Episode 72: A Place So Foreign by Cory Doctorow (Part 2)
Continuing where we left off last week, James has traveled forward to 1975 and has no way of getting back on his own. His only hope is to leave the apartment and explore this futuristic place, finding someone who will help him get back to the world he knew.
Also, Rish and Big talk a bit about time travel, and Big pretends the production of this double-episode was no big deal. Bloopers
Special thanks to Julie Hoverson, Lizanne Herd and Christine Maia-Fleres for lending their voices to today’s episode.
Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/dunesteef/Dunesteef_72_A_Place_So_Foreign_by_Cory_Doctorow_Part_2.mp3%20Related Links:
Craphound.com
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Boing Boing
Lizanne Herd’s Website
Julie Hoverson’s 19 Nocturne Boulevard
Some sound effects were provided by freesound.org.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine 
May 17, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Who did the artwork?
May 17, 2010 at 1:41 pm
That was a friend of mine named Tom Ballard. He’s an art student studying to be a computer animator. Did you like it? Should I have him do more?
May 17, 2010 at 5:46 pm
I always appreciate real artwork for the splash screens.
May 17, 2010 at 9:43 pm
The artwork was way cool. Very impressive production, Big. I really liked the writing in this story. I’m someone who had heard of Cory Doctorow, but hadn’t picked up any of his stories. I’m sad to say I don’t have as much time to read as I like. I tend to nurse a book (Shadowrise by Tad Williams at the moment) for a few months. Audio lets me multitask, and I get to hear a lot more fiction this way. I’m definitely going to look into picking up a full length Doctorow novel to put in my reading cue. Any suggestions?
May 18, 2010 at 5:01 am
Hi guys,
just a quick comment to let you know about an issue with Pt 2 of A Place So Foreign and iTunes.
iTunes is giving me error 8006 (unknown error – thanks Steve) and suggesting that the URL it is trying to suck the mp3 from is flawed/wrong or something.
Just an FYI (shudder)
be well, and thanks for putting this audiobook up, love Pt1.
MrkChmbrs
May 18, 2010 at 7:30 pm
I think that must have been some sort of temporary error with iTunes or something. I can’t get it to happen to me. Have you tried to download it again, MrkChmbrs?
May 19, 2010 at 1:43 am
Hi there,
hmm, I tried again after reading your post – no luck – same error.
I have flung a screenshot up on Flickr for you, if it helps etc.
When I ‘get the podcast URL’ from itunes it gives me the same url as it does for part 1, somewhere on Mr Doctorow’s site.
Anyway, I have downloaded the mp3 from the link above so I am ‘sorted’, thanks.
pip pip
MrkChmbrs
May 19, 2010 at 7:15 am
Looks like the error is in Cory Doctorow’s feed, then.
May 19, 2010 at 11:12 am
I guess I said this before, but the second half of the story did not seem long either. I know you men had a lot of work on your hands (what does three recording sessions mean?), but I could have stood to listen to the whole thing as one episode.
May 19, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Three recording sessions means that over three separate weeks, we got together and read on this story. It was about three to three and a half hours reading this thing aloud.
The final product was closer to 1:45 or so, if you trim out our banter and only count the story. That’s a kind of long time to be listening to a story, but Cory’s story was good enough and interesting enough, that I don’t think it would have been a problem. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one who thought that, that other people found it entertaining enough that they wanted to hear it all at once. Maybe next time we’ll see if we can manage that. No promises though. Despite what I said on the show, it took a lot out of me. I’m trying hard to keep to our schedule and have our next episode out right away, but what I really want to do is take time off and have a vacation.
May 19, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Great story, great episode. I gotta wonder bout that teacher though; seems to me were I him I’d be a little creeped out at having my student follow me around all over the place. Including out to sea. Unless getting more one-on-one time was his plan all along (bow-chicka-bow-wow..?).
Also having a hard time believing the protagonist found street cars more exciting then jetpacks. Cause, I mean, JETPACKS. Aren’t we humans just hardwired to consider those the epitome of awesome in the universe? :P
RE: amount of work per episode: Please don’t burn yourselves out on the podcast! I’m a new listener and would hate to see y’all throw in the towel just when I’m getting into it.
May 19, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Thanks, Samantha.
We’ve got a story especially for you next week.
May 20, 2010 at 11:25 am
Ohhh, that’s just cruel.
May 21, 2010 at 7:27 am
STORY: Cory Doctorow is a great writer. I like his writing style and the way he tells stories. But, except for Little Brother, I really hate his endings. This was no different. He left so many great plot points underwritten because… I don’t know, because he’s Cory Doctorow and that’s the way he writes. I wanted James to stop Verne. I wanted to know more about future-to-past leakage. I wanted to know more about 1975. But all I got was seemingly-endless drudgery of James’s life in 1899/1902 — come back from 1975, go back to school, be advanced, write about Jules Verne, be emo, fight with his friend, get trapped in 1975 (or would it be 1978 at that point?)… and then it gets interesting again.
I just feel like Doctorow left too much on the table with this story. And James joining the Slippery Trick felt to me like an overused literary trope.
Also, James was one of Doctorow’s “young but more intelligent than everyone else” characters, like the kid in LB or the MC in “Someone Comes to Town/Someone Leaves Town”.
My favorite part was Mr Addleson saying that school is for learning, not for regurgitation — definitely a great point. But the story falls flat for me because of the lack of the Verne thing — I just did NOT like the fact that James didn’t DO something.
PRODUCTION: Good, as usual. Please don’t use that music snippet for a few months, though. And, Big — how did you get Small Anklevich to say “hell” without saying it? I kind of heard it edited in there…
COMMENTARY: Well, since it was all about the story, I’ve already made my comments. But it’s nice to hear Announcerman saying more stuff than he used to, back in the early days.
So, in all, not my favorite Dunesteef story (and definitely not my favorite Doctorow story), but a good couple of episodes.
I have a 16,000 word novella that, since you guys are looking for longer stories, I might submit.
July 11, 2010 at 9:54 pm
I really enjoyed this one, guys. Your hayseed accent was a tiny bit hokey, but y’all make it sound campy, so it’s fun anyway. But I’m from Kentucky, so I am intimate with the real thing.
I rely on you to make me laugh at least 2 or 3 times a month, so don’t burn out on us. Pace yourselves. All the hard work was worth it here. It’s a classic story which I found to be very engaging, and your production was great.
I’m a big fan of your insanity (in fact, I count on it,) so keep it coming!