Flash: I Am Nature

By J M McDermott

Read by Ben Phillips

Detroit is dying. All the ornamental structures from the glory days of American industry wilt in ruin. There’s one building — found it myself — where the roof caved in one winter. There’s a tree that used to be in the lobby — and it’s dead — but its children are growing there. The forest has taken over the lobby. Birds hide everywhere, in the trees and the rafters, and their shit covers everything, but their singing is so beautiful.

 
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01
December 29th, 2007 9:31 pm

Wow… Very weird story on so many levels. Controversial on many levels.

I think it’s decent horror though. I wonder what era this was set in, and what else had been happening around the time…

Let’s see some more Flash stories, Pseudopod!

02
Spork
January 15th, 2008 7:42 pm

It’s bad when my attention wanders during a flash piece.

03
Asha
January 18th, 2008 11:40 am

lol I agree, Spork. I have to listen again. :D

04
January 20th, 2008 7:37 pm

I have to agree with Dom in that I like the Flash stories because it’s easier to find a chunk of uninterrupted time for ten minutes than it is for an hour.

I grew up just outside of Detroit so the setting bugged me, that is, the urban decay felt a bit too generic. Detroit is a heck of a good backdrop for this story but USE it. At least NAME something that’s typically Detroit (the Rouge Plant, the Fisher Building, the Casinos, Greektown, Mexican Town, the People Mover, Hudson’s…) and if you can’t name any, then maybe pick on a different city.

And perhaps more personally speaking, I can stomach all sorts of gore and torture, twisted psychoses and bizarre occurences… but there’s just something about the n-bomb that gives me the willies in a way that pops me right out the story. Yeah, probably just means I’m a wimp.

05
Jake
January 26th, 2008 1:54 am

This was one of the best stories I have heard on Pseudopod. It is monumental. Something incredibly beautiful, majestic, and base about this story. And it was beautifully read. I suppose it’s just me, judging by the other comments. Nevertheless, it has a permanent spot on my mp3 player.

06
January 27th, 2008 3:58 pm

Thanks for listening, everyone, and for commenting. Also, thanks to Ben Phillips for his reading.

I hope you know that Richard Dansky - recently up in regular-length for his story “Connecting Door” - has an excellent novel out in stores called “Firefly Rain”.

I’ve got my book coming out, too, on February 5, 2008. I posted this little comment so you can click through to my website.

07
scatterbrain
March 24th, 2008 8:57 pm

Questionable.

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