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- [00:11]
A
Hello and welcome to Run Last Click with me Chris. And he's simply having a wonderful Christmas time. It's Eddie. Say hello, Eddie.
- [00:17]
B
I work in retail and you give me Christmas music. Well, I'm not a work. No. Not acceptable.
- [00:23]
A
It's not allowed. You're not having it. You're putting your foot down.
- [00:25]
C
I am, Yep.
- [00:26]
A
I can see you. Oh, my goodness. I wonder if that got picked up on the mic. We'll find out later. Maybe not having a wonderful Christmas time yet. When Christmas is over, then you'll be having one for Christmas time. Yeah. How many days straight you've been working for so far? 7. That's a lot of Christmas in retail, man. Yeah, I don't. Don't envy you. Don't envy you at all. But hey, Christmas in the podcast, though, that's much better. That's much nicer. You know, you don't have to sell anyone any phones at the moment.
- [00:56]
C
That's better.
- [00:57]
B
Yeah.
- [00:58]
A
So that's good.
- [00:59]
B
Yes.
- [01:00]
A
And as is a tradition. Well, tradition. We did it once last year.
- [01:06]
B
Traditions begin. Well.
- [01:07]
A
Yeah. Well, maybe today we're gonna do a Christmas story instead of a normal episode. But, you know, those of you going now, it's either this or nothing because we kind of want a break and this is easy also. Just imagine not listening to this and it's the same experience.
- [01:26]
B
It's. It's also worth pointing out that I
- [01:28]
C
didn't go because I had work and various things. But looking at Facebook, the London groups getting hit by Christmas parties because we
- [01:34]
B
play in the pub and pubs get
- [01:36]
C
booked every weeknight of the year. When it's in December, people tend to
- [01:40]
A
meet up with their friends around just before Christmas. It's a very kind of getting to meet your friends, getting seeing your family sort of time, isn't it? So it's just fucking busy. Yeah.
- [01:48]
C
You just can't get a table.
- [01:49]
A
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, yeah. Right. But few order of business stuff, Edie, a few, few emails and electronic mails. Do you want to read the first one out from one of our very lovely patrons?
- [02:03]
B
Yep, I will.
- [02:04]
C
It's from Kaushalia. He said. I heard in the latest episode about the email from a Hong Kong player talking about the shipping expenses of ordering the card packs locally. In fact, www.bookdepository.com sells the packs with free international shipping. They even have deluxe expansions and core set. Not just the smaller packs. As a player in Sri Lanka, I packs from them. Please do mention this on the them on the next podcast. Cheers.
- [02:28]
A
I don't know. Do you think we should mention it on the next podcast?
- [02:29]
B
Didi, do you know what?
- [02:31]
C
Free international shipping is a really cool thing.
- [02:34]
B
Yeah. If you live somewhere slightly out of the way.
- [02:36]
C
I said not say out of the way.
- [02:37]
B
But we have a shop we can buy things from.
- [02:39]
C
If you don't have a shop, you buy from your country. This is really cool because you don't pay for shipping.
- [02:43]
A
Give it a look. I don't know how far that extends. I'm sure it's probably most places. Maybe there's some really weird places that they don't ship to. But give it a look. If you're somewhere not America or England, which appears to be a hard place to get narrator cards.
- [02:57]
B
I might have bought.
- [02:58]
C
I think I might actually have bought some sleeves for the class as well.
- [03:01]
A
Well, there's a run last kick guarantee of have a look and see what you think. And maybe one of us might have bought something from there. Yeah.
- [03:10]
B
Yeah.
- [03:10]
A
Alright. We're selling out. Edi. How exciting.
- [03:12]
C
Awesome.
- [03:14]
A
And then, yeah, Christian, very lovely. Christian from Team upcast video fame has started this very fun idea of the Android netrunner video. I said music there. Maybe that's next year. Android Netrunner Video Awards 2015 where you can go onto a website and put in a link to a video that you think is pretty nifty, pretty cool in a sexy category and say, oh, judges, which is us somehow and a load of other netrunner, netrunnery content creatory type people on the Internet and we'll look at it and go, hmm, yes, very nice. Christian is doing all the heavy lifting on this, I would like to say so. More props to him.
- [03:59]
C
Is he making golden turtleneck statues?
- [04:01]
A
Oh, that's a good one. I think the idea of a golden Jackson Howard statuette was floated around, but I don't know if they made instead
- [04:10]
C
of a space plan, have a little turtle back.
- [04:11]
A
Exactly. That could be nice. That could be nice. But yeah, if you have a video that you really like, particularly nice commentary that you think, well, even that you've done, you want to submit, go to the website anr videoawards.com and yeah, before the end of the year. So that's the 31st of December, 30 day, 31 days have December, April, June and no, hold on, I don't know.
- [04:35]
B
Is it all gone wrong?
- [04:37]
A
Numbers, numbers. And last, but by certainly no means least, Edie, quick update on the charity gift tournament that Richard Hammond was running. Not that Richard Hammond, the other one.
- [04:52]
C
He's renamed his channel on YouTube.
- [04:54]
B
I saw that Top deck.
- [04:56]
C
So good.
- [04:58]
B
Yes.
- [04:58]
A
Everyone check that out as well. But yeah, he organized this charity tournament, Netrunner Tournament. We. Which was a. Was it blind? Not blind. Like an auction thing. You had to auction. You bid auction for your IDs.
- [05:12]
C
Yeah.
- [05:12]
B
The identities you wanted to play.
- [05:13]
C
Yeah.
- [05:13]
A
And Reynolds Click did one and it did quite well. I was very pleased. And in total he raised over 780 pounds British pounds sterling.
- [05:24]
B
That's a lot of money.
- [05:25]
A
That's a lot of money.
- [05:27]
C
It's good. Fun and good.
- [05:28]
B
Yeah.
- [05:28]
C
Good.
- [05:28]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we had a message from the person who won the bid, the Run Last Click netrunner bid Ed. But they sent it to a really weird place and I didn't see it until after the event. And they asked for advice on the decks but I didn't reply and I feel a little bad. But let's. He said some other nice things. So do you want to read out the message?
- [05:49]
B
Edie, Hello.
- [05:50]
C
I'm the foo that bid and won your ID pairing for the celebrity gift netrunner event this coming Saturday.
- [05:55]
B
Sorry.
- [05:56]
A
Sorry.
- [05:56]
B
In true and dedicated fashion, I've been working hard on my decks in order
- [05:59]
C
to do justice to the weighty Run Last Click brand. Something I'll be tempting to have my runner opponents do a lot of
- [06:05]
A
because they add argus and noise.
- [06:09]
B
As there is no real time for
- [06:10]
C
deck tweaking or practice of any sort, I thought an excellent time to send them to you for your amusement. Critique. Horror. I've won already, having donated to charity and secured a place at a day of netrunner in a pub where I can only play neh once. Awesome.
- [06:23]
B
That's a really good point, actually.
- [06:24]
C
Yeah.
- [06:24]
A
It's a reward in itself really. In a lot of ways.
- [06:26]
C
Fed up of being coated with other people's food.
- [06:30]
A
Yes. The ideal solution is some sort of charity event. Clearly. More.
- [06:34]
C
More of them.
- [06:35]
A
I say more of them. But yes. Congratulations on winning. Congratulations. Thank you for bidding. I should. I guess thank you is more the correct term. I actually matched the bid that he made as well. So you did double char. Well done you. There we are.
- [06:49]
C
Awesome.
- [06:49]
A
Yeah, yeah. Which is cool. And yes, I. Yeah, I saw your decks. You did quite well, I think. Like it was like top half definitely, wasn't it? Yeah. I think. I think that was on Twitter. I can't remember. But it was very exciting actually being on Twitter while the tournament was going on. Everyone's kind of getting into it. I think Lucas's deck came the highest and he was quite happy. Happy about that. I think it was Kate and Something else. Good. So, hey, you know, I think next year, Edie, if there is another one, I think we'll have to think of some sterling ID combinations maybe.
- [07:21]
C
So I pick Ian then.
- [07:23]
A
Oh, Ian. Oh, let's move on. So, yeah, I guess we're going to do A Christmas Story now, Eddie. Traditionally, or I think since Victorian times anyway, you normally have like a ghost or spooky story like on Christmas Eve. That's kind of a tradition around these parts, isn't it?
- [07:40]
C
Yep.
- [07:40]
A
So a very respected horror writer in England is Mr. James or Mr. James, as you've been saying, Edie. So I'm sure no one's made that joke. But, but, yeah, but most importantly of all, Edie, all his stories are out of copyright. So, hey, at least I hope so. It's about over a hundred years ago, so, yeah, hopefully no one will sue us. That'll be nice, won't it? And the story that I've chosen is called Lost Hearts.
- [08:07]
C
Very cool.
- [08:08]
A
Which should be quite fun. I get to do a lady's voice again, which, you know, is always fun. So, yeah, yeah, we'll get into that in a sec. Final, final thing, final bit of news, those of you waiting for the book club. Glass House by Charles Stross. Charles Stross. That will be after the outro music. So, yeah, if you've been looking forward to that, then we'll be getting into that and talking some, some mess about that book. Yeah. So, yeah, stick around for that if you're interested. But for everyone else, we will start by reading lost hearts by Mr. James.
- [08:39]
C
Mr. James.
