S3E3 - The Eternal Cocktail Party of the Damned by Fonda Lee

Transcript - Accuracy 90%ish SSSP-TheSinOfAmerica Tue, 7/5 12:30PM • 14:06 SUMMARY KEYWORDS story, america, sheridan, gluttony, personal favorites, sin, feel, living, woman, setting, rewarded, sparrows, aspect, case, scene, whimsical, remarkable, week, lottery, sin eater SPEAKERS Chris Garcia, Kristy Baxter Kristy Baxter Lightning recap. A woman is given a tremendous task that will change everything and nothing. Chris Garcia You've got a little time, Kristy Baxter We've got a little podcast. Chris Garcia This is short story short podcast. I am here today with Kristy Baxter Kristy L. Baxter Chris Garcia And, you know, I felt so good all week, I really, what I really need to do is to get into a a group of things in which all but one of them will lose, so that I might feel better about my future of losing. Kristy Baxter But you say that would be kind of like a lottery of sorts. I was thinking Chris Garcia more like a series of nominees. Kristy Baxter Oh, okay. All right. I see. Like, like a slate. Chris Garcia Similar, yes. Or a granite. But what granite? member would we be reading this week? Kristy Baxter This week, we would be reading the scent of America by Katherine M. Berlin de Chris Garcia now. Hi, can we have red cat before? By car? They sparrows? Bold, Kristy Baxter they radiant car? They sparrows do something on that one? Yeah. Chris Garcia Yeah, that's still easier than a alpiq overpass. But this story in particular, is one of those stories, that one you have to be willing to read deeper than just the surface. And you're 100% rewarded by having knowledge, in this case of Christ's symbology. And also American history. And a lot of writers trying to write this, it would feel exceptionally heavy handed. And maybe this is, but it's so beautifully written that I don't notice. Kristy Baxter A grade and I don't I don't think it's heavy handed at all. I think she uses a nice depth light touch with everything and sort of comes at the central idea of the story more sideways than directly, which is I think part of what helps to kind of ease the reader into it. Chris Garcia And she's using one of my favorite techniques where it is the ordinary, the humdrum, the scenes that we are encountering all the time if we live in our long, busy highways. But at the same time, there's a fantastical element that is, in this case, I would say us lyrically, it is to fold over this scene with just magnificently constructed writing Kristy Baxter yeah, there's so much that is just like beautiful about this, that it's really the writing that pulls you in and and overcomes any any issues of heavy handed ness and is she's really good at setting the scene, but not in like a standard pedestrian kind of way. It's it's a very it's a more I don't want to say whimsical because it's too deep to be whimsical. You know it's not it's not light and airy or anything like that, but there's just a lot of gorgeous imagery. And we learned that a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope which is my favorite Fun Fact of the week now. I am so happy about that. Chris Garcia And I think what's great about cats riding overall is how that ability to structure language in a way that hits the poetry section of the brain is, is really remarkable palimpsest, her novel from about 1215 years ago. amazing example of that six guns Snow White, and novella she did about maybe eight, nine years ago now. Beautifully done and my one of my personal favorites of all time, space opera. It's Eurovision in space really. And it is just absolutely remarkable. It opens with tickets Enrico and Enrico Fermi segment that makes me happy. But what one thing that you can always count on is this butting up of popular culture that happens and you know, one of my personal favorites. It was Lenny, who had hung up all those felt the NFL champion pennants in chronological order, starting with the Cleveland Browns in the year of her birth, dangling over the revolving pipe display case and terminating abruptly in the 1982. Washington Redskins, whose solemn mascot frowns down on the cash register. I mean, it is a sentence that does nothing to move the story forward. It is a sentence that does everything to move, not only the setting forward, but the character's involvement with the setting. Kristy Baxter A great great and then you have beautiful lines like the blue bison Diner is a ghost living room and is serving the sin of America. I mean, that's, that's just it just knocked me for a loop ghost living room. I'm going to call everything that ghosts living room now. But yes, I love that. That intersection of character and setting and how they play with each other, how the setting tells us more about the characters and the characters then tell us more about the setting, they sort of inform each other. And that that I can really appreciate I think if somebody is looking for a primer on how those two aspects affection can work well