Serial Podcast - spoilers ahoy

One of the things I read about S-Town compared Serial to a TV show and S-Town to a Southern Gothic novel. I think it's an apt comparison. Also, I want to read some Faulkner, now.

It's definitely a completely different beast. That comparison works well.

Edit: I would add "somehow non-fiction" to the Southern Gothic Novel.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

It's definitely a completely different beast. That comparison works well.

Edit: I would add "somehow non-fiction" to the Southern Gothic Novel.

It took almost the first episode for me to realize that it was real and not a radio drama.

I'm 25 minutes from the end of the last episode. This is easily one of the best podcasts I have ever heard and

(seriously don't read this unless you've finished it)

Spoiler:

I cannot imagine a better obituary.

oilypenguin wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

It's definitely a completely different beast. That comparison works well.

Edit: I would add "somehow non-fiction" to the Southern Gothic Novel.

It took almost the first episode for me to realize that it was real and not a radio drama.

I'm 25 minutes from the end of the last episode. This is easily one of the best podcasts I have ever heard and

(seriously don't read this unless you've finished it)

Spoiler:

I cannot imagine a better obituary.

Finished. I don't know if I've ever experienced a book, movie, or whatever with that much humanity crammed into a single character. Actually, I do remember feeling this same way back when I read Les Misérables when I was a teenager. This podcast and story is something that's almost too good to believe. If I was informed it was all an elaborate hoax and a work of fiction, my world would be turned upside down and I would feel more betrayal than I could possibly imagine.

Spoiler:

Yeah, I think John B is easily one of the most interesting persons I have ever heard of. There's that age old question of "If you could meet any person in history, who would it be?" My answer now is John B.

I think that's a pretty valid answer, TB.

Spoiler:

What I liked about the series was that yes, it's a great story about a fascinating individual, and yes, it appears to be Brian Reed's elegy for his friend.

And there was a TON of things to take away from it, I don't want to pick the experience apart yet so I'm not going to go into it.

But what's stuck with me is that, I think, with the right amount of investigation, maybe we all can tell that much story? John B was certainly a fascinating individual but maybe I'm not looking hard enough at people? Maybe I'm too quick to judge?

I dunno. This series is going to stick with me a while.

oilypenguin wrote:

I think that's a pretty valid answer, TB.

Spoiler:

What I liked about the series was that yes, it's a great story about a fascinating individual, and yes, it appears to be Brian Reed's elegy for his friend.

And there was a TON of things to take away from it, I don't want to pick the experience apart yet so I'm not going to go into it.

But what's stuck with me is that, I think, with the right amount of investigation, maybe we all can tell that much story? John B was certainly a fascinating individual but maybe I'm not looking hard enough at people? Maybe I'm too quick to judge?

I dunno. This series is going to stick with me a while.

Spoiler:

Yeah, that's at the heart of this story and John B. Each human is so complex. I'd hope that if you look at any person hard enough, you'd be able to figure out the why's behind the problems and bad thing about them. The extra icing on the cake with this story is Tyler's story.

On the other hand, that's completely not true. John B was, for all intensive purposes a genius who struggled with how broken the world is, and maybe not every human is complex or valuable.

There's so much complexity in this story. I kind of start to really feel the full weight of "tragedy" even though it was explained to me in terms of Shakespeare plays years ago.

for all intensive purposes

Really?

=)

A year or so ago, I bought a pristine, restored pocketwatch for pennies which turned out to be from a watch collector who died in the UK. His son was selling it off. I completely get the obsession with clocks and have a couple (One stopped working). I've contemplated getting into collecting/restoration but know it's a huge rabbit hole.

I half wonder if the person who restored this pocket watch knew who John B was.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/W3fLtIa.jpg)

It's amazing how just listening to this thing tick makes me relate to the story.

I just finished this tonight after shotgunning it for the week. What an amazing story. I'm still digesting it but Tuffalo and Oily wrote in their spoilers totally resonates with me. I expected very little from this podcast, but what a tremendous achievement!

I am seriously considering re-starting it as soon as tomorrow.

S-Town is simply one of the greatest bits of media I have ever consumed and I highly recommend it.

oilypenguin wrote:

I am seriously considering re-starting it as soon as tomorrow.

S-Town is simply one of the greatest bits of media I have ever consumed and I highly recommend it.

Yeah, I've already listened to the beginning again and mailed an MP3 CD to my brother today because I know he will love it, and I really want to talk to him about it (He doesn't have internet at home but can listen to it on his commute). He also lives in an upscale version of that town currently.

Every time I see posts in this thread makes me cry again.

I have been evangelizing the show to everyone I know. A co-worker said that she was going to stop listening after the second episode because she thought it was becoming exploitive of the South, but I encouraged her to keep going as the story shifts in scope and I felt that the show was fair in its portrayal of the South.

For those who are curious, you can find the complete Google maps coordinates as well as pictures in the serial thread on Reddit.