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Titanic!

by Lavie Tidhar

10 April 1912

When I come on board the ship I pay little heed to her splendour; nor to the gaily–strewn lines of coloured electric lights, nor to the polished brass of the crew’s jacket uniforms, nor to the crowds at the dock in Southampton, waving handkerchiefs and pushing and shoving for a better look; nor to my fellow passengers. I keep my eyes open only for signs of pursuit; specifically, for signs of the Law.

The ship is named the Titanic. I purchased a second–class ticket in London the day before and travelled down to Southampton by train. I had packed hurriedly. I do not know how far behind me the officers are. I know only that they will come. He made sure of that, in his last excursion. The corpses he left were a mockery, body parts ripped, exposed ribcages and lungs stretched like Indian rubber, he had turned murder into a sculpture, a form of grotesque art. The Japanese would call such a thing as he a yōkai, a monster, otherworldly and weird. Or perhaps a kaiju. I admire the Japanese for their mastery of the science of monstrosity, of what in our Latin would be called the lusus naturae. I have corresponded with a Dr Yamane, of Tokyo, for some time, but had of course destroyed all correspondence when I escaped from London.

And yet I cannot leave him behind. I had packed hurriedly. A simple change of clothes. I had not dressed like a gentleman. But I carry, along with my portmanteau, also my doctor’s black medical bag; it defines me more than I could ever define myself otherwise; it is as much a part of me as my toes, or my navel, or my eyes; and inside the bag I carry him, all that is left of him: one bottle, that is all, and the rest were all smashed up to shards back in London, back in the house where the bodies are.

 

Unfortunately we don’t have the full text to this one, but you can read the rest of the story here!

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Host Commentary

Greetings, fellow beings of all dimensions, and welcome to PodCastle. I’m Co-Editor Eleanor R. Wood and I’m your host for this week’s episode, standing in for the indomitable Matt Dovey.

A quick reminder before we begin that PodCastle is currently open to stories and narrator auditions for our special Palestinian Voices call, in love and solidarity during this time of appalling injustice in Gaza. All details are currently pinned to the top of our website, and we’ll be open to these submissions until the 22nd of April. Our only special requirement for this call is that you are a creative of Palestinian heritage. We are honoured to be able to read your words and hear your voices, so please do submit something to us before we close next week.

This week, we are delving into the Vaults to bring you a timely piece. Yesterday marked the 112th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a tragedy that has sparked the creative imagination ever since it occurred. This story is no exception… just think less James Cameron and more… Robert Louis Stevenson?

PodCastle is very proud to present “Titanic!”, written by Lavie Tidhar, originally published in Apex magazine, and first appearing on PodCastle as Episode 304.

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Today’s story was written by Lavie Tidhar. Lavie Tidhar is author of Osama, The Violent Century, A Man Lies Dreaming, Central Station, Unholy Land, By Force Alone, The Hood, The Escapement, Neom, and Maror. His latest novels are Adama and The Circumference of the World. His awards include the World Fantasy and British Fantasy Awards, the John W. Campbell Award, the Neukom Prize, and the Jerwood Prize, and he has been shortlisted for the Clarke Award and the Philip K. Dick Award.

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Your reader today is Ian Stuart. Ian Stuart is the golden-voiced father of the equally golden-voiced Alasdair Stuart. A writer/performer living in York, he has done work for the BBC and Manx Radio, as well as audiobooks, historical guides and promotional videos. He is also a storyteller/guide for The Ghost Trail of York, taking tourists round the city and telling them some of its darker secrets. You can read more about his poetry and his dog, Digby, on his blog, The Top Banana.

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Now please don your lifejackets, make sure they’re securely fastened, and enjoy the story.

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And welcome back!

That was “Titanic!”, by Lavie Tidhar. If you enjoyed that one, Lavie’s most recent story with us, “The Portal Keeper”, was published back in January. He also had three previous stories with us before “Titanic!” featured in 2014, and you can find his work at our sister podcasts Escape Pod and PseudoPod as well.

I’ve always had a fascination with the Titanic. It’s hard not to be captivated by the cruel fate of a ship so majestic being condemned to the depths of the ocean only a handful of days into its maiden voyage. To think that it spent four days sailing and has been 112 years under the sea. To think of the buoyant hope and joy of its passengers as it left Southampton, anticipating whatever awaited them in America, imagining themselves forever able to say they were aboard the great ship on its very first voyage. To know that in fact the majority of them were only days away from a terrifying death, and that those who survived would carry the trauma for the rest of their days. To know that it wasn’t even the ship’s sinking, but raw human hubris, that condemned them to death.

Because that’s the thing with Titanic, isn’t it? Not that it sank on its first voyage. Not that it was the doomed flagship of one of the world’s great shipping lines. But that it was The Ship That Couldn’t Sink. It was the ship that was built to defy the very nature of the sea, the ship that was supposed to conquer all danger of ocean travel, the ship that human arrogance declared untouchable. A ship that didn’t carry enough lifeboats because they were a waste of space and money on a ship that would never need them. Just over halfway across the Atlantic, above an ocean depth of nearly 4,000 metres, it’s almost as if the sea gods decided to slap down their paltry human challengers and remind us that we will always be at their mercy, that we traverse their realm because they allow it, that our belief that we’ve conquered the sea is as futile as any of our other attempts to conquer nature. Perhaps the behemoth in Lavie’s retelling is exactly that: a power rising out of the depths to put us firmly back in our place. We are not the rulers of our planet; we are its denizens, like every other species we share it with. And 112 years on from the tragedy of the Titanic, we need to stop pretending we’re invincible against the behemoths that are waiting to humble us next.

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That was our show for this week. On behalf of everyone at PodCastle — our audio engineers, Devin Martin and Eric Valdes; your co-editors Shingai Njeri Kagunda and myself, Eleanor R. Wood; assistant editor Kaitlyn Zivanovich; host Matt Dovey; as well as all of our amazing first readers…

Andrew K. Hoe, Craig Jackson, Emmalia Harrington, Julia Patt, Kiran Kaur Saini, Matt Dovey, Ryan Cole, Sara S. Messenger, Srikripa Krishna Prasad, Tarver Nova, Tierney Bailey, and Ziv Wities; thanks for letting us share another story with you.

Be sure to share this episode with your friends, reach out to us on social media, and if you would like to keep up with all Escape Artists podcasts, head to http://patreon.com/EAPodcasts for more.

PodCastle will be back next week with another tale. See you then.