- [08:41]
B
It was, as far as I can
- [08:42]
C
ascertain, in September of the year 1811 that Poe chaise dropped before the door of Aswarby hall in the heart of Lincolnshire. The little boy who was the only passenger in the chaise and who jumped out as soon as it had stopped, looked about him with the keenest curiosity. During the short interval that elapsed between the ringing of the bell and the opening of the hall door, he saw a tall, square red brick house built in the reign of Anne. A stone pillared porch had been added in the purer style of 1790. The windows of the house were many, tall and narrow, with small panes and thick white woodwork. A pediment pierced with a round window crowned the front. There were wings to the right and left connected by curious glazed galleries supported by colonnades with a central block. These wings plainly contained the stables and offices of the house. Each was surmounted by an ornamental cupola with a gilded vein. An evening Light shone on the building, making the window panes glow like so many fires. Away from the hall in front stretched a flat park studded with oaks and fringed with furze, which stood out against the sky. The clock in the church tower buried in trees on the edge of the park, Only its golden weathercock catching the light was striking six, and the sound came gently, beating down the wind. It was altogether a pleasant impression, though tinged with the sort of melancholy appropriate to an evening in early autumn that was conveyed to the mind of the boy who was standing in the porch waiting for the door to open to him. Poe Chaise had brought him from Warwickshire, where some six months before he had been left an orphan. Now, owing to the generous offer of his elderly cousin, Mr. Abney, he had come to live at Aswarby. The offer was unexpected because all who knew anything of Mr. Abney looked upon him as a somewhat austere recollect into his steady going household. The advent of a small boy would import a new and it seemed incongruous element. The truth is that very little was known of Mr. Abney's pursuits or temper. The professor of Greek at Cambridge had been heard to say that no one knew more of the religious beliefs of the later pagans than did the owner of Aswarby. Certainly his library contained all the then available books bearing on the mysteries, the Orphic poems, the worship of Mithras and the Neoplatonists. In the marble paved hall stood a fine group of Mithras slaying a bull, which had been imported from the Levant at great expense by the owner. He had contributed to a description of it to the Gentleman's magazine, and he had written a remarkable series of articles in the Critical Museum on the superstitions of the Romans of the Lower Empire. He was looked upon in fine as a man wrapped up in his books. As a matter of great surprise among his neighbors that he should ever have heard of his orphan cousin Stephen Elliot, much more that he should have volunteered to make him an inmate of Aswarby Hall. Whatever may have been expected by his neighbors, it was certain Mr. Abney, the tall, the thin, the austere, seemed inclined to give his young cousin a kindly reception. The moment the front doors opened, he darted out of his study, rubbing his hands with delight.
- [11:24]
A
How are you, my boy? How are you? How old are you?
- [11:27]
C
Said he.
- [11:28]
A
That is, you are not too much tired, I hope, by your journey to eat your supper?
- [11:34]
C
No, thank you, sir, said Master Elliot. I am pretty well. That's a good lad, said Mr. Abney.
- [11:40]
A
And how old are you, my boy?
- [11:42]
C
It seems a little odd. They should have asked the question twice in the first two minutes of their acquaintance. I'm 12 years old next birthday, sir, said Stephen.
- [11:49]
A
And when is your birthday, my dear boy? 11th of September. Eh? That's. Well, that's very well, nearly a year hence, isn't it? I like. I like to get these things down in my book. Sure it's 12.
- [12:04]
C
Certain? Yes, quite sure, sir.
- [12:06]
A
Well, well, take him to Mrs. Bunch's room, parks, and let him have his tea, supper, whatever it is.
- [12:12]
C
Yes, sir, answered the staid Mr. Parks, and conducted Stephen to the lower regions.
- [12:18]
B
Mrs.
- [12:18]
C
Bunch was the most comfortable and human person whom Stephen had as yet met at Aswarby. She made him completely at home. They were great friends in a quarter of an hour, and great friends they remained. Mrs. Bunch had been born in the neighborhood some 55 years before the date of Stephen's arrival, and her residence at the hall was of 20 years standing. Consequently, if anyone knew the ins and outs of the house in the district, Mrs. Bunch knew them, and she was by no means disinclined to communicate her information. Certainly there were plenty of things about the hall and the hall gardens which Stephen, who was an adventurous and inquiring turn, was anxious to have explained to him. Who built the temple at the end
- [12:52]
B
of the Laurel walk?
- [12:54]
C
Who was the old man whose picture hung on the staircase, sitting at a table with a skull under his hand? These and many other points were cleared up by the resources of Mrs. Bunch's powerful intellect. There were others, however, of which the explanations furnished were less satisfactory. One November evening, Stephen was sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room, reflecting on his surroundings. Is Mr. Abney a good man, and will he go to heaven? He suddenly asked with the peculiar confidence which children possess in the ability of their elders to settle these questions, the decision of which is believed to be reserved for other tribunals.
- [13:25]
A
Good bless the child, said Mrs.
- [13:27]
B
Bunch.
- [13:28]
A
Master's as kind a soul as ever, I see. Didn't I never tell you of the little boy as he took in out of the street, as you may say, seven years back, and the little girl two years after I first come here.
- [13:41]
B
No. Do tell me all about Mrs. Bunch. Right now, this minute. Well, said Mrs.
- [13:46]
A
Bunch, the little girl I don't seem to recollect so much about. I know Master brought her back with him from his walk one day as a poor child, had no one belonging to her. And here she lived with us a matter of three weeks, it might be, but One morning she's out of her bed afore any of us had opened an eye. And neither track nor yet trace of her I set eyes on, since master was wonderful put about and had all the pond strained. Dear, dear, an odd child she was. So silent in her way and all. But I was wonderful taken up with her. So domestic she was surprising.
- [14:26]
B
What about the little boy? Said Stephen.
- [14:28]
A
Ah, that poor boy, sighed Mrs.
- [14:31]
B
Bunch.
- [14:31]
A
He were a foreigner, Cheviny he called himself. And he comes a tweaking his eardy gurdy around and about the drive one winter's day, and master had him in that minute and asked all about where he come from and how old he was and how he made his way, and where was his relatives, and all as kind as heart could wish. But it went the same way with him. They're an unruly lot, them foreign nations, I suppose. And he was off one fine morning, just the same as the girl. Why he went and what he done was our question for as much as a year after. For he never took his urdy gurdy and there it lay on the shelf.
- [15:10]
B
The remainder of the evening was spent by Stephen in miscellaneous cross examination of Mrs. Bunch and in efforts to extract a tune from the hurdy gurdy. That night he had a curious dream. At the end of the passage at the top of the house in which his bedroom was situated, there was an old disused bathroom. It was kept locked, but the upper half of the door was glazed and since the muslin curtains which used to hang there had been long gone, you could look in and see the lead lined bath fixed the wall on the right side, its head towards the window. On the night of which I am speaking, Stephen Elliot found himself, as he thought, looking through the glazed door. The moon was shining through the window and he was gazing at a figure which lay in the bath. His description of what he saw reminds me of what I once beheld myself in the famous vaults of Saint Missions Church in Dublin, which possesses the horrid property of preserving corpses from decay for centuries. A figure, inexpressibly thin and pathetic, of a dusty leaden colour, enveloped in a shroud like garment. The thin lips crooked into a faint and dreadful smile. The hands pressed tightly over the region of the heart. As he looked upon it, a distant, almost inaudible moan began to issue from its lips and the arms began to stir. The terror of the sight forced even backwards. And he awoke to the fact that he was indeed standing on the cold boarded floor of the passage in the full light of the moon with A courage which I do not think to be common among boys of his age. He went to the door of the bathroom to ascertain if the figure of his dreams was really there. It was not, and he went back to bed. Mrs. Bunch was much impressed next morning by his story. I went so far as to replace the muslin curtain over the glazed door of the bathroom. Mr. Abney, moreover, to whom he confided his experiences at breakfast, was greatly interested and made notes of the matter in what he called his book. The Spring equinox was approaching, as Mr. Abney frequently reminded his cousin, adding, this had always been considered by the ancients to be a critical time for the young, that Stephen would do well to take care of himself, to shut his bed and window at night, and that Censorious had some valuable remarks on the subject. Two incidents that occurred about the time made an impression upon Stephen's mind. The first was after an unusually uneasy and depressed night that he had passed, though he could not recall any particular dream he had had. The following evening Mrs. Bunch was occupying herself in mending his nightgown.
- [17:22]
A
Gracious me, Master Stephen, she broke forth rather irritably, how do you manage to tear your nightdress all to flinders this way? Look here, sir, what trouble you do give a poor servant that have to darn and mend after you.
- [17:35]
B
There was indeed a most destructive and apparently wanton series of slits or scorings in the garment which would undoubtedly require a skillful needle to make good. They were confined to the left side of the chest. Long parallel slits, about 6 inches in length, some of them not quite piercing the texture of the linen. Steven can only express his entire ignorance of their origin. He was sure they were not there the night before. But he said, Mrs. Bunch, they're just the same as the scratches on the outside of my bedroom door. And I'm sure I've never had anything to do with making them. Mrs. Bunch gazed at him open mouthed, snatched up a candle, departed hastily from the room, and was heard making her way upstairs. In a few minutes she came down.
- [18:15]
A
Well, she said, Master Stephen, it's a funny thing to me how them marks and scratches can a come there too high for any cat or dog to have made em, much less a rat. I wouldn't say nothing to Master. Not if I were you, Master Stephen. And just turn the key of the door when you go to your bed.
- [18:35]
B
I always do, Mrs. Bunch, as soon as I've said my prayers.
- [18:38]
A
Ah, that's a good child. Always say your prayers and then no one can hurt you?
- [18:43]
B
Herewith, Mrs. Bunch addressed herself to mending the injured nightgown with intervals of meditation until bedtime. This was on a Friday night in March, 1812. On the following evening, the usual duet of Stephen and Mrs. Bunch was augmented by the sudden arrival of Mr. Parks, the butler, who as a rule, kept himself rather to himself in his own pantry. He did not see that Stephen was there. He was, moreover, flustered and less slow of speech than was his wont.
- [19:07]
A
Master may gut up his own wine
- [19:09]
B
if he likes of an evening, was his first remark.
- [19:12]
A
Either I do it in the daytime or not at all. Mrs. Bunch. I don't know what it may be very like. It's the rats or the wind got into the cellar. But I'm not so young as I was, and I can't go through with it as I have done. Well, Mr. Parkes, you know it's a surprising place for rats in the hall. I'm not denying that, Mrs.
- [19:33]
B
Bunch.
- [19:34]
A
And to be sure, many a time I've heard the tale from the men in the shipyards about the rats that could speak. I never laid no confidence in that before, but to night, if I deemed myself to lay my ear on the door of the further bin, I could pretty much have heard what they were saying. Oh, there, Mr. Parkes, I've no patience with your fancies. Rats talking in the wine Cellar, indeed. Well, Mrs. Bunch, I've no wish to argue with you. All I say is, if you choose to go to the far bin and lay your ear to the door, you may prove my word this minute. What nonsense you talk, Mr. Partts. Not fit for children to listen to. Why, you'll frighten master Stephen out of his wits. What Master Stephen?
