Is this what

I’ve been listening to Escape Pod since early 2006, and I rarely comment unless the story is exceptional (last time I was driven to visit the site to post a comment, the story was exceptionally awful). I hear lots of “meh” stories both on EP and Drabblecast (a common problem for short fiction markets, I think – short stories are hard), lots of stories that are soppy and sentimental (or, oddly, so grim that they’re boring). This story was a breath of fresh air. Well done!

The fact that Mr DeRego was the host for a story with “union” in the title was sligthly confusing though, even though the story itself is something else completely.

Actually think it could’ve done with a better title in general, but that’s my only gripe.

Nature vs. Nurture. Body vs. Mind. Self-Identification vs. Social ID. Most arguments I hear are that its one or the other. That there is no gray area. And to those people who believe that fighting for either side I must say: HELLOOOO!!!! It’s both! You are not yourself without your genetics or your environment. You are not yourself if your body is physically changed or if you are psychologically changed. The problem with this is the swing each individual has towards a certain side. Some people have a set personality that probably wouldn’t change despite their environment. For others, it almost completely depends on their environment. That is why, I believe, we have these arguments. You cannot predict the individual. Sometimes the individual cannot predict itself. :O

We make our own fates; that’s why they are so hard to foresee. God made the roads for us to walk down. You choose which one to follow, how to follow it, which turns to take… Choose. It will not be chosen for you and none but yourself can walk the path. High road, low road, rocky, smooth… your choices start…now.

Sincerely,
The Blaine Boy

All that aside, I liked this story. I don’t quite get why Callahan committed suicide… I’m guessing she blamed herself for her partner’s death, even if it wasn’t permanent… I might want to read the text version of this to really wrap my head around it.

Jeffrey! It was good to hear you, glad you’re doing well.

Steve! Hope you’re back in top ‘casting form soon, we miss ya!

but then again, i am a sucker for any story that messes with your head

Meh.

Apparently, not every Union Dues story is a good one.

The prose is tight and economical, setting up tension from the start and increasing it gradually, naturally, through progressive scenes. Because the theme is always alluded to through the characters, rather than smashed over our heads like an expositional mallet, we are much more involved in the implications: what would I do if given a different body; how would I react to a loved one in a different body?

I’ve been an author and creative writing tutor for over 20 years and, believe me, this is great writing. It reads easily and some readers may assume therefore that it’s easy to write. It isn’t. This is the work of someone who’s in control of her materials, and knows how to cut anything that doesn’t serve the story.

I have a few minor quibbles, which are probably as much personal taste as anything else.

Here and there are a few clichés, e.g. the white knuckles gripping the handbag.

Also, considering this must be set in the future, I wondered if cops would still have boys’ clubs which the odd female cop is excluded from. This seemed a slightly lazy way of showing Callaghan’s difference to the other cops.

I felt Marlene was a little sketchily characterised. She shows very little towards Stephen other than rejection; personally, I’d have preferred a few greyer areas of affection here; otherwise, it makes it too easy to see why he should really be with Callaghan.

I may have missed it, but there was no explanation of how the technology worked; how they got a soul into another body. This didn’t really spoil the thrust of the story, but a bit more plausibility would have enforced it for me.

Finally, something that is possibly more of a writer’s point. I found the ending to be very powerful, emotionally. It wasn’t what the romantic in me wanted, but was perfectly plausible and tragic. But when I thought about it later, I wondered if in fact there might have been more challenge for the writer in actually getting Stephen and Callaghan. Not to end with standard romantic satisfaction, but more that this option would actually have tested Stephen more. He wouldn’t have been able to follow the prescribed, if tragic, course that most FTs take; instead, he’d have to struggle with identity issues in trying to forge a relationship for which there’s little precedent in society. Just a thought.

Would have been even more effective point if the Guest Host had introduced himself as Steve Eley and stuck with it, rather than giving his true name on the blog post and at the start of the intro.

Regardless, nice job, Jeffrey, I mean Steve!

It also oddly reminded me of Robocop…

That’s too bad, because the philosophical questions raised by shuttling “souls” between bodies seem to me entirely different from those concerning direct brain transplants (or rearranging chemicals and molecules in the donor body’s brain-matter, which is essentially the same thing).

my scar has healed well 14 years later, on cold days people still ask where did you get that scar

Answering the question raised by our host, I like the model of narrative continuity as the basis for a continuous self. Avoids some of the seeming contradictions of the purely materialist model and the gaps in models presuming some sort of supernatural entity. But that model doesn’t solve all problems, and this story hits one of them. What do you do when someone’s personal story defies belief?