Ryan uses an ice ball, Jess commits micromurder, and Damien asks who's your Saxon? This, plus Spartacus, saying where you're from, and everyone's favorite profession - COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION - on today's spooky commute. Welcome to Whiskey and the Weird, a podcast exploring the British Library Tales of the Weird series! This season, we're pondering what could have been with our ninth book in the vast collection, Roads of Destiny: And Other Tales of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms, edited by Alasdair Richmond. In this episode, our featured story is: Branch Line to Benceston by Sir Andrew Caldecott.
Bar Talk (our recommendations):
Jessica is watching The A-Frame (2024; dir. Calvin Lee Reeder); drinking Lost Republic Rye.
Damien is reading The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie Jr.; drinking Hibiki Japanese Harmony.
Ryan is obsessively playing Ball X Pit (2025; VG); drinking The Maloney No. 2.
If you liked this week’s story, dig up some classic Kisaragi Station creepypasta on your interwebs.
Up next: an interview with the editor, Alasdair Richmond!
Special thank you to Dr Blake Brandes for our Whiskey and the Weird music!
Like, rate, and follow! Check us out @whiskeyandtheweird on Instagram, Threads & Facebook, and at whiskeyandtheweird.com
Damien: [00:00:00] Guess what? You're micro-cheating.
Ryan: You're micro-cheating. Yeah. Yeah. That, that's great. Is this something that you have thought...
Not the cheating aspect, but the- ... sins of intention
Damien: aspect. You trying to back me into a corner of sin?
Ryan: Is this something that you've thought about before?
Jess: Got you on Well, I then micro-murder, like, just so many people in my life. I just, I don't-
time taking seriously.
Damien: Micro murder on the day-day.
Jess: Yeah. And, like, no one died, so I feel like, meh, I'm in the clear.
Damien: You're okay.
Ryan: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Ryan Whitley.
Jess: I'm Jessica Berg.
Damien: And I am Damien Smith.
Ryan: And together we're Whiskey and the Weird, the podcast that for the past eight seasons has been bringing you unrivaled literary critiques- Mm-hmm ... of the best of yesteryear's weird fiction. At least as collected in the British Library's Tales of the Weird series.
Each season, friends, we have journeyed together through one edition of [00:01:00] this now voluminous series, and each episode we've turned to one story for in-depth discussion. But never along the table of contents prescribed path If you don't want the story spoiled, make sure you take the road less traveled and read ahead.
Alternatively, our summaries will do the job for you just fine.
Damien: Yeah, they will.
Ryan: This season- ... we were fated to pluck the strings of the multiverse as we take a dimensional right at the corner of reality to trek through Roads of Destiny. Hoo. And Other Tales of Alternative Histories and- Ooh ... Parallel Realms.
Boop boop boop, that's a mouthful. Edited by Alistair Richmond. Look there, though, in the sunshine. Is that a- ... is that a train sign? Which way is it pointing? [00:02:00] W- w- what time is it? Is it time for the train? Where, for what place? Where is that train going? Does anybody know? Jess, help me. Where am I?
Jess: No.
Damien: You must be on the MBTA, to be honest.
Jess: Why don't we read The Branch Line to Bencheston by Sir Andrew Caldecott?
Ryan: That's funny because I thought it said Benston, but Bencheston is the way it is. And we will read that story together.
Damien: We're using, we're using the rules of Worcester. All right? So Worcester sauce- Worcester ... Bencheston Station, yeah.
Ryan: Yeah, exactly. Uh, before we get into that tongue twister, though, we've got a little bit of bar talk to do. Damien, what are you drinking tonight?
Damien: Hey, thanks for asking. Um, this is our final episode, our final story of the season, and as with most final- Japanese whiskey? ... episodes and most intro episodes, I am closing out with my personal favorite, Hibiki [00:03:00] Japanese Harmony.
There it is. Yes. It's a straw-colored wunderkind of blended whiskeys- ... straight out of the Land of the Rising Sun. It's delicate. The flavor profile is, is neutral at best to say, but it is so quaffable, so delightful, and it just makes me feel like an elevated human being. So that's what's in my glass tonight, a single, highly shattered, spherical ice ball-
that popped out of the silicon mold and rolled across my floor, so it probably has some dog hair in it as well. A little hair of the, a little flavor. Hair of the dog . In my, in my, in my glass tonight. So that's Hibiki Japanese Harmony. If you're a fan of the show, you know this one well. I just finished a book that I have a hard time genrifying.
By no means is it contemporary horror, which is my usual MO. I would say it's more mob thriller, a deep character analysis of addiction- [00:04:00] Hmm ... perhaps. Taking place in the state of Maine, but with a family that has Québécois roots It is called The Savage Noble Death of Babs Dion by Ron- That's a, that's quite a title
Curry Jr. Has a great cover. It's like a lime green cover with a crow and a stubbed out cigarette. Essentially, it's about this matriarchal drug dealer who also acts as a little bit of a community protector and advocate. She's tough, she's stern, she's fair. She'll take a branded beat stick... What is that thing called where you can eject it out and wallop somebody with it?
What is that called?
Ryan: A Slim Jim.
Damien: Well, no, that's for opening up a car door.
