Drabblecast 217 – Followed

strawman wrote:
Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out

This is Time's Modus Operandi.

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ROU Killing Time wrote:
Well the president certainly was winning the corpse count race. One might suggest that the sweatshop owner might have been a better choice but the dead don't seem to grasp the concept of moral relativism.

Yeah, that was the thing I really wondered about this. How does a corpse pick just one person? There's a whole chain of people involved in that.

My best guess is that, if there really is an actuarial system behind the scenes then it may not choose the MOST blamable person for any particular death, but it regulates the proportions. That is, if for any particular death at that sweatshop the sweatshop owner is 80% responsible, the distributor is 15% responsible, and individual buyers are fractions of a percent responsible, then they are distributed corpses based on those proportions. Everyone is in SOME way partially responsible for somebody's death, but since it's an integer-based karmic system (you didn't see fractions of corpses walking around) then people who have fairly low blame take a long time to accumulate enough to get their first corpse.

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After giving this system some thought, I think I know why it wouldn't work.
What's to keep the sweatshop owner from making the corpses work in the sweatshop?
Or the terrorist from strapping a suicide vest on the corpse?

I'd like to see a Muslim rewrite on this piece, in which the terrorist gets 72 corpses. I mean, where were all those virgins supposed to come from anyway?

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Where else on the drabblecast can the field of actuarial corpsology be born. Fine analysis, unblinking. Your cubicle at Karma's Insurance awaits you.

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strawman wrote:
After giving this system some thought, I think I know why it wouldn't work.
What's to keep the sweatshop owner from making the corpses work in the sweatshop?
Or the terrorist from strapping a suicide vest on the corpse?

I'd like to see a Muslim rewrite on this piece, in which the terrorist gets 72 corpses. I mean, where were all those virgins supposed to come from anyway?

Since the corpses just follow you around, I'd think a suicide vest on one would be a decidedly dangerous idea. Also, the little girl was acting as if her days of productive sweatshop work were behind her.

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harper wrote:
The main character in this story feels that he doesn't deserve his fate, and I feel like the end is him coming to terms with the fact that the little girl didn't deserve her fate either.

This is a great point.

I can't say much about this story that hasn't already been said. So I'll stick to glittering generalities.
Fantastic episode! Truly great work all around.

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ROU Killing Time wrote:
Since the corpses just follow you around, I'd think a suicide vest on one would be a decidedly dangerous idea.

Nah, you just put the bomb on the target's zombie.

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tbaker2500 wrote:

ROU Killing Time wrote:Since the corpses just follow you around, I'd think a suicide vest on one would be a decidedly dangerous idea.

Nah, you just put the bomb on the target's zombie.

That's thinking outside the casket, Tom.

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Strawman's jest had me thinking: If you blew a 'corpse' up, would it come back? Their physicality apparently resembles that of an actual corpse (or a traditional zombie). Not ethereal, despite their haunting behavior. Why would the president endure the indignity of thousands of the mocking dead? How about a flame thrower wielding PR department?

Also, did anyone else pick up this vibe: that towards the end of the story, the narrator's corpse was becoming more communicative, the better it/she was treated? Perhaps (and here I stretch) leading to a possible resurrection? That was actually where I thought the story was going. The extended length of the episode ( resulting from Connor's second segment) kept me from guessing the story's end point based on time stamp (as is usually the case - I listen at work).

Lots of questions. Clearly this is why they're working on a comic book.

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Yea, the hints were quite heavy that she was waking up.

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StalinSays wrote:
Strawman's jest had me thinking: If you blew a 'corpse' up, would it come back? Their physicality apparently resembles that of an actual corpse (or a traditional zombie). Not ethereal, despite their haunting behavior. Why would the president endure the indignity of thousands of the mocking dead? How about a flame thrower wielding PR department?

Also, did anyone else pick up this vibe: that towards the end of the story, the narrator's corpse was becoming more communicative, the better it/she was treated? Perhaps (and here I stretch) leading to a possible resurrection? That was actually where I thought the story was going. The extended length of the episode ( resulting from Connor's second segment) kept me from guessing the story's end point based on time stamp (as is usually the case - I listen at work).

Lots of questions. Clearly this is why they're working on a comic book.

They made some mention of not wanting to upset Amnesty International, (as well as, presumably, the ACLU and the NAADP.)

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ROU Killing Time wrote:
They made some mention of not wanting to upset Amnesty International, (as well as, presumably, the ACLU and the NAADP.)

I think this is the reason, yeah, for PR.

I suspect that you wouldn't be able to get out of your corpse plague so easily. If I were designing an undead actuarial system, I would be sure to account for this possibility. At the very least, I would design it so that every corpse that is destroyed is replaced by another. If making an example of such destructive behavior is worthwhile, then I'd design it so that every corpse that is intentionally destroyed is replaced by TWO (or more).

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Loved the story. Very Kafkaesque. But better.

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I really enjoyed this story, as much for Norm's narrative touch and the subtle soundtrack as for the tale itself.

This one rang very true to me: a man who considers himself one of the "good guys" who is suddenly forced to face the fact that each of us carries a bit of the burden no matter how we may want it to be otherwise. He's not a villain or a saint. He's the guy down the street. The attempt to buy off the corpse, the frustration and the outburst, even the reactions of the secondary characters didn't need a lot of hype or ta-da! presentation.

What I think I liked most about the story was the lack of exposition. We never learned when/where the corpses first appeared, it wasn't necessary. This is the story of one man coming to terms with his own, unwitting, complicity in the well bearing of humanity.

Good choice for a story, Drabblers!


Sandra M. Odell
http://sandramodell.com/

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Eternititties. This one word may have made my life complete.

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