together, I think this would be a good example to use. Chris Garcia This is the other quadrant of the the extra world interior world positivity of human emotion thing that I would say, Richard the Third lays on the exact opposite side of where it is the physical description of the exterior of the person and TRT world that they're living in. And I think that is amazing. I think there's something here too. It's serving the Center of America, what serving the Center of America is this? America of of people who live along Highway. And that is an interesting statement in and of itself, and one that I actually see as being smarter than I would have thought it to be. If you were to describe, you know, the average American and someone who lives with dinars in their blood, I would say no, that's not true. It's mostly but then I kind of realized, well, in a way it is, in a way it always is. And that I think is what makes it interesting is that it's serving the sin of America. In both senses, Kristy Baxter in both senses, yes, it's this sort of, there's an aspect of homespun capitalism, I guess I would call it it's really hard for me, I think that the best description I'm going to come up with, but it's just this very like countrified backwoods down home, but still got to make $1 Still gotta earn your living, you know, still gotta make money. And then sort of added with that into sort of a sense of feeding into gluttony. You beat me to it. Whoa, cross the finish line. Yeah, Chris Garcia that this idea that the ultimate sin of America somehow has to do with gluttony, and the restaurant and all these sorts of ideas, I think actually plays very well. And again, you are rewarded for having because this is a Christ allegory in a way. And I think that that the more you know, into that realm, you know, if you can add all this Christian symbology, and so forth, and technology and all the other stuff that ended ologies that once you can combine all that you can look through the story through a couple of different lenses. And I think what's interesting is if you look at it as this is what this is how we view America, and this is how we view the religion aspect of that, at some point, the two are at the exact right level away from your eyes to form a full form picture. It's like a stereo graph. And I liked that idea. And I can see me doing that with little thing. Kristy Baxter And then the eye doctor comes in and says, which is better one or 2142? Chris Garcia Same? Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Yes. And I like this story. It's less of a I don't know if I'd say it's as much of a it's not a go out there knocking around actions don't Kristy Baxter know, it's not it's not but it does still feel like there is a lot at stake. You know, nothing will change. Chris Garcia Wow, you just described a whole lot. Kristy Baxter That is true. Yes. Chris Garcia Gigantic button, nothing ultimately will change. Yeah. Kinda like this is written about the world at large over the past billion years. Kristy Baxter Almost, like almost. Chris Garcia I have to say, I enjoyed this. I don't know, if I would like writing wise, I would put it as the number one thing we've read so far. I think there's, there's literally I can think of maybe three people one of which being Ted Chang and the other one being Rachel Swirsky. Who have this level of ability to create in sentence and I think that this is a a wonderful read. It's not exactly what I'm looking for in a story necessarily. But it's when I encounter it I enjoy it. Kristy Baxter Personally, I think the writing is good enough that this it's good enough to wave me into putting this in my my number one spot so far Chris Garcia think I you know, I could see that. I've got it. Maybe it's just that I have a real soft spot for Twitter. Kristy Baxter Oh, gee, I wonder in what direction you might be leaning. Chris Garcia Lean in every direction at once it's my superpower. Got any other thoughts here there Christie? Kristy Baxter Just that this story is like if the lottery and the what was it the Death Eaters? Oh, yeah. If they got together and had a baby and then that baby got selected to go and sacrifice itself upon the altar of capitalism and gluttony and all those wonderful things. Chris Garcia The Sin Eater Kristy Baxter was it the sin eater? Chris Garcia Yeah, the one who was eating all the sin. Kristy Baxter Okay. All right. So this is so it's very much like that the the baby? Chris Garcia Well, yes, and I think I think that that's a good, that's a good way to combine it. It's a as far as if you then use I would say that is a Okay, good. I'll take it. Hey, hey. Hey, Christy. Kristy Baxter Did you get stuck there? Yes. Chris Garcia What should we read next week? Kristy Baxter I think that next week, we should read another Hugo nominated story. tangles by Seanan McGuire. Chris Garcia Excellent. Another person who I have damn well fondness for. So until that week. This has been short story, short podcast