Ryan: I was thinking of the
Damien: snack. Anyway, like a baton. Oh, that's delicious. I'll take a little mechanically separated chicken any day of the week, that's for sure. Oh. Anyway, yeah, like one of those batons, and just beat someone up the head with it.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But she's, you know, she's also a mother, and she [00:05:00] has complicated emotional relationships with her kids, those who've survived. Her kids are deeply complex, troubled individuals. This is one of those books that nobody is good or bad. Everyone sorta rides that gray, which again, is one of my favorite genres.
We know that Jess loves when terrible things happen to terrible people. Sure do. I love when nobody is really good or bad and everyone sort of rides the middle, hence, uh, why Pitch Black is often cited as a perfect film for a character analysis. Nobody is good or bad. And, uh, this certainly serves that bill.
The- Yeah, the Vin Diesel movie. He loves
Ryan: that movie, Jess.
Damien: I love that movie. Look, I would suggest if you're a genre hopper, if you like, I mean, if you like crime thrillers, if you like, like mafioso type, you know, gangland warfare and that sort of thing, go ahead and give this a read. But if you want to read someone...
Like, I would honestly think that Ron Currie is speaking from experience on addiction because so much of that [00:06:00] guides the behavior and the, and the personalities that develop and the action in this book, that it was really touching and a little emotional, more so than I expected. So, uh, uh, again, I would say maybe go in blind and it's worth, you know, a couple hundred pages just to dive in and check out The Savage Noble Death of Babs Dion by Ron Currie Jr.
Ryan: Sounds interesting.
Damien: What about you, Jess?
Jess: I am drinking a bottle of Lost Republic Rye- Ooh ... which
Damien: I picked up
Jess: on my Portland trip because it was short and it has a bear on the bottle.
Damien: There it is. Short bottle, animal representation.
Jess: And it is pretty nondescript. It's very fine. I think it's just gonna go to the mixer.
It's getting the job done, and it looks cute, so we'll, we'll keep it around.
Damien: All right.
Jess: I'll also watch the movie, I'm pretty sure on, let's say Tubi.
Damien: Okay. Or not Tubi.
Jess: Called- ... The A-Frame. [00:07:00]
Damien: Oh, I've never heard of this.
Jess: No. And you think, "Well, what's an A-frame?" It's
Damien: about roof, it's about roof styles.
Jess: Yeah, like a cabin.
Nope. It's a sci-fi, like, low budget thriller, uh, s- that is thematically similar to everyone's favorite short story, The Jaunt.
Ryan: Okay.
Jess: Uh, the Stephen King story.
Ryan: Stephen King, yeah.
Jess: It is about a guy who invents, like, you know, jaunting, like transporting yourself from one place to another.
Damien: Ooh, jaunting. Good word.
Jess: But the side effect is that it cures cancer.
Damien: What? Just- As a side effect.
Jess: Yeah. So you just, you get transported from one place to another, but your cancer doesn't. You're just, like, reassembled h- healthy.
Damien: So deconstruction, reconstruction without cancerous cells?
Jess: Yes. And so it's-
Damien: Love it.
Jess: Yeah, it's a real trip.
It's, like, as you can [00:08:00] imagine, gets a little body horror-y.
Damien: Okay.
Jess: And it's, it's, you know, pretty low budget, but it has a couple of, like, really good effects. And the acting is, like, good enough 'cause it's, like, cancer... Like, people in, like, cancer support groups who are kind of, like, clinging to this as an option, and this just, like, dirt bag guy who just sort of, like, invented this thing and is now like, "Oh, that's not what I wanted it to do," but has, like, basically cured cancer.
It came out in 2024. It was directed by Calvin Lee Reeder. It is currently on Tubi, but, um, I'm sure you can find it in other places. Yeah, it's called The A-Frame for some reason. It's great.
Damien: Okay. I'm into it. It's good. Digging it.
Jess: Ryan?
Damien: Jessica? What do you think? Wait, wait. Hold on. Sorry. Ryan, stop. Why is it called The A-Frame?
You watched the film.
Jess: Well, I can't tell you that
Damien: Oh, okay. All right.
Jess: No, it's just like the portal
Damien: room Sounds good. It, it does [00:09:00] explain it. It doesn't just leave it as- No, it does it fairly. Is it, is it, is it- It's just that the portals- ... contemporary architecture or is it No,
Jess: the portals that you're transported to or and from are just kind of like A shaped.
Damien: Oh, okay. Got you.
Jess: Yeah, it's not really that important. It's the
Ryan: most common
Damien: shape for teleportation devices. It's, it's as literal as, like, Stargate. You know? It's like, it's a gate to the stars, you idiot.
Jess: Like if Stargate was called Circle Gate.
Damien: Sorry. All right, Ryan, go for it.
Ryan: Oh, thank you very much.
Damien: Yeah, you're welcome.
Ryan: Tonight I'm drinking the Maloney Number Two. What? I couldn't tell you what the Maloney Number One is. Only the Number Two came up in my, in my internet search for a beverage that involved some ingredients that I had.
Damien: Well, hold that glass up again. That, that's a ... I love that color. Is that, like- It's
Ryan: like a root beer It's a beautiful brownish orange color, yeah, and it's got, and it's got a little froth on the top.
It's, it's garnished with a, with an orange rind. I'm serving it over an ice ball.
Damien: All of this is normally stuff-
Ryan: I mean, I don't think I've ever seen you
Damien: pour anything over an ice ball, so this is a first for me. Hey, uh, this is-
Ryan: Jess, can you confirm? ... this is a first thing.
