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Episode Notes
The Short Story Short Podcast crew will be taking a few weeks off to deal with medical things, but we'll be back with the Highsmith story and then... MORE!
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The Story! Nexty week - Abraham's Boys by Joe Hill
Transcript by Otter.ai SSSP-The Final Girl As A Middle Aged Woman Mon, Oct 03, 2022 3:37PM • 18:36
SUMMARY KEYWORDS horror films, killer, trope, middle aged woman, story, girl, subverted, amber, read, final, happen, murderous, jamie lee curtis, sparks, podcast, teenage girl, reasons, interesting, sexless, idea SPEAKERS Christopher Garcia, Chris Garcia, Kristy Baxter Kristy Baxter This final girl is fleeing like all the others flinging open the front door of a small suburban house. This final girl is screaming along hair streaming all torn t shirt and superficial injuries and sudden athletic desperation. Lightning recap in the final girl as a middle aged woman by Amber sparks what happens when the final girl is not a final girl after all Christopher Garcia you got a little time Kristy Baxter or you've got a little podcast Christopher Garcia this is short story short podcast. We are coming to you live. Just That's it. That's just life. Kristy Baxter Well, we are a live so that's good. See that Christopher Garcia works. Yeah. Although I will continue doing this after I have died. It will be fantastic. Kristy Baxter I bet especially in October, it will get super spooky. Yeah, cuz I'll be celebrating my birthday. Kristy Baxter Yeah, that's the only thing that happens in October. That's spooky. Christopher Garcia Exactly. Hey, you know, I kind of feel like I read something spooky recently. But I can't put my finger on it. What do you think it is? Kristy Baxter I can put my finger on it because it is the final girl as a middle aged woman by Amber sparks. Christopher Garcia This is a story that is right up my alley for four big reasons. The biggest being I do happen to like horror films. Kristy Baxter You're a little bit alone in that, at least in the context of hosts on this podcast. I Halloween time is the only time of year generally that I'll watch horror films, though maybe maybe I might stretch once in a while. But I struggle with them a little bit. And it's just it's something about I think of late, especially in like the even in the first decade of the 21st century, there was a lot of, hey, let's just cover everything that's happening with complete darkness. And that'll scare the viewer. And that just bugs me a lot. So there's that me being a weird snob about a genre that I have nothing to do with professionally. And there's also just I have a very weak gag reflex. Chris Garcia I don't like gore, which does tend to limit me to older horror films, particularly older slasher films, which this is a direct reference to. And the idea of the final girl is based on more or less Jamie Lee Curtis in the Halloween movies. And she's so good in that role. And I find it interesting that this story, which is brand spankin new, it's like less than three months old, I think. Kristy Baxter Yeah, I just I actually follow Amber sparks on Twitter, and she happened to tweet it and the title really, really intrigued me and I was like, boom, we got our next story. Christopher Garcia Yeah, and I think that this is doing a number of levels of commentary on one what the role of the final girl in a horror film is and to why is it never a middle aged woman? Chris Garcia Although to be fair, Jamie Lee Curtis is now in the Halloween low you could argue she may be slightly over middle. Kristy Baxter Hey, now let's let's not be talking about age. Except for the fact that that's kind of what the story is about. But yeah, it's this. This sense of vulnerability like the late teens girl is one of the more vulnerable characters that you can pull out. It's this this sense of who would the killer target does the killer want a challenge? Apparently not because they always go after the late teenage girl who is like, you know, wearing a white tank up and no bra. Gee, I wonder if that has something to do with it too. I don't know. Or you know the killer is going around punishing somebody for having sex for the first time, stuff like that. So definitely I feel like there there are a couple reasons both from a kind of gross like meta textual perception, and also from the actual, like, if you look at the motivations of the characters involved, especially the killer being the one who is engineering, a lot of the fear, I get like he'd pick the teenage girl. It's the same reason why all my friends say that if they were to cannibalize anybody, it would be me. It's just for fun to pick on. I'm not a teenage girl anymore, but I'm still fun to pick on. Chris Garcia Yeah, you know, my friends, I'll say they would eat me first. But we all know I'd be the eater. Kristy Baxter October is going to have a whole new meaning this year. Christopher Garcia I think one of the other aspects here, though, that is interesting. Is that meta