Hipparch

Posts: 2227

EP247: Bridesicle

By Will McIntosh

2010 Hugo Award Winner

Read by Amy H. Sturgis of StarShipSofa

Originally published in: Asimov’s — Download and read the text

Guest Host: Ben Phillips of Pseudopod

“Aw, I know you’re awake by now. Come on, sleeping beauty. Talk to me.” The last was a whisper, a lover’s words, and Mira felt that she had to come awake and open her eyes. She tried to sigh, but no breath came. Her eyes flew open in alarm.

An old man was leaning over her, smiling, but Mira barely saw him, because when she opened her mouth to inhale, her jaw squealed like a sea bird’s cry, and no breath came, and she wanted to press her hands to the sides of her face, but her hands wouldn’t come either. Nothing would move except her face.

Rated PG


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Peltast

Posts: 104

Words can scarcely describe how happy I am to see this story in the Hugo lineup.

This story has wit, poignancy, brilliant engagement with its speculative elements (including a brutally honest assessment of the possible problems associated with achieveing mental singularity), and a complex/bittersweet and emotionally realistic happy ending. Moreover, there are well-thought-out, well-engaged exploration of sexual power struggles, social conformity pressures, and the literal objectification of women. I could go into every detail, but I don't think it's necessary.

I love this story.

Yes for the Hugo. I repeat: Yes for the Hugo.

Extern

Posts: 12

I concur with all blueeyeddevil said above.

It would be interesting to know the societal back ground that would allow such a practice to exist. Where’s the ACLU, goddamn it! Rights for the dead!

Best sentence: “He told Mira that he would see her on Tuesday, and killed her.”

I liked this story. In my opinion it’s the best Hugo nomination so far. 

Hipparch

Posts: 980


Holy Robot

Except for the endearing ending - made slightly horrible by the idea that the lovers would be reunited only through horrific brain merger - this could have been a Pseudopod episode. This future sounds incredibly frightening, terrible, terrifying. I'd never want to live there.

I loved the story.

I agree that it's the best the Hugo nominees so far. I can't wait for the last.

Captain of the Burning Zeppelin Experience.

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Peltast

Posts: 129

I thought this piece was wonderfully ambitious. Mira's fear and her will to live were visceral. Her pride in the face of her humiliating powerlessness as activated in a deft and engaging way. But there were a few things that held "Bridesicle" back from being a really outstanding story.

McIntosh tied one hand behind his back by choosing to tell the story from Mira's severely limited perspective. But I think that with a little more imagination he  could have used this limitation to his advantage. ("What year is it?" "2345." vs. "What year is it?" "Year? Year? Oh, how quaint!"). Instead, he just worked around it. More than a century goes by, but nothing significant changes in the outside world. The grandson's orange skin and futuristic garb were kind of a flaccid attempt to show that the times, they were a-changin' without making Mira and the men in her death actually comprehend the world in different ways.  To paraphrase Steve Eley regarding Knights of the Old Republic, a civilization that doesn't change throughout the generations is kind of...leotarded.

I could forgive the idea that language, laws, and relationships all remain stagnant over the one hundred plus years of Mira's death, except that the innovation of mental singularity seems like such a game changer. How would a century of this practice fail to utterly transform the nature of identity, individuality, and social hierarchy? How many votes would a man with 29 Hitchers get? What does a PhD in physics do when all the jobs are taken by people who've got twelve of them rattling around in their brains? After enough time, how would the Hitcherless ever hope to compete with the, um...Hitched...in anything that has to do with experience, wisdom or plain old knowledge?

It's not that I think the subject can't be tackled or that it can't be tackled in an approachable way. James Kelly's "Candy Art" had a very humorous take on the consequences of digitized consciousness, even though his spectral baby boomers made use of "puppets" rather than their offspring. I still remember laughing a little nervously at the narrator's inner monologue: "You don't die! You own everything, and you don't die!"

Long story short: I thought the mechanics of reviving people from premature deaths and how bodies are doomed to wear out were well established, but that the Hitchers aspect of the story just raised more questions than it helpfully answered. Maybe that sounds picky, but sci-fi is not a buffet table.

Moderator

Posts: 2654


Muahahahaha

Thing is this wasn't a story about the technology, or society.

This was a love story. Which is why I feel those other questions don't need to be answered.

Peltast

Posts: 129

Kind of my point. The conceit of "Hitching" distracted me from the emotional arc of the story and didn't really add anything worthwhile. The nattering of the Mira's mother from inside her head and the one-sided conversation Lycan (sp?) had with his grandmother didn't justify the attention McIntosh insisted we pay them.

Peltast

Posts: 85

I was in tears listening to this. 

Beautiful.

Lochage

Posts: 559


Trusst in me, jusst in me.

If this doesn't win the Hugo, then something is wrong with the selection process. It is by far the best of the five stories.

Jumping on the "technology" sidetrack, what Mira said about having a hitcher resonated with me. It would CREEP ME OUT to have my mother or father or...well, anyone, really...riding along inside my head. I have to have my alone time. With a hitcher, you could never, ever shut out the voices. If McIntosh were to write a slightly different story set in the same world, I could easily see it showing up on Pseudopod. In fact, the prequel telling Mira's story up to the point of her wreck would be sufficient. Her mother sounds like a true horror.

I invent imaginary people and make them have conversations in my head. I also write.

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