Jess: Yeah, I, I was gonna say.
Ryan: Uh, but all of that [00:10:00] is normally things I say after I tell you what it is, that
Damien: Sorry, we still hear- That's all right
ice ball thunder, you jerk.
Ryan: That's all right. That's all right. So this is a bourbon drink. I'm using Victor's Bourbon tonight, and into that I have mixed some of my recently acquired Cynar Amaro, and a little bit of Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur- Mm ... and a little bit of sweet vermouth. So it, it, it tastes like a, a riff on a Manhattan, but served- Sure
over ice and, and garnished with an orange instead of a cherry. It's a little sweeter. Uh, I like that for an after-dinner drink. I think this is lovely. I could have another one.
Damien: All right. You probably should, but when you have another one, remember it's Cynar, not Cynar.
Ryan: Thank you. You're welcome. I can never
It, it's Cynar as far as I'm concerned.
Damien: I know. You're such a Floridian. Cynar, Cynar,
Ryan: Cynar. It's an artichoke bitter.
Damien: It is beautiful. It looks great.
Ryan: It's a beautiful drink. It's a delicious drink. I couldn't tell you if the Maloney Number One was better. I mean, obviously it wasn't better. He moved on to making a second version.
Sure.
Damien: And did he stop at Maloney Number Two, or is there a Maloney Three? There, there
Ryan: could be. There could be a whole list of Maloneys [00:11:00] out there that we- A Maloney
Damien: 7.2
Ryan: We have ahead of us in, in our cocktail journey Yeah, everybody let
Jess: us know. What's your favorite Maloney?
Damien: What's your favorite Ma- I, my Maloney has a first name.
It's C-Y-N-A-R.
Ryan: That actually worked out. That was pretty good. It
Damien: did. It, it was pretty good.
Ryan: As for what I've been doing, I have been mildly addicted to a relatively new video game that has been released. Yes. And I haven't recommended one for a while. Tell me more. Uh, this is a straight up, like, arcade style game.
It's called Ball X Pit, and I don't know if you're supposed to pronounce the X or if it's just Ball Pit or whatever. The story of this game is incredibly simple. There once was a town called Ballbalon, and it was hit by a giant ball- ... from outer space. Ballbalon.
Damien: Stop. Just stop.
Ryan: And it created a giant pit when the ball from outer space hit it.
Wait, wait,
Damien: hold on. Can I pr- can I predict where you're going with this? Can I make an assessment as to where this goes?
Ryan: Let, let's, let's hear it.
Damien: Okay. Is it like, like Arkanoid where- Yes.
Ryan: It is? Yes. Okay. [00:12:00] Yes. Yes. Yes. All right, cool.
Damien: Yes. Tell
Ryan: me more. And that's, that's absolutely what it is. And so you start off with one character with one kind of ball, and you have to go into the pit and you shoot the ball, and it breaks the bricks and all the different- All right
different kinds of bricks. It's a brick breaker. It's a brick breaker.
Jess: In
Ryan: Ballbalon. Uh, in Ballbalon.
Damien: By the rivers
Ryan: of Babylon. The, the list of things that have question marks by them that are unlockable is unending. Oh. So new characters, new balls, new powers, and the ball puns just keep coming with this game.
It's hilarious. It's fun. Is this a mobile
Damien: game, or is it a console game, or a computer
Ryan: game? It is everything. It is on your iPhone, it is on the computer, it is on your PlayStation, your Xbox, your Switch. It's everywhere.
Damien: How are you playing it? Yeah, is it on my- I'm
Ryan: playing it on the PlayStation. Uh, it's
Damien: te- Is it, is it a microtransaction game, or is everything included in the real thing?
Ryan: No. No, it's 10 bucks and you get the whole thing.
Damien: All right, cool, cool, cool.
Ryan: And it is one of these ones where it's like, I'm gonna just do it one more time before I go to work.
Damien: Really?
Ryan: I'm just [00:13:00]
Damien: gonna play one more time. Is it like a quick, like let's get six minutes in- Yeah. Yes ... and just crank it out? Yes.
Yes. All right, cool. I dig that. That's like the only thing, 'cause y- you may recall that recently I talked about Expedition 33, and I'm just like, this is something that takes my heart, mind, soul, and body. Right. Like where I need to- That takes the, that takes everything. Yeah ... dedicate myself. I need to s- tell...
I, I need to give my kids and family a hug and kiss and say, "I will- Right ... I will be, I will be returning soon, but for now I'm going to Bella Parc." I'll be in Ball Parc. And
Ryan: if you, and if you hear me weeping,
Damien: it's okay. Or Ball-a-Parc, I guess. Yeah.
Ryan: No, this is a, this is a quick journey into the ball pit. So Ball X Pit.
All right. Ball X Pit. It is insanely fun.
Damien: Cool.
Ryan: So funny. All right, that's what we're drinking. That's what we're doing. That's what we're reading or watching, and that's gonna take us to our author and publication info for this evening. Andrew Caldecott, GCMG, CBE, KStJ, FRSA, and FRAS. Oh, geez. I, I... Like, does, do you, does he sign all that all the time?
I don't know. Is that just on [00:14:00] his business card? What's FRAS?
Damien: It's the sir. It's, it-
Ryan: It's not just FRSA, it's also FRAS. I can't tell you what all these things mean, but maybe some of our UK listeners can.
