only a buffalo wing...
Still, Bruce might be wise to try therapy. If he can't afford it on DC payrates, we could always start a thread, DC Couch. Tell us about your mother, Bruce.

Monster Talk made me think of Monsters, Inc., but you almost had to ask yourself what makes something a monster. This was more like having Woody Allen in your closet.

Dinosaur was the best of the Fectas. I have the feeling that Norm could play the guitar and narrate the story on a single track. But aside from that, the nearly universal theme of needing to choose a path before the muse has called you, of disappointed heroic dreams, is a very human theme. Ironic that it should be narrated by the one guy who found his perfect niche, isn't it? Perfect.

Bruce has actually got a set of stories called "The Accursed Wive" series. He's sent us several, but I don't remember a Curse of the Zombie's Wife yet,hehe.
I like the pathos of the story, and the vivid descriptive quality that Bruce's writing generally has.
Good sci-fi can say something about humans and human relationships in a way Dr. Phil will never be able to do. Some things are just better said with robots and aliens.

Yeah, I thought that android story rocked. I swear I'm not positive about everything in life. I guess the editorial staff must be doing its job. I don't usually find much to complain about.

I really liked that story. Particularly that sick music change that occurs when suddenly ugly reality starts leaking through the crack in the facade. The line says something like, 'Especially when she's a cold bitch' or something like that. And it's like, 'uugghh...' And the music then changes back to that original theme I think when she switches him back on again. And then there's the foreboding music switch back again when she's thinking of having a son or daughter built at the end.

So well done.

I think of this as a story about a person with narcissistic personality disorder. And the horrific extent she's able to reach with wealth and super-effective AI technology at her disposal.
[edited for spelling]

internalogic wrote:I really liked that story. Particularly that sick music change that occurs when suddenly ugly reality starts leaking through the crack in the facade. The line says something like, 'Especially when she's a cold bitch' or something like that. And it's like, 'uugghh...' And the music then changes back to that original theme I think when she switches him back on again. And then there's the foreboding music switch back again when she's thinking of having a son or daughter built at the end.
[edited for spelling]

*Norm feels good about himself when people see the small things*

*Otherwise, Norm just creates a feel-good, small-thing seeing robot.*

normsherman wrote:Bruce has actually got a set of stories called "The Accursed Wive" series.

Happy birthday, dear...see, I dedicated this to you!
Maybe the curse is she's looking for love in all the wrong places? Aliens, robots... zombies?

I was out in my car last night, and I threw on the drabblecast. I spent the next half hour driving in circles until the episode finished.

Yea! Another fantabulous tri-diddy. I liked each of the stories in the same order of magnitude as the order in which they were presented. Dinosaur was my favorite, loved the melancholy tone and the hopeless ending. Monster Talk was clever and I thought the narrator was a good match for it. The android story was Ok, made me think of the Asimov robot novels.

tbaker2500 wrote:I was out in my car last night, and I threw on the drabblecast. I spent the next half hour driving in circles until the episode finished.

I am often sat in the car at my destination until the story is complete.

I think Monster Talk was my favorite. I think Dave Thompson's reading was perfect for the mood of the peice--a good match.

I also think Dinosaur was a well-wrtten story.

Not so much with the last one. Sexbot stories are kind orf boring to me. Even though I didn't compare it to Little BrotherTM at the time I listened to it, I think Little BrotherTM is a much better execution of the android family member.

Good stories this time. I would expect as much, being that this is Trifecta 9, making for a trifecta of trifectas of trifectas. (I can't wait for Trifecta 27!)

Accidentally(?), there seemed to be a common theme running through all of these. It was most explicitly expressed in "Android's Wife," but present in the others to a degree as well: The theme is rejecting the innate nature of things and attempting to impose a nature of our own making. I think that's one of the great themes, and it shows again how the Drabblecast is just as much a venue for serious literature as for insanity and silliness.