- [20:15]
B
Said Parks, awaking to the consciousness of the boy's presence.
- [20:19]
A
Master Stephen knows well enough that I'm playing a joke with you, Mrs.
- [20:23]
B
Bunch. In fact, Master Stephen knew much too well to suppose Mr. Parkes had, in the first instance, intended a joke. He was interested not altogether pleasantly in the situation, but all his questions were unsuccessful, inducing the butler to give any more detailed account of experiences in the wine cellar. We have now arrived at March 24, 1812. It was a day of curious experiences for Stephen, a windy, noisy day which filled the house and the gardens with a restless impression. As Stephen stood by the fence of the grounds and looked out into the park, he felt as an endless procession of unseen people sweeping past him on the wind, borne resistlessly and aimlessly, vainly striving to stop themselves, to catch at something that might arrest their flight and bring them once again into contact with the living world of which they formed a part. After luncheon that day, Mr. Abney.
- [21:09]
A
Stephen, my boy, do you think that you could manage to come to me to night as late as 11 o' clock in my study? I shall be busy until that time and wish to show you something connected to your future life, which it is most important you should know. You are not to mention this matter to Mrs. Bunch nor anyone else in the house, and you had better go to your room at the usual time.
- [21:29]
B
Here was a new excitement added to life. Stephen eagerly grasped the opportunity of staying up until 11 o'. Clock. He looked at the library door on his way upstairs that evening and saw a brazier which he had often noticed in the corner of the room, moved out before the fire. An old silver gilt cup stood upon the table filled with red wine, and some written sheets of paper lay near it. Mr. Abney was sprinkling some incense on the brazier from a round silver box as Stephen passed, but did not seem to notice his step. The wind had fallen, and there was a still night and a full moon. At about 10 o', clock, Stephen was standing at the open window of his bedroom, looking out over the country. Still as the night was, the mysterious population of the distant moonlit woods was not yet lulled to rest. From time to time, strange cries as of lost and despairing wanderers sounded from across the mere. They might be the notes of owls or water birds, yet they did not quite resemble either sound. Were they not coming nearer now? They sounded from the nearer side of the water. In a few moments they seemed to be floating from among the shrubberies. Then they ceased. But just as Stephen was thinking of shutting the windows and resuming his reading of Robinson Crusoe, he caught sight of two figures standing on the gravel terrace that ran along the garden side of the hall. The figures of a boy and a girl. As it seemed, they stood side by side, looking up at the windows. Something in the form of the girl recalled irresistibly his dream of the figure in the bath. The boy inspired him with more acute fear. Whilst the girl stood still, half smiling, with her hands clasped over her heart. The boy, a thin shape with black hair and ragged clothing, raised his arms in the air with an appearance of menace and of unappeasable hunger and longing. The moonshone upon his almost transparent hands. And Stephen saw the nails were fearfully long and the light shone through them. As he stood with his arms thus raised, he disclosed a terrifying spectacle. On the left side of his chest there opened a black and gaping rent, and there fell upon Stephen's brain rather than upon his ear the impression of one of those hungry and desolate cries that he had heard resounding over the woods of Aswarby all that evening. In another moment, this dreadful pair had moved swiftly and noiselessly over the dry gravel. He saw them no more. Inexpressibly frightened as he was, he determined to take his candle and go to Mr. Abney's study. The hour appointed for their meeting was near at hand. The study or library opened out of the front hall on one side, and Stephen, urged on by his terrors, did not take long in getting there. To effect an entrance was not so easy. It was not locked, he felt sure. The key was on the outside of the door. As usual, his repeated knocks produced no answer. Mr. Abney was engaged. He was speaking. What? Why did he try to cry out? Why was the cry choked in his throat? Had he, too seen the mysterious children? Now everything was quiet, and the door yielded to Stephen's terrified and frantic pushing on the table. In Mr. Abney's study certain papers were found which explained the situation to Stephen Elliot when he was of an age to understand them. The most important sentences were, as it was, a belief very strongly and generally held by the ancients, of whose wisdom in these matters I have had such experience as induces me to place confidence in their assertions. That by enacting certain processes which to us moderns have something of a barbaric complexion, a very remarkable enlightenment of the spiritual facilities of man may be attained. That, for example, by absorbing the personalities of a certain number of his fellow creatures, an individual may gain a complete ascendancy over those orders of spiritual beings which control the elemental forces of our universe. It is reported of Simon Magus that he was able to fly in the air, to become invisible, or to assume any form he pleased by the agency of the soul of a boy whom, to use the libellous phrase employed by the author of the Clementine recognitions, he had murdered. I find it set down, moreover, with considerable detail in the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, that similar happy results may be produced by the absorption of the heart of not less than three human beings below the age of 21 years to the testing of the truth of this receipt. I have devoted the greater part of the last 20 years selecting as the corpora villier of the experiment Such persons could conveniently be removed without occasioning a sensible gap in society. The first step I effected was the Removal of one Phoebe Stanley, a girl of gypsy extraction, on March 24, 1792. The second, by the removal of a wandering Italian lad named Giovanni Paoli on the night of March 23, 1805. The final victim, to employ a word repugnant in the highest degree of my feelings, must be my cousin, Stephen Elliot. His day must be this, March 24, 1812. The best means of effecting the required absorption is to remove the heart from the living subject, to reduce it to ashes and to mingle them about a pint of some red wine, preferably port. The remains of the first two subjects at least it will be well to conceal a disused bathroom or wine cellar will be found convenient for such a purpose. Some annoyance may be experienced from the psychic portion of the subject, which popular language dignifies with the name of ghosts. The man of philosophic temperament, to whom alone the experiment is appropriate, will be little prone to attach importance to the feeble efforts of these beings to wreak their vengeance on him. I contemplate with a lively satisfaction the enlarged and emancipated existence which the experiment, if successful, will confer on me, not only placing me beyond the reach of human justice, so called, but eliminating to a great extent the prospect of death itself. Mr. Abney was found in his chair, his head thrown back, his face stamped with an expression of rage, fright and mortal pain. In his left side was a terrible lacerated wound, exposing the heart. There was no blood in his hands, and a long knife lay there on the table that was perfectly clean. A savage wildcat might have inflicted the injuries. The window of the study was open and it was the opinion of the coroner that Mr. Abney had met his death by the agency of some wild creature. But Stephen Elliot's study of the papers I've quoted led him to a very different conclusion.
- [27:13]
A
Happy Christmas, everyone.
- [27:14]
B
Happy Christmas. Bye bye. Hello, and welcome to the Run Last Clickbook Club with me, Edie. And there is no song for him, but his name is still Chris.
- [27:37]
A
Hello, my name is Chris. Hello. Hello, Edie, you've interrupted me.
- [27:42]
C
Bang on.
- [27:43]
B
Good work.
- [27:45]
A
I know you're not really meant to talk on a podcast until your name is said. That's kind of, you know, the etiquette of podcasting. So, you know.
- [27:53]
B
But the shoe is on the other foot.
- [27:55]
A
Exactly. Certainly is.
- [27:57]
B
Hypothetically, your two feet of the same point. We can't remember the third host, otherwise it just. Well, God, they'd be there anyway. Yeah, enough of that. We're here to talk about a book. It's called The Glass House. It's by Charles Dross. We asked you to read it, I'd say several months ago.
- [28:10]
A
Several months ago. It's entirely my fault. I'm very sorry, everyone. I'm. I'm a slow reader and then I forgot and then I remembered and then I read it slow and then I gave up and got the audiobook and then I listened to that. Ed even bought me a copy. Yeah, except you can't really buy it. I had to get it other places. You can't buy it in uk. It's really complicated. But I listened to it and yeah, yeah, I enjoyed it and it's good. And yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [28:33]
B
So what we're gonna do here is we've discussed the major themes and sort of some emails in we've had as well. But to begin with, gonna do a brief synopsis of the book. So if you haven't read it and you're intending to read it, like, skip the amount of time that Chris will insert in the edit here,
- [28:48]
A
give me extra work. I'm not doing that.
- [28:52]
B
You may hear some seconds. You made us here, like sometime. Just push the 30 seconds button in your podcast client until you hear me stop talking about vital plot points.
- [29:00]
A
Yeah.
- [29:03]
B
So this is a science fiction book. It is set in the far future. It is humans. There are just people. There are no aliens. At least mentioned. We are in the aftermath of a weird ass warrior. The person, main character, I would say a person called Robin.
- [29:17]
A
Yes.
- [29:18]
B
Has their memory wiped for some reason. This is a thing you can have done in the future. It's marvelous. If you want to forget about doing something terrible, have it excised. Bit busy. Don't think about yourself. You're doing. Bit stressed. Have it excised. It's good.
- [29:31]
A
Yeah.
- [29:32]
B
But when you come out in surgery, you're a bit screwed up and so in a slightly screwed up state, you get invited into a. Well, how would you describe it? A psych project.
- [29:39]
A
Yeah, yeah. A sort of experiment for people with memory loss, I guess, or who just come out of memory loss, who maybe don't have an identity, want to insert themselves into this new society.
- [29:49]
B
Are you looking for a new start?
- [29:51]
A
Exactly. Do you need. Don't wobble the microphone.
- [29:54]
B
Sorry.
- [29:56]
A
Yeah, yeah. So you go into this experiment which is the Dark Ages, isn't it? Which is sort of the 90s.
- [30:03]
B
Yep. And it's worth mentioning, very vital to the story. Just before going into this marvelous experiment, our Robin meets a new friend.
- [30:13]
A
Oh yes, yes, he does.
- [30:14]
B
Yes he does.
- [30:15]
A
New pal.
- [30:16]
B
New pal. By the name of Kay.
- [30:17]
A
Yes.
- [30:18]
B
Yes. So. And Kay is quite keen to go on this project as well. It's encouraged. Yes, yes.
- [30:23]
A
Yeah, yeah. She encourages him to go on it. Then she's probably going to go in it as well.