Damien: It's, it's, it's the, it's the honorifics that follow a sir. Like when you get knighted, it's not just sir at the front.
Well, this guy's been knighted by eight
Ryan: people, I guess. It's based on the court.
Damien: Yes, that's, it, that's what I'm saying. It's like the signature of the court that knighted you. Okay.
Jess: You're a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Damien: Hello. There you go.
Jess: Nope, I think we all- There's a, there's a whole list of them.
You could also be-
Ryan: Look up the acronym for ball X
Damien: pit. I wanna know what that is.
Ryan: BXP. All right.
Damien: All right, Ryan, get through it.
Jess: Go ahead.
Ryan: Uh, this gentleman was born on October 26th, 1884 to the Reverend Andrew Caldecott and Isabel Mary Johnson in Kent in the United Kingdom. He had one younger brother who would be lost in World War I in Malawi.
Andrew would go on to be an outstanding academic student at Exeter [00:15:00] College, Oxford, where he studied classics. After graduation, he began what would be an illustrious career in the field for which he is most remembered, colonial administration.
Jess: Perfect. Great.
Ryan: Jess, I, I imagine you have a poster of this guy up in your house somewhere.
His career began in Malaya, a British colonial term encompassing the Malay Peninsula and Singapore. He did lots of things there, which I barely understand, but I gather amounts to a more than impressive administrative portfolio. He was noted as being able to successfully settle ethnic arguments and was universally popular among the different ethnic groups.
In 1935, he became governor of Hong Kong, but this was very short-lived. See, the people were rebelling in nearby Ceylon, and his skills were needed there, [00:16:00] so he was reassigned to the governorship of Ceylon. His efforts there to bring about constitutional reforms and increase self-governance were hampered by World War II, pesky little thing that it was.
During the war, Ceylon operated almost as a military dictatorship, which chafed Caldecott. But eventually, he and the admiral in charge learned to live together. Following the war's conclusion, he retired, feeling like he'd left the place in good stead and at a natural transition point toward political empowerment.
It wasn't until after this retirement- It wasn't ... that he began writing, and then only supernatural and weird fiction as far as fiction was concerned. His stories work with themes of moral causation and focused on non-traditional apparitions and uncanny circumstances. In several stories, he does include elements of Southeast Asian culture and world [00:17:00] outlook, drawing on his civil service experience.
Caldecott was married, a widower, and remarried. He had only one son from his first marriage, and he, he died, Caldecott that is, not his son. Caldecott himself died on July 14th, 1951 in Sussex. Branch Line to Benleston was originally published in Caldecott's own first collection entitled Not Exactly Ghosts in 1946 or 1947.
And that is Sir Andrew Caldecott, GCMG CBE KSTJ FRSL and FRAS. Elemento pe- And that's gonna take us to our summary, which Damien has for us so eloquently prepared this
Damien: evening. TTYL. I'm not gonna give any acronymic accolades to Caldecott, but I will give you a hopefully slightly tight for... It is a not long story, but not short story, The Branch Line to Bencheston.
Okay, [00:18:00] so this one at first glimpse looks like a cozy murder mystery set amongst commuters and jelly bellies, and to be honest, it is that, but it's also something that's considerably darker and a lot stranger. It's a story about what hatred does to a person when they let it marinate long enough to essentially develop its own existential plane.
So- Makes you a lot scarier ... let me just give a, let me just give a preface here is that does this parallel universe? I say yay. Our narrator is- Finally. Finally,
Ryan: friends All right. All
Jess: right, good summary. On with
Damien: the summary ... is, is let's cut to the chase. Our narrator is unnamed, you know, a bit of a, a seemingly a bachelor, lives a solo life.
He gets a new neighbor. That neighbor's name is Adrian Frent. Immediately, this narrator, who, let's just call him Bill. I wonder if Adrian- Bill gives us this almost clinical rundown of Frent. He's tall, he's well-dressed, he's well-built, he's interesting, but not necessarily [00:19:00] likable. Then we get a bit more of a tour for who he is and what he likes, which is frankly doing a lot of work.
He's got a Sistine Madonna on the wall. There's a sketch of a Buddha. There's a lot of volumes about the railway or a lot of volumes of the railway magazine. He knows that you don't refer to rail signals as on or off, but up or down. So any, any rail heads out there, you might, you might find this story a little intriguing.
Um, he also has a lot of literature on herbs and poisons, which, you know, he's a bit breezy about, especially when he's like, "Oh yeah, I make my own insecticides. Also, come check out my dogs. They're toxins." And the dogs are cool and will later die from being served from a wrong bottle that he creates. So he essentially poisons his own dog.
It... What's funny about this is that this is the first of a number of moments in the, in this story that I think that, like, the action is a little bit nullified. It, [00:20:00] like, comes up to and then it just happens, and then we move on. So T- T- TBC with regards to what else I'm referring to. BRB. Yeah, BRB on that number LOL, FRAS There's acronyms in there FRAS and so on and so forth.
So essentially the entire first act of the story is all, like, portrait building. It's, it's, it's Frent and who he is and how he's acceptable but not necessarily exceptional. Uh, one thing that is very clear is that he's catastrophically unfinished. He's someone who cuts trapdoors into the floor of his house but never gets around to attaching a rope to help you descend through said trapdoor.
