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Study 039 - Space Episode (Patreon)

Published:
2023-04-21 03:51:45
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Leslie Perri's Space Episode has us frozen with terror - tune in to shake us out of it!

Special thanks to reader Kelly Maxwell of Monkey Business Institute and Little Red Wolf!

Here's that video featuring Francis Ford Coppola taking an elevator ride, from PBS Digital Studios.

Comments

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

I think the toxicity of gender roles is clearly the key to this story. The entire thing could have been written with no indication as to gender. Just three humans plunging to their doom and wondering who will step up as hero (fool) and purchase the lives of their companions at the cost of their own. And that would have been a fine story about how we face fear. Doom. Death. Compassion. Humanity. But genders *are* indicated. The men are supposed to be fighting each other for the honor of stepping up because that's what it means to be a man. Their failure to snap into their gender role fills them with shame and her with disgust. I suppose the readers' reactions just proves the author's thesis.

The Spider Incident

Not a fan of reality TV, but I want your pitch to be real. (Was it real? You guys have such a good rapport and can play things so straight that it's really hard to tell. I'd just be shocked if you'd gotten a meeting with Michael Piller) I appreciated the Rachel Watches Star Trek theme playing ever so faintly in the background while you discussed it. Good story this week. It was a heavy one.

Steve

Fantasy Amateur Press Association doesn't have a good acronym now.

Steve

Not a bad story, but the physics are terrible. If the ship is accelerating towards Earth, at the start, the astronauts would feel it. And if they use the engines to avoid crashing, she would continue at the same velocity and crash into the planet.

Steve

Not only do women not get the space suit, but cars, stairs, cutlery and drugs are all designed for men. Even women's clothing! No pockets as that would spoil the line for the male gaze.

KateSherrod

I haven't even finished listening to the episode yet as I write this but I'm still already calling it: this might be the best episode of either the HPLLP or SSSS you've ever done, a perfect pairing of a devastating story and insightful analysis. You make me proud to be a part of this community. Kudos, too, to Kelley Maxwell for very sensitive readings. This anthology has proven to be an outstanding choice for a month's theme (or perhaps more than a month? Another month sometime perhaps). Bravo!

Jim Cannon

I like that Lida is allowed to be resentful. If this were three dudes, it would be full of "its a far better place I go" nonsense or at least "I'm going out. I may be some time" terseness. But Lida gets to be human even while being a stone cold badass.

Mark Simmons

What a great theme month! I'm loving the readers, both new and returning. Your discussion of this story also highlighted some details I hadn't really registered before - that the now-useless pulp heroes were actually pretty awesome in their terrestrial careers, and that rather than harboring a long-simmering resentment of her hyper-masculine comrades, the heroine seems to have had a grand old time with them before the cosmic horrors of space suddenly unmanned them. If anything, it's the abrupt collapse of their respective gender roles that infuriates her. One could imagine other ways a story like this could be written, in which the new environment of space erases or inverts traditional gender roles, and it's portrayed as a welcome development. I think this one's a little more twisted, though.

Pearce Duncan

I was so excited when I saw Space Episode, but apparently it’s a story title :(

It's a Ghost.

Minus the wonky physics of the spaceship hurtling through space, first noted by Steve above, I loved this story. Maybe you could even say I looovvved this story. It felt so clean and simple and believable, especially compared to a lot of the other science fiction of its time. Like everyone in the story acted like a normal human being and seemed consistent in the context, without falling into any tropes. Like, I feel Steena from a couple weeks ago was Sigourney Weaver fighting aliens, doing things her way and then suddenly living happily ever after with her cat, jewels, and some guy. While in this story, Lida is simply Sigourney Weaver doing what needs to get done.

Karl Haikara

I love the way this story really captures the horror of space that is so much like the actual feelings of real astronauts like you mentioned in the episode.

Jim Cannon

Still thinking about this one. I find it interesting that these pulp heroes, when faced with the possibility of death, are galvanized into action. But when they encounter the inevitability of death, they freeze up. The two boys really are Captain Kirks. They don't believe in a no-win situation. Which makes Lida the Mr. Spock, doing what needs to be done.

Jason of the K

This was written in the 40's? Then I think I can forgive the physics, no one had any real idea of that it would be like outside of some theoretical textbooks, certainly there was little in the way of visual representations.

Science Doctor, PhD

The opening conversation about the reaction to a female space hero in this story, and how this is the same old story, is pretty sad. It made me think about that, to me (as a white cis dude) was probably one of the best 'ah ha' moments. The idea that folks think about whatever is dominant in the media as being the apolitical, and anything else as 'political'. Casing a white, cis/het, man and a white cis/het woman who fall in love over the course of the story is the default, and thus apolitical. Any other combination, regardless of motivation, is political, and to some, "bad". It's a "good" argument, in a rhetorical ammunition way at least, because it lets folks pretend their issue isn't related to sex, sexuality, gender, race, etc., but instead a concern about intent. Sort of like how so many folks had problems with She Hulk (in the recent marvel show) sleeping around (or being sexually engaged in general), but few of these folks seemed to come out of the woodwork to complain about Tony Stark doing the same. One could go on forever with examples. The phase, "everything is political" is a valuable phrase to keep in mind, particularly if you are in a dominant community (which almost all of us are) that needs to frequently, and actively, keep aware of their biases. Great story.

Fred Kiesche

What? Kate Sherrod is on here? Hi, Kate!!! :)

RebeccaR

And now I like you both even more :D

Lars Backstrom

Tom Godwin's 1954 short story Cold Equations has some similarities to this story. He might have read this and got inspired to write his own story, equally chilling.

Stacy Schumacher

That four hours of cyberpunk 2077 is *research*!!

Anne Ominous

Coming back to this one in 2025. Love that this story caused such a stir and that there were women readers who were psyched. Great discussion too! Will share with my teen daughter