textually? There are a number of reasons why it is the usually the late teen early 20s. Woman largely because one, yeah, the TNA is there, almost always to the way American box office has shown its they, you tend to peak on your drawing power as a woman in Hollywood in your 20s. And which, for better or worse, probably worse, unless you're an investor. There was actually related note, a look at the films of Lana Turner on a podcast I listened to called miracles, murders. That definitely talked a little bit about how box office Trends tend to to lead women into certain particular roles. And really an interesting little, just, it says that's a snippet of the podcast, which is well worth listening to. But the other thing that's being mentioned here is how the path of the killer follows not only very solid trope steps but more importantly, how the meaning of those to the film. Chris Garcia And the very interesting point that you know, this is the chase where I get killed, and then I get back up afterwards when she turns around and looks. Christopher Garcia And then that gets related to things that happen in the everyday life of the middle aged woman, quote, unquote, that has murdered him. I guess killed him. Technically, we could say it was justifiable homicide. But really, is it? Kristy Baxter Yeah. I, sort of on that same note, I enjoy. It was kind of a delightful surprise how trope savvy the killer is. He's totally in on this. He knows. And which makes sense, because like I said, he's the one who engineers the horror, he's the driving force behind it. And I love this line, the killer pauses. This has not happened in before. Is she not perhaps the final girl after all, or at all, but it's been nearly two hours and no protagonist has emerged and survived. He's like, what? How can the final girl be so old? What is happening here? This is not the way the story is supposed to go. And I just love that idea of it. He's not just some like nameless, mindless, murderous freak, who's running around stabbing people, but he actually has sort of a logic and that he is a surprised when the usual tropes are subverted. Christopher Garcia And that is, I think, key to the idea that if we insert ourselves into the world in which this is an actual movie, we're not seeing the first movie, we're seeing the fourth fifth sixth movie, this is this is down the line. Kristy Baxter Well, either that or the killer has watched a lot of movies. I feel like that's a possibility for him being trope savvy. That's that could be how the killer became probe savvy, and almost makes it more fun because he's like, a newbie, and he thinks he knows everything. And to have his his expectations is completely trashed in such a beautiful way. I think makes her somehow even more powerful in a strange way that she's like, I don't have time for your ignorance. Christopher Garcia Interesting. I ha, that's a good read. I think Kristy Baxter I think one of the different ways you can read that. Christopher Garcia Oh, yeah. I guess that they that would make this more of instead of a allusion to Friday the 13th it is more of a repositioning of a screen except for not funny. Yeah, Kristy Baxter possibly. Possibly. Yeah, there's there's that's what I love about this is such a short, short story and there's so many different things. takes you couldn't have on it so many different ways you can read different aspects of it. So I think that's really one particularly satisfying element of the story. Christopher Garcia And the the idea that the middle aged woman is the resilience of the potential foes for a it is what eventually defeats a, a murderous monster of a horror film is a really interesting one, it does play into one of Hollywood's worse sort of depictions of middle aged woman is that one of the reasons why people die in horror films, of course, is that they have sex. And then the idea that a middle aged woman has become sexless. And therefore she can defeat the the murderous killer, that I could see that read being there. And I can see that being a being also subverted by Amber sparks here because it's 100% out there, that she because I believe, even at the very end that she's referencing her as a mom, right? Yeah, yeah. So Kristy Baxter she's already begun to plan to pick the kids up from soccer and choir practice. Chris Garcia And so we're presented with not a mom out there defending her cubs. Christopher Garcia She's actually just fighting for her life. And I think that's a really interesting change too. Kristy Baxter Yeah, I think it's interesting that you you pointed at that the idea of, you know, the punishment for having sex and the versus midlife women being seen as sexless. And, but I really like what she does with that, because she could, she makes the killer be attracted to the middle aged woman, and he's horrified by that. And I just I just love that idea, because it's still sort of plays in to that whole idea, but also turns it on its head. Christopher Garcia Yeah, the there's a overarching pseudo academic look at horror films that see the killers