That's an important part. He starts a few pieces on the piano that are gorgeous and then stops when it gets hard. So Um, he talks about what it's like to, you know, be in an herbalist's paradise and what we see is this just absolute trash heap of tipped over bottles and unfinished potions, right? So the narrator, to his credit, notices all of this, [00:21:00] and the story is seen through his eyes, so essentially we see this Frent as a d- highly troubled, unfinished, and, and incomplete character.
Then we move from Frent to seeing Frent's, like, nemesis, I would say, who we don't see as a nemesis, but we see as a business partner up front. Someone who we will soon learn is a business partner from
Jess: hell.
Damien: He's, he's, he's basically a frenemy of Frent, and his name is Paul Saxon. They went to the same schools.
Uh, they work at the same firm, but Saxon always seems to be one step ahead of what Frent is doing. And by the time we meet Frent, the company's name, the partnership that they have, who Frent was supposed to adopt and be Frent, Frent & Saxon, is now basically being seen as Saxon, Saxon & Frent, which is a, a huge dig if you are in the legal- Yeah, that's a downgrade
you know, representation. Like, that is just a massive kick to the old gemstones. Plus, [00:22:00] there's also nothing more specifically British as a form of psychological torture than a man who essentially hums jazz at you from a shared office. And I would say that's British, but maybe that's universal. I don't need to hear you humming your jams, thank you very much.
Ryan: Keep those jams to yourself.
Damien: You know, Frent essentially goes to church. He doesn't do this that often. Vicar, essentially who he talks to, says, "Look, you're basically killing this guy in your heart, so your hatred toward him is murder. You know, drop and give me 20 Hail Marys." Uh, and Frent has been doing that.
He's been channeling and pocketing his jealousy and his angst toward his partner for a long time. Uh, this story comes to us through conversation on the train. The train rattles over an old siding junction, and this is where the whole branch line concept comes into play. The narrator told us about this abandoned branch line.
It's the branch line to Benchestin. Everyone take a shot. Essentially, it's incomplete, and [00:23:00] so there is no means to Branchistin at, uh, or, um, uh, Benchestin at this stage. But at some point in the story, Frent actually takes the incomplete branch to Benchester. Whether it's in his mind or whether it happens truly, it's something that I'm sure Ryan will guide us through in the Q&A portion of this tale.
But the point is, is he goes to this place that previously had no name. While he is there, he encounters Saxon, and they're up on the cliffs of Benchester looking over some majestic, beautiful waters maybe.
Jess: As you do.
Damien: They're very tall. And in realizing that he's been essentially sequestering all these ill feelings toward his frenemy, decides, and again, the time number two in a very understated, uh, climax of action, just straight up pushes Saxon off the cliff.
Ryan: Yeah. He does.
Damien: So at this exact moment, [00:24:00] uh, which is noted, it's around 8:00 AM in the morning, Paul Saxon back in the real world dies as well. It happens to be of the flu, which was transcommunicated at work, but we won't talk about how people who are sick shouldn't go to work. I think that's a different political issue.
Capitalism, man. So Frent is now in this, "Holy cow, we're living in a parallel universe," type thing. So Frent discovers that from his collapse, and he reads the obituary, he's got this detail that, okay, these two things are happening at once. Uh, and that's sort of the basis, the entire crux of the story. I would call it the story in miniature.
Frent starts returning to Benchester involuntarily, essentially tried for murder for pushing his friend off the thing. He's convicted. He tells the narrator that his cousin and his doctor, that when he is set to be executed at 8:00 the next morning, which props to the fictional town of Benchester's, uh, legal process, that happened rather quickly.
Ryan: [00:25:00] Yeah, they got on it.
Damien: Yeah, they got on it. So he's set to die the next day at 8:00 in the morning, that they need to be present because allegedly, you know, cliff death, pneumonia death, if things happen in Benchester, they're also gonna happen in the, quote-unquote, "real, real world," right? So his cousin and a doctor gather, and they see the clock, and the clock strikes.
But allegedly nothing happens in the real world. So again, this is from the perspective of the narrator. We're looking at the real world, universe one, where in the Benchester world, or Benchester world, he's supposed to be hung in the gallows. So he's supposed to die at 8:00 AM. They're sitting in his house.
He doesn't die. Frent's relieved. He sends for his... He sends his cousin for coffee. He goes upstairs, gets a handkerchief, like all this random stuff, and then they hear in the distance the local church bells ring The local church bells, as we know, it's like that laser timing or the atomic clock is [00:26:00] the local church clock.
That is the real and proper time. So when the church bells ring, we know it's actually 8:00 AM. He's sitting in his house. Mm. All of a sudden, S gets real. The church bells go off, and by the eighth strike, they hear a crash from above. Ka-thunk. As it happens, Frent is sitting over that incomplete trapdoor that he had developed without putting a rope in, which had caved in.
He falls through the trapdoor, hits his head on the basement, and breaks his neck and dies immediately. Well, what do you know? The fates have spoken. Frent is dead, and the only commentary from the doctor in this occurrence is, "Well, I guess it's amateur carpentry and unseasoned wood." "A fatal combination at best."
He wipes his hand of it and walks away.
Jess: The end. Like,
Damien: what? That is [00:27:00] the end of our story. Mm. Frent dies, is fated, and the doctor could not care lessed. Less. Over to you, Ry.
Jess: He could not care Frent.