- [30:27]
B
Yep. And they end up in this project and it turns out to be a weird parallel of our world.
- [30:31]
A
Yes.
- [30:32]
B
Except that instead of there being these sort of.
- [30:34]
A
It's almost like it's an allegory for something. Edie, I.
- [30:37]
B
If you, if you're gonna do that, it's pretty, but it's like a big hammer of an allegory. But fine. Yeah, maybe it is.
- [30:43]
A
Yes.
- [30:45]
B
But instead of the rules being enforced by the sort of norms you're conditioned with as a child growing up and you sort of watch the people who are doing it, there are explicit, there's a score, there are achievements.
- [30:55]
A
I hadn't thought of it as achievements, but yes, there are Microsoft points that you get every. If you do the right things.
- [31:00]
B
Yep.
- [31:00]
A
But you can get negative point. You can't get negative achievement points. But you could.
- [31:04]
B
You can lose and have to buy like continues in some crappy free to play game. Yeah, don't play crappy games. But if you do, you'll understand. Yeah.
- [31:12]
A
And.
- [31:12]
B
But you're also in a team.
- [31:14]
A
Yes, yes. You're in a community and as we
- [31:16]
B
know from some team based multiplayer games, what happens when you fuck up?
- [31:20]
A
Everyone gets very annoyed and start shouting about why are you so shit, Chris? Normally happens. Yeah, well, to me anyway.
- [31:26]
B
And so, yeah, so we've got Robin. Robin doesn't do that well at the game, let's be honest.
- [31:31]
A
He. She. I don't know. It's hard in this situation because, you know, we meet Robin as a man and then the consciousness is transferred into a lady's body. So it's kind of. I guess we'll talk about she in the experiment.
- [31:48]
B
Yes.
- [31:48]
A
Yeah. What's her name? What's Robin's name?
- [31:53]
B
Oh, now you've lost me.
- [31:54]
A
It's something. It's Reeve. Yes. Yes. Reeve is a lady.
- [31:58]
B
Yes. So and Reeve is previously called Robin. It's when they go into the experiment, everyone is given a new gender or possibly even a new gender and sort of. And it's a new person as a new name.
- [32:08]
A
Well, there's a word for it. It's like not standard, a standard body. Ortho. Ortho. Human. Yeah.
- [32:15]
B
Yeah. So in, in this version of the future, if you want to genetically modifies yourself to make yourself a centaur, go ahead. It's not just like, funny colored hair you can have. You're gonna be a sensor. Be a centaur. Why not? You wanna have four bodies. Have full bodies.
- [32:27]
A
I quite like that.
- [32:28]
B
Gonna be a slug. Be a slug for four years. Why not slime around? Yeah, it's very liberal.
- [32:33]
A
It's kind of like with, you know, sexual preferences and stuff. You talk about someone being vanilla, wouldn't you? Yeah, it's like. Yeah, they're ortho, you know. You know, they're fine. It's normal. It's vanilla.
- [32:45]
B
Yeah.
- [32:47]
A
But. Yeah. So they're in the experiment. Then what happens?
- [32:49]
B
Well, you start. You start remembering the things you tried to forget. This is bad because turns out there was a war and more really bad things happened.
- [32:58]
A
Yes.
- [32:59]
B
Then it turns out you might also be remembering that you're a secret agent.
- [33:02]
A
Like your super secret agent doubles triple H. Yes. That you have a plan to bring down this facility from the inside and
- [33:08]
B
you start a bit of resistance movement.
- [33:09]
A
Yes.
- [33:10]
B
You.
- [33:11]
A
You build a crossbow. For some reason, that. That seems a good idea. Apparently, that's the thing.
- [33:16]
B
As a major. Yeah, we'll get onto that later. I think this is important.
- [33:20]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [33:21]
B
I think it's a very important part. Do we.
- [33:24]
A
Do we. I mean, we've got through most of it. Do you want to just knock out the ending?
- [33:27]
B
Oh, knock out the ending. So. Because we're in a far future where obviously we talked about people being translated around and moved around. So there. We'll get onto the. But you can. You can make a copy of yourself. This is a thing you can do. The main character essentially realizes they're about to be compromised by the. By the forces of evil and creates a copy themselves. So when they are compromised and have their memory edited, which is a highly unpleasant thing.
- [33:50]
A
Yeah.
- [33:50]
B
There's a version of them around to sort of still fuck shit up. And it's a version of them that they don't. The enemy doesn't know about because they don't think this is possible. So they have control of all of the person. Creators. Thing creators.
- [34:05]
A
Yes, The Replicators.
- [34:07]
B
Yep. And they have a big offshoot. You fight. Because that's important to have at the end of a book. Yep.
- [34:12]
A
Explosions and everything.
- [34:13]
B
Yep.
- [34:14]
A
And it's all fine, then?
- [34:15]
B
It's all fine. Yeah.
- [34:17]
A
I found the ending a bit abrupt, but maybe we'll talk about that at the end.
- [34:20]
B
Yeah, it really is. You're like, what? And it makes a bit more sense the second time through, I think, like. Yeah, like, there are hints of it. It shows the ending you work out the ending begins earlier on the second time around. This is the ending now.
- [34:32]
A
Oh, well, where. Where does the ending begin for you then?
- [34:36]
B
It's the. Well, it's the bit when Reeve sort of starts going slightly mad and then things sort of keep happening and no one seems that bothered.
- [34:44]
A
You might notice which bits that.
- [34:46]
B
So she. She gets taken into hospital for what turns out to be memories.
- [34:50]
A
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
- [34:51]
B
But her friends don't seem that bothered by it. If you. If you. Sam is deeply upset. Her, who is her partner in. And they have a very complicated relationship, but he's. He's her partner in this and he's very upset because essentially he feels he doesn't see her there anymore.
- [35:04]
A
Yes.
- [35:05]
B
But it's fact that the other people aren't quite as bothered. They sort of shop and go, oh, shit. But it's the fact is because they've been hanging out with the other version of before them. Yeah.
- [35:15]
A
Yes. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. So there are plans afoot. There are kind of wheels in motion at that point.
- [35:20]
B
For.
- [35:21]
A
For the end.
- [35:21]
B
Yeah.
- [35:22]
A
Okay.
- [35:22]
B
I think, I think it starts slightly reading it for the first time. It's like the same thing. It's just like, oh, wait, you saw going through it. You're like, there's 15 pages left. What the hell?
- [35:30]
A
That's exactly what I thought. I thought, how are they going to finish? Oh, and there's an epilogue, so.
- [35:35]
B
But we'll get onto some big bits.
- [35:37]
A
Well, yeah, all right. So that's the. That's the thing. So where do you want to start?
- [35:41]
B
Let's start with the crossbow. Okay.
- [35:43]
A
Yes.
- [35:44]
B
We may go slightly political here because it's a. It's Charles Frost. He's known to be a fairly lefty author and it's a fairly political book, I think.
- [35:50]
A
Is the crossbow a lefty?
- [35:52]
B
No, I think the this with the crossbow is that the reeve wants to start resistance. Right. She wants to start creating something, start fighting back.
- [36:00]
A
Yeah.
- [36:01]
B
And initially she starts by building a crossbow. And it turns out that the correct thing to do is go and speak to your friends and say, look, this is fucked up. We want to fix it.
- [36:08]
A
Yeah.
- [36:09]
B
And that is what actually it isn't. It's no person's individual actions that do anything. It is a group of people working together. It's the discovery of Janice, of her best friend. It's on there. As you said, she, like, she was on the verge of breaking. She would have been broke without her friends. They wouldn't have cloned her, essentially. And without. And Geode the Janice, essentially is the first agent sent in.
- [36:29]
A
Yes.
- [36:32]
B
And never quite worked out. And she's essentially given up. But then the arrival of another person, other people is what makes resistance. Not, not doing a thing on your own. It's very much a work together. I think that's for me.
- [36:42]
A
Okay.
- [36:42]
B
That is a theme I took away, like.
- [36:44]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [36:45]
B
That's why I think the crossbow is important, because it's useless. That's the whole point. It's completely fucking like spend ages working on it. It's mentioned, like.
- [36:51]
C
Yeah.
- [36:52]
B
But nothing, nothing comes of it. So it must be in there for. Yeah, we can also. Oh, you've written some nice notes here.
- [36:58]
A
I've written. I've written a few. Well, I, I kind of, you know, I was reading it on the. What's name on the YouTube and I kind of. As I was looking, listening to my audiobook, I jotted down a few, few of my thoughts. So which one do you want to start with?
- [37:11]
B
I think we should start with sort of the things that the universe makes possible. So things like the idea of the way you move around and who are you and what was the war about it to begin with?
- [37:21]
A
I mean, do you want to. Do you want to start kind of even broader than that, man? I mean, so what, what is a person, I guess is kind of like. That's the obvious question that this kind of brings up is like if you are. If you as a person are kind of copied perfectly.
- [37:37]
B
Yeah.
- [37:37]
A
And the original is destroyed, are you still that same person? I find if you, if you believe in the concept of a soul, which is quite popular concept. I mean, are there lots of souls being destroyed? Is that soul being transported across? Does that actually matter? Maybe that's a higher. That's an interesting thought for me because in physics as well, like, the only way that we could teleport a person or teleport a. An object. I mean, we're teleporting light at the moment through fancy quantum meme means. And how you do that is you make an exact copy via quantum entanglement, I think. You know, check your Wikipedia, kids. But I think that's how we're doing at the moment. Destroy the original and send, you know, transport the other one far and, well, a little bit in the distance we're doing at the moment. So it's like teleporting doesn't really work the same way that you think of it on Star Trek, you know, where you think, oh, well, I'll just move that thing here, you know, that, that's what happens. You make a copy, destroy the original, and then, you know, put the copy somewhere else.
- [38:48]
B
Yeah.
- [38:50]
A
And I think. I think that can get complicated and interesting when we think about how we think about ourselves and think about people, you know?
- [38:58]
B
Yeah, but I mean, and this, obviously, this takes it even further. Yes, but the possibility of. As the main character is always as Robin is before, in trying to forget, is that she was a tank, which is a military unit, and there were many, many, many copies.