In "Dinosaur" we see a man sacrificing his real dreams, priorities, personality–his self–for the sake of social conformity. He starts out knowing exactly he wants to do and be; he starts with passion. But he bows to outside pressure and abandons his passion in favor of a life that he really does not want or care for. A created nature is imposed on him, smothering his innate nature, and he is not satisfied, not at peace. But then, after dementia has made him forget about the outside pressure, he reverts to being simply himself again, without affectation, and the end finds him at peace.

The theme was much more subtle in "Monster," but still important. The monster, we discover, just wants to be left alone. He is not dangerous or frightening; he is innocuous. But the child insists on being afraid nonetheless. The child does not accept the monster for what it is but instead projects his own preconceptions onto it, and this makes both monster and child miserable.

In "Android" the theme pretty much was the story. The wife rejects the essential nature of human relationships with their give and take, with their bending of people around one another, with their process of mutual adaptation and acclimation. She is unwilling to sacrifice, unwilling to change herself in the least for the sake of another human being. So she creates her own sort of relationship, a relationship of all taking and no giving, in which only the other person bends, a relationship that is in its nature synthetic. She has rejected nature and made her own rules. And, like the characters in the other stories, this makes her miserable: She finds no peace or satisfaction in the unnatural arrangement.

And so I find in all three stories this moral: Embrace reality. Don't insist on being an accountant if you are really a dinosaur. Don't insist on being afraid of something that really won't hurt you. Don't insist on others being what you wish they were. Accept what is.

In other words: Good episode!

"Curse of the Android's Wife" kind of horrified me. What a sad and sickening future that depicts. Then I thought about seeing John and Kate Gosselin on the cover of every magazine for the last three months, and I realized that a sad and sickening future has already arrived.

Dinosaur brought tears to my eyes. This, for me, was one of the most moving stories I've heard here. Possibly the most.

And I didnt find the very end hopeless at all. It was just a return to his beginnings. Very "Circle of Life"-ish. The dementia that took away everything else left him free to be the dream he had as a child. I guess you could argue its bad to lose touch with reality, but then, reality is subjective. Maybe he'll spend his last days in a dream, but if he's happy and innocent like he was once upon a time, that sounds like "win" to me.

A brilliant Trifecta.

Dinosaur really hit home for me, as I'm struggling to finally do with my life what I've always wanted to do, trying not to focus on what other people want and expect from me. Awesome story!

Monster was a very refreshing look at the monsters in the closet. Very clever, I'm always a big fan of the "other point of view" stories.

Android was at first 'just' a great story about a woman with her android, but as I read Mr.Tweedy's review, I agree that the story does go a bit deeper than that. Very well said, Mr. Tweedy!

zZzacha wrote:A brilliant Trifecta.

Dinosaur really hit home for me, as I'm struggling to finally do with my life what I've always wanted to do, trying not to focus on what other people want and expect from me. Awesome story!

You've always wanted to work in a sausage factory? Now that's a cool dream!

tbaker2500 wrote:You've always wanted to work in a sausage factory? Now that's a cool dream!

I am happy as can be! This is truly a childhood dream come true.
My sausages beat your piles of ash any day, even with those awesome laserguns

I always wanted to be a dinosaur when I grew up. A couple of months ago, I joked to my fiance that I had done a dinosaur internship in college, but that there's no work for dinosaurs these days, so I'd ended up being a school teacher instead (I also claimed to have done an internship as a bear - did you know that bears have great healthcare? - but decided it wasn't for me).

A few weeks later she dreamed that I had gotten a temporary job as a dinosaur. and was sad, because now I was too large to fit in the apartment.

This drabble was about you?

ElectricPaladin wrote:I always wanted to be a dinosaur when I grew up. A couple of months ago, I joked to my fiance that I had done a dinosaur internship in college, but that there's no work for dinosaurs these days, so I'd ended up being a school teacher instead (I also claimed to have done an internship as a bear - did you know that bears have great healthcare? - but decided it wasn't for me).

A few weeks later she dreamed that I had gotten a temporary job as a dinosaur. and was sad, because now I was too large to fit in the apartment.

Oh... how... *sniff* beautiful!
Dinosaurs are the bestest thing ever to be. I dream of dino's, too.
I'm going to sleep now just so I can eat the remains of a beached plesiosaur.

I love you all!