Damien: He
Ryan: could not care Frent. Well, before we get into our discussion proper, I feel like I should confess that as someone who has had the charge over said church bells in two different places- I thought you were gonna say, like,
Jess: an execution. I was
Damien: worried for a minute. I was a little concerned.
I was like, I always wondered where that dark hood was in the background. One shouldn't
Ryan: set, one shouldn't set their own clock necessarily by when the church bells ring. By
Damien: the church bells? They're never off at all. Well, don't tell that to the folks in Frent's village, because that is the truth. That is the canon.
Ryan: Well, I wanna start our discussion in, in kind of a, a heady place. I, I really dug into this story and, and did a little bit of research. Metroland is, is a name that's mentioned in the story as being where, where Frent lives, and Metroland was a real place. It was the name given [00:28:00] to the suburban areas to the northwest of London-
Damien: Okay
Ryan: that were s- uh, served by the Met, or the Metropolitan Railway. And I think that, uh, a British reader is gonna know this, and, and us here in the States are, are not necessarily gonna know this. Probably not anything. But it impacts, it impacts the story. It was a way, when it was created, I mean, much like how the suburbs developed in America, it was a way to live in the country and work in the city.
But one of the themes that Caldecott is working with here, I think, is this s- theme of dissonance of place, a theme that can crop, crop up very easily when you live in one place and work in another and have to take a significant... have to undergo a significant effort of transportation to get to your workplace.
Branchline, our story tonight, takes this dissonance of place to an even further extreme- ... uh, in, in s- [00:29:00] sending them off to a parallel universe. In our modern times, in our contemporary lives, how would you describe our experience of dissonance of place? Or to phrase the question in a different way- Please ... h- how do you tell people where you're from?
Jess: We always say, both Josh and I, because I grew up in a town that nobody has ever heard of, is, um That we're all, we're from all over, 'cause we grew up in the Midwest, we lived on the West Coast, we've been in New York for a while. But people, Josh will usually end up mentioning Fargo 'cause he grew up in Fargo, and people kind of have heard of that one at least.
Ryan: Yeah.
Jess: Uh.
Ryan: He's, oh, what's your origin? Fleeing the interview.
Jess: He's fleeing the interview. But the- ... the s- the suburb that we live in, like we live around a, you know, not major metro, but we're out in the 'burbs. It's very funny because you'll ask people, like, "Oh, did you grow up around here?" [00:30:00] And they'll all say, "No."
Ryan: Mm. "
Jess: I grew up in next suburb over." Which to me is, like, the most false- Is,
Ryan: is still, like, from there.
Jess: Yes. "Okay, you're from here." But they'll be like, "No, no, no, I grew up, you know-" Yeah ... "10 miles away in wherever." And so for, uh, like I just, it doesn't do me any good to be more specific about where I'm from because it's, even if you're from here, you're not from here 'cause you're from a different suburb.
Like- Mm ... our mailman, like, you know, has been the mailman for 400 years. And every time you go to the post office will tell me who lived in this house and e- you know, every bit of gossip about every owner. And none of those people are from here because they've, they lived here less time than he did. So he's the only one, you know, like, in his mind, he's the only one from here 'cause he was- Right
born, you know. It doesn't matter if someone lived...
Ryan: And I'm assuming, Jess, that all of those regional locales that are only a, a few miles apart [00:31:00] have very different markers for, for being from there.
Jess: No. They're all- No? ... the same. This is central New York. Everyone is, like, the most identical you could possibly be.
Absolutely. Like, there's, like, socioeconomic differences, and some are slightly more, you know, urban versus suburban. Mm-hmm. But like, no, they're all the same. You are all f- you are from the suburbs of this, this general area.
Ryan: The suburbs are such, when you think about it sort of in terms of, like, the history of the development of, of a land, like the suburbs are such a weird thing.
Like, it used to be you were either urban or you were rural.
Jess: And my suburb that we're in is-
Ryan: And you're, you served a different function in, in whichever place you were from. Yeah, but the- But the suburbs are this, like, in between thing. It's neither this nor that. It's odd.
Jess: Well, my suburb is much older than the metro area.
The metro area came later. But because- Interesting ... it's right along the Erie Canal, it's, it's a very old part of New York.
Ryan: Mm-hmm.
Jess: And then it, you know, sort of grew around it and is now just, you know- a suburb of it. But [00:32:00] yeah, it's, I mean, it's an interesting way to talk to people. They'll be like- Mm ... "No, no, no.
I'm not from here. I'm from here." And you're just like, "I can see here from here. Like, what are you talking about?"
Damien: Right.
Ryan: Damon, you've, you've lived in several different places. Do you experience a s- a sense of dissonance about that, or are you very sort of firmly like, "I'm from Boston now"?
Damien: No. I mean, I, I never say I'm from Boston.
One, because if I said that, I would get strung from the rafters immediately because it's very obvious that I'm not from Boston. I do say I'm from Florida, but then I pretty much leave it at that. Mm-hmm. I say, "But I've been in Boston for 20 years." So my blood is thickened to the local weather. Like, I know how to pronounce the towns of- Mm-hmm
of Massachusetts, and so I can fit in with the locals just like the best of them. If I have a few whiskeys out at a bar, I get a little bit of a Southie accent, so- Mm-hmm ... I earn some street cred there. But I never, never, never would a- assess that I am from Boston. To me, where you're from is where you were born.