- [39:12]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [39:13]
C
What.
- [39:13]
A
What does that mean when there's many copies of you wandering about and they reintegrate afterwards and explored slightly in the spire that Shagged Me. When Austin Powers comes back and has sex as a threesome with his lady friend. Not relevant. Really.
- [39:29]
B
It's Christmas. You may have your Austin Powers reference.
- [39:32]
A
Oh, thank you. Thank you. But, yeah. What does identity mean if there's more than one of you? If you are an exact copy, does it matter if there's an original before and after? If you're the exact copy, does that matter? Would that matter to you, Edie, if
- [39:48]
B
there was an original, I presume it would, but then it wouldn't because we'd be the same person. So it'd be fine. Yeah.
- [39:54]
A
Here's a more abstract question. All right, so you've got a. I'm stealing this from a philosophy radio show I was listening to. But, like. All right, so you borrowed a Monet from museum.
- [40:06]
B
You've got.
- [40:06]
A
At your house, you've got a machine that can copy a painting exactly. Put it through. The machine comes out. You've two. You muddle them up by accident. You want. You wanted to give back the original, but you muddle them up by mistake. Does it matter which one you give back to the museum?
- [40:22]
B
I mean, if they're exactly the same.
- [40:24]
A
Exactly the same.
- [40:25]
B
They're exactly the same.
- [40:26]
A
You don't think that matters.
- [40:26]
B
You carbon date them until they're exactly the same. Exactly the same.
- [40:29]
A
You can't tell them apart. They're exactly the same thing. Yeah.
- [40:32]
B
Yeah.
- [40:33]
A
So it doesn't matter to you that the original has that history that it's kind of lived through and been through?
- [40:39]
B
Well, no. It's an inanimate object.
- [40:42]
A
Yeah, yeah. Does it not matter to you that the artist never touched this copy?
- [40:48]
B
Well, no, because they're exactly the same. It's as if the artist had touched it.
- [40:51]
A
Yeah.
- [40:51]
B
Yeah.
- [40:52]
A
That's one answer. You know, I think a lot of people have a lot of different answers.
- [40:56]
B
Yeah.
- [40:57]
A
It's tricky. It's weird. It's weird. The way you think about these things, and I think it gets even more complicated when you talk about people and then when you have a copy, then that copy go off and have a completely different life experience, come back and then you meet again and, you know, maybe you're very different people. Maybe one had a harder life and you. That you've changed in. In very important ways.
- [41:17]
B
Yeah. Also these nice things, putting other points up.
- [41:20]
A
Yes.
- [41:21]
B
It also really changes the role of the state in some sort of your general existence. This is sort of. It's brought up directly in the book, but it's the, the idea that guarantee of identity is the major role of a state in the future. Yep. Which is if this is a situation. It's an interesting point. How do you know the person you're speaking to is who they say they are? If copies are possible? If someone, if anyone can go in. Anybody. How do you know the person you're talking to is.
- [41:42]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they talk about how identity theft.
- [41:47]
C
Yeah.
- [41:48]
A
Which is, you know, perfectly acceptable.
- [41:51]
B
You can kill a body. You can kill essentially, which almost like. It's almost like you're using an avatar. You're like, yep, I've lost one of those. But I've lost that. The memories from when I lost. Backed up an identity theft is the worst thing.
- [42:02]
A
Yes. Yeah. No, it's. It can get pretty nasty if you have a copy or can make unlimited copies of your enemy and do unpleasant, nasty things them. That's not. I don't know. That gets fucked up pretty quickly.
- [42:13]
B
Yeah.
- [42:13]
A
Is it, Is it though? I guess kind of going back to the question I was asking you before. Ad if you had your. Your worst enemy, you know, a copy of them, but you had like the original or if you had a backup of this person. Is that satisfying if the original is still wandering and walking about.
- [42:33]
B
Do you want to have a Hitler live Hitler punching bag just for when you're feeling a shit day. Just like open the room, there's just like, just Hitler sobbing in the corner. You just walk around, over and beat him again. I don't know. I just don't know.
- [42:44]
A
I don't know. But then that Hitler didn't, you know, cause a mass genocide. But then copies and. Yeah, it gets complicated, doesn't it? Yeah.
- [42:52]
B
We weren't talking about books. Wrong. Fuck.
- [42:54]
A
Well, it's on the Internet. We eventually had to start talking about Hitler, I suppose, because that's. That's important.
- [42:59]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [43:00]
A
Having discussion. Discussions in inverted commas on the Internet.
- [43:03]
B
Can't even think about that. Yeah.
- [43:07]
A
But yeah, it's. Yeah. What, what is self is sel. I guess this book is putting forward that the self and who you are are your memories.
- [43:16]
B
Yes, very much so. The fact that you have them edited and.
- [43:19]
A
Yes.
- [43:20]
B
And you can change yourself. Is it. Yeah.
- [43:22]
A
But this is the other thing. Like going to the thing with Reeve at the end where her mood was tweaked slightly so she felt more happy about compliance. Compliant. And felt more about fitting in. That kind of reminds me of, you know, when people are involved with cults. Yes. Like we're weird ass cults that make you, you know, shave your head and give away all your money and stuff. Those people we, we would see as being programmed to, you know, be compliant with this cult and do what they say. If they truly believe that this cult is the right thing for them and they're happy to give away the money. Is that a thing that we should be fighting, trying. Should we try and get to get them back to their families? Does the intent of the cult matter if they. They are happy?
- [44:13]
B
Because that's brought up repeatedly in the book.
- [44:15]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [44:16]
B
Because it's the idea. I think it does. I think it really like. And again, they're talking. Well, abstract term of which freedom is important to you. Yeah. Is the freedom of thought or freedom from violence. And that's a sort of a very stark choice that's placed to sort of characters in the book.
- [44:31]
A
Yeah.
- [44:32]
B
You can have freedom from violence, you can live a very peaceful, quiet life, but you will not have freedom of thought in that situation. Yeah.
- [44:40]
A
Because that needs to be regulated to keep society the way it is.
- [44:44]
B
Yeah.
- [44:45]
A
It's tricky, man. I don't think we're going to come up with any answer. I think we're just going to say a lot of things that are like, oh, it made me think about this. I don't really have a good answer, but it's an interesting thought experiment.
- [44:56]
B
I do have a solid point I'd like to make.
- [44:58]
A
Oh, go on.
- [44:58]
B
Yeah. Which is that the. It's a. It's one of the reasons. One of my favorite, because we did this, because it's one of my favorite books is that it starts with most bad sci fi books end.
- [45:08]
A
Yes.
- [45:09]
B
So you've got a character who was a tank. You're, you're. There was 15 parts of you and you're all pure fighting machine. You were not muscle, you were nano carbon and you had lasers and everything was cool. You defeated the enemies and now you've got post traumatic stress disorder and you've had your entire memories of the entire event excised. It's like that's most. Most space operables are going to be. I took the decision to split my consciousness into 15 different bodies.
- [45:32]
A
Yeah.
- [45:32]
B
And join the black ops.
- [45:34]
A
Yeah.
- [45:34]
B
My Cyconist laser rifle could fire 15,000 times a second with tiny hyper dots of laser data.
- [45:40]
A
I had a really cool sword. You know that sword the Cloud has In Final Fantasy 7, I had that sword. Only it was cooler because dragons on the side.
- [45:48]
B
Yeah, yeah. You get all the data. By the way, about half paragraph, you're like, yeah. Now we've got interesting.
- [45:53]
C
Yeah.
- [45:54]
B
Money and interesting stories to tell.
- [45:55]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And going back to the idea of memory being your identity. Like when they lose their identity, they get very angry. They're almost like teenagers. They don't have a direction. They don't know who they are. They're angry at their past self for doing this to them, putting them through this.
- [46:10]
B
And they're angry at the world because they don't understand the world or what. Yeah. Front is taken at the slightest turn and ends in horrible bloody violence.
- [46:18]
A
Yeah. They've got no reference. They. They have all these kind of preset things. You know, on a lower level, but on a kind of more lucid level, they. They don't know what's going on.
- [46:30]
B
Yeah.
- [46:31]
A
I'm not sure I'm using the right words there, but makes sense to me.
- [46:34]
B
Yeah.
- [46:35]
C
All right.
- [46:35]
B
Cool, cool, cool.
- [46:36]
A
That's. That's going back to Hitler quickly.
- [46:39]
B
Oh, wow.
- [46:39]
C
Okay.
- [46:40]
B
Yeah. Alright, let's roll right there. It's Christmas off rule.
- [46:44]
A
If. Well, all right, let's get. No, let's keep this more general.
- [46:47]
B
If.
- [46:47]
A
If someone has done a war crime.
- [46:50]
B
Yep.
- [46:50]
A
And they don't remember, do you still punish that person?
- [46:55]
B
Oh, that's a hard one. And if not remembering is part of their punishment, because if they remember, they do it again. Is that. That's.
- [47:01]
A
Because that's. Well, I mean. Well, let's bring that into a more modern.
- [47:05]
B
Or more. Yeah.
- [47:06]
A
More now say.
- [47:07]
B
Yeah.
- [47:07]
A
There's an old man, he's 90, he has Alzheimer's. He does not remember the horrible atrocities that he caused. Do you still punish him in that situation?
- [47:16]
B
Probably not, no.
- [47:18]
A
Why not?
- [47:18]
B
Why? Because you'd be punishing someone. They'd have. No, there'd be.
- [47:22]
C
No.
- [47:22]
B
The idea of punishment is essentially sort of to inflict remorse on people. To say, look, you should feel we're going to make you feel bad. Because you should feel bad and at some point you should be knowing, why should I feel Bad. And in that case, you've got. You're literally torturing someone saying. Saying what? Why are you talking? Why. Why are you punishing me? And you say, well, you should know.
- [47:42]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. Yeah. I guess some people talk about how it's cathartic for the victims or the family of the victims to see that person punished. But if they truly. But you know, they're not. This person is not faking that they don't remember and they're old and pathetic and. And just a vegetable. Yeah, maybe. Or, you know, one day, maybe that's not as cathartic or, you know, some. Some people really want that retribution and maybe that's deserved when. When there's been horrible things done to them. But. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm with you on the side of like. Yeah. If they don't remember. If they truly don't remember, then what's.
