I really enjoyed the reading, even though I cried. Whatever weaknesses the story itself had, the reading smoothed over for me.

I thought “Wisteria” dug into the crevices of grief, an experience which can be very, very surreal.

Those who know me or my podcast (yes, it’s in hiatus again) know that I am a pretty hardcore scifi & fantasy junkie. However, I did not mind the non-traditional branch of fantasy presented in Ada Milenkovic Brown’s story and rather quite enjoyed playing at the edge of the genre with a different form. Thank you to PodCastle for asking me to perform the reading and once again to the listeners for your kind review of my work!

I would agree “Wisteria” is not typical fantasy, in the elf/dragon/sword/wizard sense. I suppose the technical category would be Magic Realism, but I have another suggestion:

Stories like “Wisteria” (and perhaps “Magic in a Certain Slant of Light,” and “Magnificent Pigs”) could be called “Gentle Fantasy.” I suppose “Soft Fantasy” might be another term (as opposed to “Hard”), but that veers too close to porn.

Gentle Fantasy is to my mind a legitimate sub-genre, and it might even be worth labeling such stories appropriately, so that people who only show up to hear something slayed can avoid the horrific indignation of merely a well-told tale.

-Jan

The reading! Man, the reading was fantastic! Good voice, good expression, excellent pacing and just wonderful sound quality. Nicely done.

This is a more subtle fantasy story, removed from the more European motifs and ostentatious elements that inhabit many other stories in this genre. This story would fit in well in the Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, which also frequently relies on lowkey plot drivers and more inconspicuous magic, and which I also enjoy.

Some of the best sci-fi isn’t all ray-guns and space monsters. Likewise, good fantasy can be devoid of the obvious elements.

Wisteria alone = OK if you don’t have any puzzles to do.
Wisteria read by Máia Whitaker = engaging fantasy about a very “real” character.

…well, there was no story. In its place was maudlin sentimentality, meandering toward no obvious point. It was a big disappointment to me.

Also, P.G. Wodehouse’s name is pronounced “wood” house.

The problem is this story seemed so real to me. It did not seem like fantasy at all. Many widows dream and have visions of their husbands. This did not seem to be that much of a fantasy to me. It felt a lot like visiting my Grandmother.

I will say now, though, that I hope Podcastle doesn’t turn into the repository for all the sappy stories that would have otherwise gone on EP or PP… or worse, not made the cut.

Fantasy is not a wussy genre, gosh darnit!

This story is eerily similiar to my own familys’ story. We each experience seeing our father is strange places. An old man at the store reaching for a can of corned beef hash, was that him? A voice in the crowd, is that his laugh? A cough in other room, I swear that was him. We each have fantasies that we hear him, see him, see traces of his presence. We all want one moment to say we are sorry that we weren’t there. My mother left his side for one hour to get fresh clothes. She has never forgiven herself. We tell ourselves that he was a tough old cowboy and chose to go when we weren’t there so that we didn’t have to see the struggle to save his life, so we didn’t see him in such a weak state, but the reality is that the timing just sucked, his body failed, his lungs failed and he died.

The fantasy is nicer, I will hold on to the fantasy.

That being said, I felt that the story plot line fell a little flat. It had a good base but failed to get off the launching pad.

As this was a podcastle story, I kept expecting garden fairies to come out and carry her away, the husband to have been some sort of lost extra-dimensional prince living a quiet life, or a doorway to the other realms to open through the green man’s face in the wisteria, or that she stumble upon some other fantastic secret. What we got was a storyline better suited for the Lifetime movie of the week.

The Gardner’s wife can be a pretty powerful character, traditionally used as a catalyst for sudden revelations through some innocent action (think of the turkish fairy tale “the magic hair pins” where it is the gardener’s wife who find the rose-bird-maiden). Instead the plot is dull, never seems to go anywhere and is only unpredictable because I was expecting something more to happen.

The biggest thing is, I wouldn’t consider this fantasy at all. Garner had no real presence, and could more easily be the imaginings of a grief-stricken woman as a manifestation of something else.

The idea of losing a loved one terrifies me, as I’m sure it does everyone, and it’s a ripe world for exploration. This story instead chooses to sit inside and look out the window instead of delving into it. We get told repeatedly how she aches for her lost husband, but we never really feel it.

This is easily the weakest story to appear on podcastle to date, in my opinion. It belongs more in Reader’s Digest than a site like this.

Dad was a gardener. He loved to work with the soil. The products of his labor of love gave him joy. Now mom works his garden for him. She does it to keep his memory alive. She’s convinced that he’s there with her. She misses him.

Sound familiar? When I listened to Wisteria this morning with my 13 year old son, I shed tears for my mother and father. Thank you for sharing this story. It was a blessing.