And even [00:33:00] if it's something where you only, like, maybe there's a, maybe there's a, you know, a note to that, like a footnote. I was born here, but I only lived here for three months, and I was raised in X, Y, Z.
Ryan: Mm-hmm.
Damien: So then m- where you're raised is where you're from. But I happen to be born and raised in Florida, so that's what I say, and I say it wholeheartedly.
Ryan: Yep. Yep. I always answer the question in the same way, at least to start. I say, "I'm from Florida, but I've lived a little bit all over."
Damien: Yeah.
Ryan: And, and so I, I kind of exchange this idea of rootedness for disparate experiences. Like, I have, I have this wide variety of experiences of place, but I don't have... I guess Florida's the place I have the most roots, but I, I still only have half the roots here- Mm
as somebody who's lived here their whole life. So what I've gained by moving around, a, a broader circle of friends, uh, and acquaintances, a, a wealth of experiences of different subcultures [00:34:00] of the United States. Uh, what I, what... I, I've gained that, but the cost of that has been the sense of deep roots that people can put down if they stay in one place their whole lives.
Mm-hmm. And this is a... Like, I get caught up in this, this kind of conversation 'cause this is a choice you can't, you can't make more than once.
Damien: I think that becomes the true crux of the conversation ongoing. There's no true- Oh, oh,
Ryan: absolutely.
Damien: Yeah, no, true ... there's no true definition to it. Right. So at the end of the day, it, it becomes like a, you know, it's, it's the, is a hot dog a sandwich of sort of your roots?
Right. Which is, where are you from is a very open-ended question that can be open for interpretation, and the interpretation is what makes for a delightful conversation.
Ryan: I, I just think that, that some of that dissonance that everybody experiences, but, but perhaps particularly those who lived in this region called Metroland of Northwest London-
Damien: Yeah
Ryan: at the time that The Met was being developed, I, I, I think that that would've been a, a very striking thing in their, in their lives, a very [00:35:00] different thing from that which came before.
Damien: Yeah. Fair.
Ryan: On page 211, Caldecott raises the idea of sins of intention, and I wanted to see what you guys thought about this.
In the context of the story, in the context of real life. It's a concept that certainly Christian theology and different branches of it talks a little bit about, and so I'm familiar with it. Well, how
Damien: is it referred to? I'm curious in the, in the-
Ryan: Uh, we- ... Christian theology sense ... so, so there's a, there's a specific passage in, in the Gospels, and this is referenced in the text of the story, in fact, in which Jesus says that if you, if, you know, you've heard it said that if you commit adultery with a woman then, then that's bad.
But if you even look at a woman with lust in your eye, then you've committed adultery with her.
Damien: Right.
Ryan: So
Damien: like, so it's not just- It's, it's that, what's... Uh, you know, I think contemporarily it's referred to as micro-cheating, right? Like- Yes, yes.
Ryan: Yes,
Damien: exactly ... do you have sex with someone outside- Yes ... of your marriage?
Okay, well, that's pretty obviously [00:36:00] cheating. That's cheating, yeah. But do you really wanna have sex outside of your marriage? Guess what? You're micro-cheating.
Ryan: You're micro-cheating. Yeah. Yeah. That, that's great. That's, that's a great definition of it for the, for the contemporary world. Is this something that you have thought...
Not the cheating aspect, but the- ... sins of intention
Damien: aspect. You trying to back me into a corner of sin?
Ryan: Is this something that you've thought about before?
Jess: Got you on the record, Damien.
Damien: Yeah. I think he was asking you, Jess.
Jess: Well, I then micro-murder, like, just so many people in my life. I just, I don't-
time taking seriously.
Damien: Micro murder on the day-day.
Jess: Yeah. And, like, no one died, so I feel like, meh, I'm in the clear.
Damien: You're okay.
Jess: Yeah. Well, this is-
Damien: Well, this is,
Ryan: this is what gets Frent in trouble though, right?
Damien: Yeah. But legally, so for, for your case, right, Jess, it's like that's the mens rea, right? You have the guilty mind.
Mm-hmm. But then you need the act to back to, back it up, and that's in a legal sense. But Ryan's talking about in the moral, [00:37:00] like, ethical, you know- Mm-hmm ... religious sense. The, the, the, the, the sacredness of soul. Like, just thinking about it, you're pretty much a murderer in God's eyes. Well, and the people- So how's that feel?
Jess: I want to murder every day are, like, the guy driving a Cybertruck that I don't know.
You know? The person who's taking too long at the checkout for some... You know, like- Right ... "Do you know who I am? I get a discount." That guy's been murdered in my mind. And so, like, I'm not gonna get too, you know, like, worked up about it. I feel like if I was micro murdering the same person every day over and over, then sure, maybe I would have some-
Ryan: That, that, that's perhaps an indication of a
Jess: deeper problem. Yeah. Mistakes in the game. Honestly, I think if you're not micro murdering Cybertruck drivers, like, you're in the wrong.
Ryan: And that's gonna take us to our first sponsorship break. This episode is brought to you by Cybertrucks and SpaceX. Yeah. Congratulations on your terrible IPO with your terrible CEO.
Oof. I, I think this [00:38:00] is, this is such a, such a ripe topic. Um, not, not necessarily for, for some of these more egregious sins, but even for, for the little ones. Like, does it, does it... And we don't even have to use the language of sin, but, but, but transgression. Does the fact that you want to do it but you haven't done it, does that make you any better?