- [48:22]
B
What's the point?
- [48:23]
A
Yeah, it's interesting. There's a lot. There's a lot of. Yeah. Things that happen in this book. Man is good one to chat about.
- [48:30]
B
Yeah. Other weird thing. Well, other things I've. This is a massive jump now, but we're gonna go for a big jump.
- [48:37]
A
Yeah.
- [48:38]
B
One of the things I really enjoyed that I find it sort of made the world slightly easier to understand is sort of the use of network architecture to describe how society works. So the idea of space being designed as. So you can think of each polity, so sort of each country as a land network in terms of the gates and moving around and it being interconnected space and then you having a physical firewall, in this case being men with guns or ladies with guns or just things with guns. Because during this far future into a. The A gate, the wider network where you are. Where you can create and destroy things and things can come in from like a connected A gate is the idea that something is. Your personality is transmitted to that along with your body and then it's generated. Those are what are actually physically firewalled. So you then have an actual internal space which is your sort of safe network.
- [49:24]
A
Yeah.
- [49:26]
B
And then when they talk about the idea of the Curious Yellow virus. So the war is about censorship and no one remembers why the war has happened because. Yep. When they. When you were recreated, they deleted the memory of why the war happened from your memory. You know, you are against this, but you do not know why.
- [49:42]
A
Yeah.
- [49:42]
B
And that's a. That's one of the big things of the book. But that's much easier to sort of think about as sort of an infected packet gets sent or infected program gets sent from one network to another. And when someone opens that damned email with the file in it, that's what that person attachment, it's a person and that's when it gets loaded into the router that then starts spreading it around the internal network. It makes it for me at least more manageable. More manageable, yeah. And I quite like the idea of that we have this thing that works. Why wouldn't it work in this weird, extrapolated long term way in the future?
- [50:13]
A
Hmm. I'll talk actually I'll talk quickly about a thing that I quite like about it and slightly less heavy subject. I quite. I quite like the fish out water aspect when Reeve is in the. The experiment. You know, the experiment that is the 90s, basically. Yeah. I've quite a. I quite enjoyed the very clinical descriptions of things.
- [50:37]
B
Yes.
- [50:37]
A
I have. My favorite. My favorite one is about the garden they have in the house. And she describes it as apparently a vestigial agricultural installation maintained for aesthetic or traditional reasons. I just thought that was really good. That's very clever.
- [50:55]
B
That's where you wash the bike.
- [50:57]
A
Yes. Or maybe practical purposes, potentially.
- [51:00]
B
Bill Crossbow Garage.
- [51:02]
A
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
- [51:04]
B
I think I quite like this. I know someone's wearing it. It wasn't that happy about it. Yeah. But it's.
- [51:09]
A
I mean, you know, it can be a bit tedious after all. I think. I think it drops off quickly enough. Yeah.
- [51:17]
B
But there is a lot of sort of this is how we do things. Isn't it strange? Yeah. And sort of the realization of Reeve who go, well, why can't I go to work? Well, you're not assigned a job. You're not meant. You're meant to stay at home all day. What am I. What women to do? And is this. Yeah.
- [51:31]
C
The.
- [51:32]
B
Very much looking at our society from a more advanced, different, Very much different. Very much more liberal in terms of physical and social. Just looking at. Why do I have to do this? Why am I obliged to have sex with you according to the rules in this sheet? And if I don't, people get upset.
- [51:50]
A
I lost the gender lottery, I think is one of the lines or something like that. It's just so random. You've got. You toss a coin and you're assigned one of these. These gender groups.
- [51:58]
B
Yeah.
- [52:00]
A
Actually, yes. Speaking of gender, when. When Sam and Reeve are talking about, you know, the house stuff and you know, they. They're coming from. They're both coming from a very liberal society where, you know, everyone does whatever they want basically. And Kind of everyone's happy about it and you know, all that sort of stuff. But then, you know, Sam's reading the. Well, you know, women are kind of meant to do most of the cooking. I don't really like cooking. And it says it here.
- [52:24]
B
It's.
- [52:25]
A
It'll be easier for me. You know, it's. I can. I can see that being very easy to fall into or trying to enforce those gender stereotypes that. That benefit you.
- [52:37]
B
Yeah.
- [52:37]
A
In this situation. Because it's like, you know what, the next three years, if I don't have to do the cleaning. That'd be pretty sweet.
- [52:42]
B
I've never cleaned before. Yeah.
- [52:44]
A
And you know, society points, you know, so it's. If something makes your life easier, it's very easy to fall into that trap, I guess, is what I want to say.
- [52:56]
B
Yeah. It's also a point of the futility of work as well, which is quite.
- [53:00]
A
Yeah.
- [53:00]
B
Where they have. Everyone is assigned jobs, but no one really knows what they're doing or why I have to authorize all of these documents. What do you do I have to read them and make sure they're all fine. Why? I don't know.
- [53:10]
A
Don't really know.
- [53:11]
B
Yeah. And.
- [53:11]
A
Yeah. No, they don't really like their work, do they? Very much.
- [53:14]
B
No one does.
- [53:15]
A
No. No.
- [53:16]
B
Yeah. Well.
- [53:17]
A
Well, some people do.
- [53:18]
C
Some people do.
- [53:20]
A
I guess the next thing to talk about is like the experiment. And you kind of talked about it a bit earlier, Edie, where it's an obvious facsimile, isn't it? But the point system kind of enforces behavioral things.
- [53:36]
B
So the.
- [53:37]
A
The end result is the same, even if the impetus is slightly different.
- [53:41]
B
Puts the impetus. Well, we'll talk about it now. Yeah.
- [53:43]
A
Oh yeah, do it.
- [53:44]
B
So we'll talk a bit about the experiment here where sort of the actual what the experiment that is trying to be run inside this micro society that's being created is. And they've tried to create sort of a version of. It's meant to be 1950s, 90s, 90s society and very quickly processes through it. So with fashions and things changing very quickly. So we talked movies about the use of points to sort of force people's performance in society almost and then sort of that. But your small group like your. Your peers essentially sort of judging you,
- [54:14]
A
as it were, because with the ultimate goal being a monetary award.
- [54:17]
B
A monetary award at the end for the most points. The most points. But weirdly that starts to. As the poll as. As the story develops, it sort of. That's almost drifts out of the way the points become circumstantial. People start because people start having children, which is an interesting. Well, that's utterly terrifying. Let's talk about children in the book. Yeah, yeah. So in the, In. In the story Curious Yellow, this virus has been removed from society. Everything has been cleaned. It's. They're getting there. It has been difficult. Part of this is to do with identity. And if you can't identify someone, you don't enter into your network. You bounce them at the firewall. You are not infected. They try and make people have children in order to create new disease vectors. Vectors that are not identified. Yeah. And then because people become quite attached to the children they produce. This also locks the people into the society for a little bit longer. And then suddenly the rules become just a thing you did. And then it.
- [55:09]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would. I kind of did a thought experiment of those children. Probably wouldn't need the point system to enforce. They would learn by doing.
- [55:17]
B
Yeah, they'd learn from that.
- [55:18]
A
Yeah, we, we. And you know, I extrapolate that a bit further. Like, what if we. Edie, what if our parents had entered. Have entered an experiment and we don't know? I mean, how would we know?
- [55:27]
B
Scientists did a check, but probably not a simulation.
- [55:30]
A
Okay.
- [55:31]
B
They had. They found a blip. They're like, no, they're like, physics is broken here. Physics is broken here. It's probably a simulation. That's my favorite thing is we don't understand. This is definitely simulation.
- [55:39]
A
Yeah. There's a glitch in the Matrix. Yeah, but, yeah, no, another. Another pointless but sort of interesting thought experiment I had there. But, yeah, yeah. You were saying about the point cd.
- [55:49]
B
Yeah. So you receive points for following society's norms, as you'd expect. So for wearing the right clothes. One quite funny scene. REEF decides to move all of her clothing to see what happens.
- [55:59]
A
Yes.
- [56:00]
B
People are offended and she's like, but. But in our society, no one gave a shit. You could walk around like, you could. You could have eight penises, one attached to each of your eight limbs. You could.
- [56:12]
A
Could. Edward penis hands. You could be.
- [56:14]
B
Exactly. Edward's penis. Spider is who you'd be.
- [56:16]
A
You would be. Oh, dear. What a terrifying, terrifying thought.
- [56:20]
B
Gently jiggling in the wind. No one giving you a care in the world.
- [56:22]
A
What else do you have to say about the book, Edie?
- [56:27]
B
What else do I have to say about the book? Well, using the purpose behind these points is essentially to build a stable society or stable for the purpose of producing children and stable in the Purpose of there is no, there are some fairly unpleasant people in there. No resentment. No. It keeps people complacent. And the idea that the exact thing that's being used to do this is essentially the society that we live in. They say. It's almost saying, look, your society was set up to plus eight. You, you're given things to do, you're given a slightly shit job, you're told you must clean the thing, you must mow the lawn. These things must be done. It gets rid of the time for dissent. You must go to church and be shouted at for two hours every week.
- [57:02]
A
Oh yes, yes. We haven't even really talked about the church.
- [57:05]
B
Yeah.
- [57:07]
A
It's not, it's not very subtle, it's kind of damning of religion and the way preachers would encourage this.
- [57:18]
B
I mean if historically you looked back and went so wait, if we just get everyone together. I mean the idea that at the moment you don't, you don't. Lots of organisations do it. You put people together in a room and you tell them all the same stuff at the same time and you hope it sinks in.
- [57:32]
A
Yeah.
- [57:32]
B
There's not that much difference between school, assembly, church and a conference, to be honest.
- [57:36]
A
No, no, no. Well from, from that point of view.
- [57:38]
B
From that point of view. Yeah. No one's asked, no one's actually asked to believe in the, in the book. No, no, no, it's not, it's not to a deity. It's the idea that you are, it's to society more than anything else. It's your only be letting yourself down.
- [57:51]
A
Yeah.
