No soapboxing today. I'm just not in the mood to get on my high horse about something. Instead I wanted to pass along a short story I listened to today.
Instead I want to mention a podcast that I’m a big fan of. PodCastle has been in my RSS feeds for quite some time. Each week it delivers me a different fantasy fiction story. This week it brought me a story that I truly enjoyed, and made me quite emotional.
Today they ran a story by Ken Liu called "The Paper Menagerie" that I absolutely loved. I won't spoil it here, but it's a story about the connections between a man and his parents through the lens of his childhood toys. The story was wondrous, and I enjoyed the imagery.
By the end I was nearly overcome with emotion. The story brought to mind memories of my own mother, who passed away in 2002, and my father, whose company I am happy to say I enjoyed over the weekend. While I never faced any of the cultural issues that the main character does (it isn't much of a spoiler to mention that he is bi-racial), I can understand the main themes of the relationship between parent and child.
I don't have kids of my own. Frankly, I don't suspect I will any time soon. I am some one's son however, and this story did a good job of reminding me of that.
PodCastle is an excellent podcast that you should definitely check out if you like fantasy stories. It has two sister podcasts; Escape Pod for science fiction short stories and Pseudopod for horror. I subscribe to Escape Pod and Podcastle, though since I'm not much of a horror fan I usually skip Pseudopod. I will at some point likely do a full review of each, but for now I would at least definitely recommend this story.
Instead I want to mention a podcast that I’m a big fan of. PodCastle has been in my RSS feeds for quite some time. Each week it delivers me a different fantasy fiction story. This week it brought me a story that I truly enjoyed, and made me quite emotional.
Today they ran a story by Ken Liu called "The Paper Menagerie" that I absolutely loved. I won't spoil it here, but it's a story about the connections between a man and his parents through the lens of his childhood toys. The story was wondrous, and I enjoyed the imagery.
By the end I was nearly overcome with emotion. The story brought to mind memories of my own mother, who passed away in 2002, and my father, whose company I am happy to say I enjoyed over the weekend. While I never faced any of the cultural issues that the main character does (it isn't much of a spoiler to mention that he is bi-racial), I can understand the main themes of the relationship between parent and child.
I don't have kids of my own. Frankly, I don't suspect I will any time soon. I am some one's son however, and this story did a good job of reminding me of that.
PodCastle is an excellent podcast that you should definitely check out if you like fantasy stories. It has two sister podcasts; Escape Pod for science fiction short stories and Pseudopod for horror. I subscribe to Escape Pod and Podcastle, though since I'm not much of a horror fan I usually skip Pseudopod. I will at some point likely do a full review of each, but for now I would at least definitely recommend this story.
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