A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou - Episode 8

Kat Stevens joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about Choose Your Own Adventure books, speaking with animals, and “Build Up Logically”, an unclassifiable short story written in 1950 by Howard Schoenfeld. It’s about two men who can summon the entire universe from thin air but spend most of their time at parties. Elisha reads the story in case you haven’t.

1. a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on May 20th, 2008

   I think eli’s reading is just brilliant this week, but I’ve loved it every week — and i’ve really really enjoyed doing this so massive thanx to all guests and commentors and contributors

   (also: suggestions for next series stories start here — shorter is better than super-long; doesn’t have to fall into this series’ strict period catchment, no promises we’ll widen the remit but we may, who knows — anyway but pointers to stuff we don’t know would be lovely)

2. Pete on May 21st, 2008

   This reading is awesome, Eli manages to flip between three characters and two narrators and probably makes the point of the story more explicit with the style.

   Its been a good series, and looking forward to series 2!

3. jeff w on May 21st, 2008

   Is this a repeat? ;)

   Pete OTM about Eli’s narration. His New Yoik accent is hilarious too.

4. FT's Alan on May 21st, 2008

   only if you are an avid FT/slugs fan, as it popped up prematurely for a few hours on the weekend. the show only went out on resonance last night though.

5. FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 21st, 2008

   yes there was a bit of miscommunication between me and eli — he put it up on fri as a nice loyalty reward, i thought it had gone up early by mistake and got FT’s alan to hold it back

6. FT's ledge on May 26th, 2008

   Thx for show guys, glad you are coming back for more!

   So y’know my favourite short story of all time is actually in that Brian Aldiss anthology - Track 12 by JG Ballard, or “Jim Ballard, an up and coming British author” as the intro quaintly refers to him. It is, I think, as perfect as short stories get. A nice little revenge fantasy, with the reveal (not quite a twist) perfectly timed, and the symmetry between the sound of the sea and the drowning of Maxted is such a good idea, and so exquisitely realised in Ballard’s prose.

   For something more up-to-date, the collection I always rep for is In Dreams, “A celebration of the 7-inch single in all-original SF and horror fiction”. Sounds like an odd idea but it actually has one of the highest hit rates of any collection I own. Covers the spectrum from Glen Miller to virtual pop avatars literally created by the market; has a quite superb alternate history story in which Lennon leaves the Beatles before they get famous; and a story which might suit your purposes, The Elvis National Theatre of Okinawa, a comic tale in which the legend of The King gets reborn in a deeply insane futuristic Japan, in a mere six pages.

7. FT's ledge on May 27th, 2008

   (In Dreams edited by kim newman and paul j mcauley btw)

8. FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 27th, 2008

   kim would be a good guest also — i know him from S&S

9. Al Ewing on June 9th, 2008

   Nooo! I’m too late to listen! Any chance of these being kept on the server along with the other FT radio stuff? Seems a shame for it not to be archived.

   Unless it’s just the web browser playing up.

10. FT's admin on June 10th, 2008

    oops, soz like. It’s just the WP podcast plugin that hasn’t been upgraded properly. there i’ve patched that. and you can still get everything by subscribing to the RSS feed (up there top right), which contains links to all the episodes

11. Al Ewing on June 10th, 2008

    Hooray!