in particular, they've referenced Michael Myers of not so much Freddy Krueger, but definitely Jason Vorhees as actually being presented as children inhabiting monsters bodies. And in that read here, he is not necessarily a child, he's actually experiencing, he's being presented more as an adult who has somehow turned into a killer. And I love that. The other thing is, I love how we're not given a very good description of the killer at all. Kristy Baxter I like that. I like that because middle aged women are so often like nameless, faceless voids in media. So for once, let's turn that on its head. But with regards to what you said about the whole child, thing, like messed up child's being a crazed serial killer, I really like how Amber sparks invokes the mother and says that that's what middle aged women do. That to me has those vibes of women who get, you know, horrible things in their DMS or whatever, rape threats, unsolicited dick pics, stuff like that, and how they, some of them will track down the mother of the sender and forward all that shit and be like, Hey, this is what your son's up to? That's just fine. I thought you might want to know. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. No, you go ahead. Christopher Garcia You know. I think one of the other aspects here that I really like is that it is incredibly short. Yet it pushes on every edge of this potential story. Kristy Baxter Yeah, you're right about that. I sort of had, I think, sort of subconsciously noticed that but not really put it into words. It really does. It's a very full story for how short it is. Christopher Garcia And I think what I like about that is, I think when you recognize that a trope heavy genre as horror films are, you can use very small nuggets to get you further and particularly when you are showing how they are subverted and how they can be played for both laughs and for thoughtful investigation. It allows you to expand everything. So every word and this means more I think Kristy Baxter yeah, it feels like it's more. Yeah, it's more meaningful in a way. And I'm glad that's not just me because I thought that maybe it was just be as a woman who, I guess could be considered middle aged. I hate that this taste that came into my voice there. I'll try to I'll try to work on that, as I deal with this. But But yeah, I thought it was just me like, taking more meaning out of it, because it's a very close story to my own experience. But you know, I don't have to kill her. But I, you know, I there are my friends who want to cannibalize me. So really, any minute they can come down and down the door and start slashing second eye, they're, they're my friends. They love me. And they will love me with garlic and butter. Butter, but yeah, so I'm glad that it's not just me, it feels like the story can connect to, you know, men as well, for instance? That's right. Yes. Christopher Garcia I love this one. I Chris Garcia think it's one of the more fun. Christopher Garcia This might be the shortest story we've read. Kristy Baxter My Pain, my pain. Oh, no girl can make you concave. Better. Oh, Gal. That's right. That yeah, that was super short. Chris Garcia Yes. And the two are, are incredibly similar. It's It's remarkable. Kristy Baxter This is a really good venue, I think, for this kind of fiction, that points out aspects of gender and sexuality and gender relations and such, you know, the sort of expectations of society, I think, because those are stories where it can be really easy to accidentally overstep the line and become too preachy about it, and risk turning off the reader. So when you have that short time span, you have to make every single word count in multiple ways. And that's, you know, this flash fiction is actually a lot harder than some other fiction simply because of that, but I think it's also a wonderful venue for these explorations of gender relations and tropes, etc Christopher Garcia Correct. As usual, this one Kristy Baxter no, I just I really, really enjoyed it. I'm glad that I follow Amber sparks on Twitter. I usually follow her too. She She's interesting. It's I think it's I'll find it right now because it's in the author's noticing. At Amber Noel and O E. LL. E. So yeah, give her give her a follow and read some more of her stuff. Because this this feels like she's got more in or she's got more. It's just got some good stuff waiting around the corner of appealing. Christopher Garcia Oh, absolutely. Yes. Hey, Christy. Yes. What might we want to read next week? Kristy Baxter Next week. I think we might want to hit up Joe Hill for his story, Abraham's boys. So we're going from the final girl to the boys. Christopher Garcia And Joe Hill, who wonderful human being. Yeah, well till next week. This has been short story, short podcast.
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Next Week - The Final Girl as a Middle-Aged Woman by Amber Sparks!
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Next week - A Place in the Sun by Jennifer Haigh
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