- [57:51]
C
And.
- [57:52]
B
And the angry man at the front
- [57:53]
A
but very angry man.
- [57:54]
B
He's angry because you're letting yourself down.
- [57:56]
A
Ah, okay. Well for my own good that he's angry. I understand. But yes, society, society as a prison basically or society's rules as a constraint that, that stops you from doing things because you're too busy being.
- [58:10]
B
And thinking a bit too much and yeah. Making sure you've got more. Well also even tends into sort of the. Not even, not quite consumerism but into the one upmanship. The what the Johnson's up to.
- [58:19]
A
Yeah.
- [58:19]
B
The idea that you're now competing against other peer groups about who's got the. Who's got the most up to date fashion, who's got the most points, who's got the most kids, who's got the best kids. I mean that's, that's a lot of people's day to day lives is what my kid, grade eight piano. How old? Nine fingers. Doesn't use no, use his toes, fingers.
- [58:41]
A
So per se.
- [58:42]
B
Yeah, I think we've got to save those.
- [58:43]
A
Yes.
- [58:44]
B
He's gonna come up, he's become a carpenter. We've got to save his fingers for then. Yeah, I mean that's, that's essentially what
- [58:51]
A
this is good for it.
- [58:53]
B
But it keeps you busy, stops you worrying about the bad people in charge. And then obviously in this situation as well, if you worry a bit too much, you get a little bit of a lie down. Some drugs, they talk you through some stuff. Suddenly don't remember why you're upset anymore.
- [59:07]
A
No. You don't feel that upset anymore. No. Because people of society has taken a specific interest in you and feels the needs to mold you back into, into the fold potentially. Yeah, it's. Yeah, man. I don't know. It's prescribing a way of living is. Yeah. Is a complicated thing. Because I guess you're prescribing to not prescribe, aren't you? Yes, in a way. I kind of feel like you should certainly consider your place in society and see if you are happy with where you sit. You definitely want to, I guess you're saying, think about where you sit in society and if you're happy with, with doing the things that you would normally
- [59:49]
B
do and what do you think your society does for you and is it worthy continuing should you campaign to change it, to make it better?
- [59:54]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we can agree on that. Yeah.
- [59:58]
B
No, don't just burn it down. That's fine for short amount of time maybe, but don't just put it down. No, no, no, no.
- [60:05]
A
Yeah, cool.
- [60:07]
B
We also some letters. We'll say letters. They didn't actually come through the post.
- [60:10]
A
They're electronic letters.
- [60:12]
B
Email. That's what it's called.
- [60:13]
A
Yes, Electronic electronic mails.
- [60:16]
B
Unless you have anything else to say before we.
- [60:17]
A
No, no, no, man. I think we've covered all the things I've, I've kind of said my pseudo intellectual pieces.
- [60:23]
B
I enjoyed that.
- [60:23]
C
Yeah.
- [60:24]
B
You listen to philosophy and read philosophy and everything.
- [60:26]
A
I know. Well, I listened to a podcast about philosophy once a few years ago. So, you know, I'm basically a doctorate. Yeah. Yeah.
- [60:33]
B
Physics philosophy.
- [60:34]
C
You're done.
- [60:34]
A
Yeah, Physics. Philosophy is spelled pretty much the same.
- [60:37]
B
So, you know. So first of all, thank you to everyone who wrote in. It's much appreciated. It's. It's happy read the book and you had thoughts about it first we had Simon who I was really excited about your idea for a run Last Click book club. So grab myself a copy of the Glass House. And burnt through it. I really, really enjoyed it. I thought it was a really good idea for a story. And I like the setting and I like the writing. I'm a big fan of an unreliable narrator in fiction, and I really liked how the Glass House played with this idea. Sometimes Robin is being honest and telling the whole truth. Sometimes Robin is knowingly unreliable. And sometimes Robin is unknowingly unreliable. Sometimes it's up front that the audience is being misled. And sometimes the audience needs to work it out. I also found the underlying concept of the Glass House experiment very interesting. I was expecting the story to lead towards a situation where, because everyone was playing along with this, that this was the real late 20th century. Within a few generations, no one in the society would know it wasn't actually real. But I found the actual ending much more satisfying. I liked it was just a normal part of life, that the concept of yourself was completely separate from your current physical form. Sure, you might currently be a man or a woman or a forearm thing. None of that changed who you were. And there were no judgment. Oh, and that there was no judgment about who you were or what form you took or what your sexuality was at that particular time. It just seemed that it was such a natural way for society to evolve once they had access to these technologies. I'm really looking forward to hearing your discussion about the novel and other people's thoughts. And I'm definitely keen for the next book. You pick.
- [61:59]
A
Hey, cool.
- [62:00]
B
Yeah, cool. I really like that. It's a. I think the thing about Robin in particular, we touched on most of the other things in there, but I mean, again, talking about the fact that society is very liberal in the future is a bit of hope.
- [62:12]
A
Yes, yes. Again, certainly us lefties, anyway.
- [62:15]
B
Well, yeah, no, no judgment on who you are.
- [62:17]
A
No, no, no.
- [62:18]
B
Yeah. But I think the Unreliable Narrator is quite interesting. He picks that up as. As you go through the book, Robin becomes, well, to begin with, very wobbly and then more and more. Then sort of fairly stable and then more and more unreliable and then gets full on gaslit by. By the authorities, essentially is told, you're not a secret agent, you are going insane. This is a delusion. And that's quite.
- [62:45]
A
Yeah, no, it's interesting that that bit where. Where after she has had the. The change in her mind and you're kind of reading it and reading it and it. Oh, that's a. That's a bit odd. And reading, reading. Oh, that's. Oh. Oh, I get. I felt that was quite a nice switch. I kind of fell into that quite nicely.
- [63:03]
B
Yeah.
- [63:03]
A
I don't know, maybe some people clever than me would have gone, oh, I know what's happening. Oh, that's obvious. But I don't know, I liked it.
- [63:11]
B
It's always the same voice, just the tone changes slightly as you're going through. Yeah. Yeah.
- [63:15]
A
I actually Simon mentions the thing about, you know, sexuality. Who cares? It's kind of very fluid. Sexual sexuality is very fluid in the book. Which. Which is nice. And I think that's probably what people are maybe going to accept a bit more moving forward in our society is that, you know, labels like gay, straight and whatever are kind of binary terms and maybe it needs to be a bit more, you know, fluid and you can change preferences one or another and it shouldn't matter.
- [63:45]
B
Yeah.
- [63:46]
A
Like, you know, Robin talks about I prefer having sex with ladies. I'll have a sex with a man, you know. But you know, of that mate. Depends what day I'm on you.
- [63:55]
B
I like a pint glass of reds. Nice now and then. Exactly.
- [63:57]
A
There you go. So. And fitting people into those categories can. Can be detrimental when. When you know.
- [64:05]
B
Wow. Yeah.
- [64:06]
A
I'm no expert on this, so I don't want to speak too. Too much on it, but. But I thought that was nice.
- [64:11]
B
Yes. Next up we have Tom. Great name. Highly recommend it.
- [64:15]
A
Five stars.
- [64:16]
B
Yeah. Really got into the book and polished it off in the early hours of Sunday morning. The society at the start of the book remind me a little of Iain Banks culture novels which are probably my favourite sci fi series of late. The slow drip of background information through the book was neatly done the first time it mentions the censorship war piques one's interest to learn more about it. Except then you do and you sort of wish you hadn't as the concept of Curious Yellow virus is pretty horrendous. I'm a bit of a control freak and the idea of stepping into your ordinary everyday means of transport and coming out a completely different person but totally unaware of that made my skin crawl. I did feel the end was a little rushed and the A gate provides an almost literal deus ex machina, but it wasn't unsatisfying. Overall, a great read. Can I suggest Altered Carbon for the next book club? That's a really grand bit of cyber noir there is.
- [64:58]
A
It's a lot. We had a quick chat about this. Didn't we already alter Carbon is similar concepts. I'm not sure what we would talk about new and that. And also it can be a bit of a tough read for some People.
- [65:08]
B
There are bits of it I'll tell is upsetting for most people.
- [65:11]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [65:12]
B
But they are. They are really good books because the whole series, the whole Takeshi Hobart series are really good if you've got big books as well. Part of the reason we picked the Glass House was because it's shorter.
- [65:23]
A
It's more Chris, but it's not.
- [65:24]
B
It's all sub 300 pages. Yeah.
- [65:26]
A
No, if you enjoyed Glasshouse and you haven't read Alter Carbon, I would definitely recommend giving it a go.
- [65:33]
B
Yep.
- [65:34]
A
Seeing what you think. Yeah.
- [65:35]
B
His fantasy books were excellent as well, actually.
- [65:37]
A
Which ones they call.
- [65:38]
B
Oh, now you're asking me. It's the same author as Alter Carbon. He wrote a trilogy of fantasy books in a similar vein.
- [65:45]
A
But are they so far in the future that they're in the past?
- [65:47]
B
Is that of there are aliens in the aliens as well? It's. It's aliens, medieval fantasy and magic and yeah, still horrendous violence. Yeah.
- [65:57]
A
But yeah, no, I've enjoyed doing the book club. I'd like to do another one, but we will. Well, I will plan it a bit better. I will finish reading the book before we announce it. That's the new plan to not, you know, be a tease about it for so long. Very sorry again.
- [66:12]
B
Yeah, it was touching on top said about the. The Ian Banks culture doubles. Yes. It's a fairly similar sort of. In terms of the. Sort of the liberal society. One of the things, if you do want to work out how they got there. Accelerando is about the comic before we've mentioned it briefly. It's also quite good. Has the best cat.
- [66:26]
A
Oh, yes, you tell me about this cat.
- [66:28]
B
Also read all the culture books first, though, because they're really good.
- [66:31]
A
Start with.
- [66:32]
B
Oh, any of them. But consider Flebes is the first one and it's a good place. Good as place to begin as any.
- [66:37]
A
Okay, cool. Do you want to read out what Eric said then, Amy?
- [66:40]
B
I'll go. Eric next to Sebastian next to.
- [66:42]
A
Oh, sorry, I've scrolled far too far too down. All right, Sebastian then.
- [66:45]
B
Next up we have Sebastian who says while I didn't love Glass House, there were some parts to hint at an interesting idea and I'm eager to hear your thoughts on why you chose this book to talk about some thoughts and questions in case you'd like to mention them. Did you like the use of multiplies of seconds to the note time? I found it off putting unnecessary. While I love the metric system and this is basically an extension of that Sort of logic to me. I found the use of gigaseconds and all that just confusing.
- [67:07]
A
I love, love the metric system. I really like the metric system. As a friend, I'm not sure I love the metric system, but. No, no, I entirely agree. I found it kind of confusing. Although it was interesting to see Robin trend, you know, start out by using gigs and megs and stuff and slowly transition into like time that I understood and that kind of showed a bit
- [67:26]
B
more of a
- [67:28]
A
acclimatizing to the time. I found that be interesting. But yes, it was confusing.
- [67:34]
B
Yes. I thought the order. I thought the author was trying a bit too hard to make it clear that he was taking aim at our modern world. Yeah, we get it. You think the people of the 20th, 21st centuries are being stupid with religion and social mores. No need to beat the reader over the head with it every 20 pages.
- [67:51]
A
Yeah, yeah. No, no, I can see that being annoying. It wasn't annoying for me. But yeah.
- [67:56]
B
Lays it on a little bit at the beginning.
- [67:58]
A
It lays it on quite thick.
- [67:59]
B
Yeah. And I just trying to make a point and he might have to crack a nut a little bit. He could have been a little bit gentler there.
- [68:06]
A
Mm.
- [68:08]
B
I think it's so necessary just to sort of cram in this sort of. Also, if you're writing something, this is almost a polemic. You're almost saying like this is kind of the. If you're looking all science fiction written looks at when it was written. Essentially. That's almost always the way of it. Like 1960s Star Trek is so stolen. So 60s.
- [68:25]
A
Yes.
- [68:26]
B
Recognize book that. Well, not bad. But you can recognize books by the decade they're written in generally quite easily. So you say this is very much Turner's turn of the millennium.
- [68:36]
A
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a style. And to properly appreciate a much older book, I think you need to know a rough history. Like roughly what's going on, what in the country that was being written in.
- [68:48]
B
Yes.
- [68:49]
A
Or kind of like the major events. Otherwise it won't have the same impact or won't make as much sense. Like why. Why are they always on about the Russians? Why are they so scared about the Russians? Why is that massive.
- [69:00]
B
Just all of. All of the forever war in Vietnam. You're just like, okay, makes perfect.
- [69:04]
A
Yeah.
- [69:04]
B
It doesn't make sense. One without the other or many. Oh yeah. The word for world is forest as well. Very much about a certain thing. I don't know. I. Charles, he does like to hit the world occasionally with sticks because angry And I think, like, a science fiction novel is quite a good way of doing that. And drawing attention to specific things is, I think is quite, like, quite illuminating. Most science fiction readers are men. I mean, that's a general statement. But I'd say that if you look at who bought science fiction novels, it's gonna be mostly men. And having a book explicitly written from a female perspective by someone who was a man going, why do I have to do all this bullshit? Yeah, it's quite illuminating. It's quite a useful stick. Oh, wait, that is. That must be really frustrating to have to do every single day. And having that so much made around you. Must be quite frustrating every single day.
- [69:52]
A
Yeah. Why do I have to wear these fucking heels again?
- [69:55]
B
That's annoying. Once for two hours. Yeah. And it seemed like a good idea at the time. And then my feet hurt. I took them off and I was like. That was okay.
- [70:04]
A
Yes.
- [70:05]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. That wouldn't have to wear them all the time. I'll be horrible. Yeah.
- [70:10]
A
I guess let's agree that it's a. It's a tricky type rope to walk sometimes, whether how. How hard to hit the nuts and how large the hammer and stuff. And some people will find it more appealing than others. I feel all Sebastian's points are valid. I don't agree with all them completely, but I think they're all valid complaints.
- [70:35]
B
We'll start with the next one. I felt that the book ended without any real resolution or excitement. I don't know what I would have done to finish up the tale, but I feel like the author was more interested in spending time making fun of society rather than coming up with a coherent plot. And yeah, the ending is a little bit rushed. And like I say, there are point, like the idea of like, oh, shit, we can clone ourselves and like there is this magical future button that lets us rescue ourselves from the terrible far past. Is a little bit. You use the tools of the terrible past to rescue yourself as well. But the big thing you use is the fact that, yeah, I can copy myself and that's kind of handy. Is a little bit of a. Oh, shit. Only to win this book relatively soon. A lot of my favorite books in this way. I don't know why.
- [71:14]
A
Well, you enjoy. You enjoy the journey rather than the end. Maybe more. Edie.
- [71:18]
B
I think it could have done with. I say it does start a little bit earlier, but it could be a little bit more fleshed out, I think. Yeah.
- [71:24]
A
Yeah.
- [71:24]
B
It's the only thing I think really does because the Concept. I know, I know. Having a machine that can make anything is, is a useful tool.
- [71:32]
A
Yeah.
- [71:32]
B
But it could have done with a little bit more.
- [71:35]
A
Well, I mean, that's why they had the teleporters in Star Trek broadly is because they didn't want to have to film a ship flying down to the planet.
- [71:44]
B
Yeah.
- [71:44]
A
Because that was expensive. So, you know, let's just, let's get on with the story. They're on, they're on the planet, they're on the ship, they're on the planet. Let's just get on with it. So yeah, just having a magic box that goes, continue the story. Here you go. You know, maybe there's more elegant solution, but you know, I'll take what I can get.
- [72:02]
B
The epilogue in particular is very rushed. It literally is. Everyone lived happily ever after.
- [72:08]
A
Yes, yes, it is. Oh, but I think he ends on
- [72:12]
B
a, he does on a happy note.
- [72:13]
A
A nice note.
- [72:14]
B
Yeah. He says, thanks for doing the podcast and hopefully the book club will continue. Oh no, hold on. That's the wrong person. He says, oh shit. It doesn't. On a happy note though, he says, I'm still glad to have read it. I think it's a cool idea for a netrunner podcast. Look at other sci Fi stuff. So thanks. Yes.
- [72:28]
A
Cool, Cool. Well now, glad you enjoyed the book. Well, mostly yes.
- [72:32]
B
And it does have, I think you definitely some valid points in there.
- [72:36]
A
Oh yeah, no, no, no saying my opinions. But yours and mine are just as valid as anyone else's. So. Yeah.
- [72:45]
B
What I thought of 1.2 multiplier on my opinions. Oh yes.
- [72:51]
A
You picked up that new breastplate today, didn't you?
- [72:53]
B
Yeah, damn straight. 1.22 opinions. It's great. Yeah.
- [72:57]
A
No, no, no, no. I guess, I guess I want to say that because, you know, we're, we're. It's a one is one sided argument because you're not here. But I, I encourage people, if we do do this again, I hope we do it again to send in, you know, whatever your opinions are because it's more interesting having a discussion with lots of different opinions.
- [73:17]
B
Yeah. Anyway, we've got one last email from Eric. He says while I read Glass House and really liked it, I don't really have any particularly regional ideas about it. Instead I offer a picture of myself reading to my then month old daughter. She's super cute.
- [73:30]
A
It's very cute, baby.
- [73:31]
B
I eventually had to stop reading it to her and finish it on my own because the book was slightly too advanced. But maybe we'll try it again. When she's older. Thanks for the podcast. And hopefully book club will continue.
- [73:39]
A
That's right.
- [73:40]
B
That is lovely. Yeah, she's fine. Crux of it's not that complicated. Your personality is a transferable bit of data.
- [73:49]
A
Yeah.
- [73:50]
B
And essentially the whole world is essentially a little land network. And then there's the Internet out there and you just move yourself around on it, but as a thing. But you need to be really careful. You're not. Oh, shh. No, no, it's not that.
- [73:59]
A
All right.
- [74:00]
B
Year three be fine. Year three, yeah.
- [74:03]
A
There is a lot of sexy times in the book, Edie, though.
- [74:06]
B
Oh, I forgot about that.
- [74:07]
A
Yeah, a lot of sexy times.
- [74:08]
B
And there's the horrible mistake when everything goes horribly wrong. Don't. Don't cut everyone's heads off. And then it's. Well, it's the equivalent of losing a hard drive, isn't it? It's good of losing a day's work on a hard drive. Except your day's work was the life of 10,000 people.
- [74:19]
C
And that was sad.
- [74:21]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway. Oh, you have a one night at the end Laundry novels.
- [74:25]
B
Oh, I do, yeah. If. If you did enjoy particularly. This is sound really terrible. If you did enjoy the ending sort of running around a bit rather than set up bit. The Laundry novels by Charles Stross are really good fun. They are. Imagine if there were demons and like they were a thing and the way you discovered them was with too much maths. If you were too good at maths and did the wrong maths. And then demons came. Oh. So then computer programmers, mathematicians get recruited to the British agency of demons and they have to fight massive bureaucracy in order to fight demons.
- [74:54]
A
Yes.
- [74:54]
B
It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer but in a government department. It's quite. It's very entertaining as is. As you said, accelerando the book with a very good cat.
- [75:02]
A
Yes. Oh, dear. Well, there we go, Edie.
- [75:06]
B
Technological obstacles overcome.
- [75:09]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah. No, if this sounds a bit funny, sorry. But the. The sound recording equipment went a bit squiff.
- [75:15]
B
Yeah. We don't know what happened. Christmas. That's what happened.
- [75:18]
A
It got too much tinsel in the front room.
- [75:20]
B
It had its Christmas party last night. It thought it could power through, but now with all the other mixes was it got hit on by some technics. It got a bit. And then too many whiskeys and. Yeah. Not really up to the day after. Right. Do we say goodbye a second time now then?
- [75:35]
A
I think we should say goodbye a second time.
- [75:36]
B
Okay. Goodbye listener and a very merry Christmas to you.
- [75:39]
A
Goodbye a second time and Merry Christmas again. Goodbye.
- [75:42]
B
Goodbye.