Damien: I, I don't think it makes you better or worse, to be honest. I mean, well, no, that's a lie. Like, if you murder someone, you're a bad person, right? I- If you- Yeah ... think about it, you're not as bad a
Jess: person Murdering is worse than wanting to murder.
Damien: Yeah.
Jess: There's- I think wanting to murder s- and not murdering, you should get a medal.
You didn't murder.
Ryan: You should get
Damien: a prize for that. Good for you.
Ryan: And, and to be fair, I don't think, and maybe she'll, maybe she'll correct me, I don't think Jess actually is going to murder anyone for any of these reasons. Well, she sure as hell won't tell
Damien: you.
Jess: Yeah. Well, now you're judging me for even thinking about it.
Damien: Yeah. Get a clue, padre.
Jess: What if I actually do it?
Damien: What are we, in [00:39:00] the confessional? Uh, nothing is sacred outside of that box.
Ryan: That's right.
Damien: No, I mean, uh, look, I, i- it's, it's, it's weird because also you look at, like, contemporary horror authors, and one of the things that they'll always mention in Q&As is, like, they'll get some rube that's in the audience that's like- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm
"How could you even imagine," you know- How could you
Ryan: write this? ...
Damien: splitting a one-year-old in half- Yeah ... and, like, feeding their innards to a pack of wolves? And you're just like, "Because it's creative writing," you know? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm essentially creating these torturous-
Ryan: Mm-hmm ...
Damien: situations that would never happen in real life, or God forbid they happen in real life.
But, you know, it's, it's just one of those things that it's like this is, this is the art of exploration, the art of imagination. Like, I don't want these things to happen. Right. Is that always the case? Could you have someone who's manifesting their own fantasies? It's possible. But, you know, this, this, like, hearkens back to the grandmas that would, were like, "I'm not gonna buy my grandson, you know, Grand Theft Auto [00:40:00] because I hear that there's prostitution."
It's like, yeah, well, there's also, like, decapitations with a samurai sword out in front of the convenience store, ma'am, but that doesn't seem to bother you. It's just this, like- It just, this, like, living in this fantasy realm, you can't... I think that people who are a, a bit myopic in their view of humans and, and their ex- uh, um, their expression of- Mm
of imagination w- will, will, will drop a heavy moral hammer on people who have horrific thoughts. But I see it as like- Look, if, if you're committing it to the page, I'm not gonna sit here and dig deeper to that. Like, is there something going on in your psyche that you want this to happen? Like, that ain't my business.
If you're putting it to the page, I'm going to assume positive creative intent and that this is just your way to express. But it's no different than someone like a J.K. Rowling, who creates a- Mm-hmm ... you know, an entire universe of wizardry and education, whatever, and blah, blah. I, I know that was a bad example.
I [00:41:00] should pick someone else, 'cause she sucks. But-
Jess: I was just gonna disprove your... If you write a book, that's fine, 'cause I think that there was a woman h- who wrote a book called How to Murder Your Husband, and then she was found guilty of how to murder-
Damien: Of murdering her husband, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Ryan: Oh, I think
Damien: that's true.
Well, I'm, it's, it's, it's not a get out of jail free just because you commit it to the page, Jess. Right. I think what I'm saying is that- Like- ... it's, it's not an indicator of guilt ... how to knock him- It's just an indicator... Like, thoughts do not equate action- It was, it was a creative writing effort- ... do not equate guilt
Jess: exercise. Right. Your husband's dead.
Ryan: So does what happens in one world also have to happen in another world, in the context of this story- ... specifically? Or did Frent somehow bring this about? Is, is this where the sins of inception- Sure ... discussion comes into play? Did he bring it about?
Jess: It's interesting that it's different than some of the alternative realities and alternate histories that we've covered, where they [00:42:00] are more like a, "In this universe I did this, in this universe I didn't," so it'd, like, kinda branch off.
Ryan: Mm-hmm,
Jess: mm-hmm. Where this one, it's two kinda side-by-side universes that seem to be, like, cause and affecting each other.
Ryan: Yeah, almost... It's, is it... Well, I guess it's not like a yin-yang, it's more like a balance.
Jess: Yeah.
Ryan: If this happens he- if this person's dead here, they have to be dead here.
Jess: Which is interesting, 'cause, like- Yeah, just it isn't quite how we've read any of these alternate histories- Mm-hmm
so far-
Ryan: Mm-hmm ...
Jess: in this collection.
Ryan: They haven't been, they haven't been tied together as closely. They've been more- Right ...
Damien: individual. They were- They, they, th- there's been, there's been, like, a definitive split, I think, in, at least in the other reference pieces that we've had-
Ryan: These universes here have, like-
Damien: Yeah, like- Where it's like-
the cheaper- ... there's stuff that happens here and stuff that happens here, and there are some overlap where you're like, "Oh, it's referential." Yeah. But nothing that's like because- ... this entity, you know, like, wins the lottery at this time, they also win the lottery over [00:43:00] here as well.
Jess: Mm.
Ryan: Yeah.
Jess: Yeah, I thought it was an interesting way to write it, and it's, you know, not completely novel or anything.
You know, it's, it's a thing that I think is reflected- Right ... in-
Ryan: Yeah,
Damien: yeah ...
Jess: other stories. But it was interesting to just sort of, "Okay, well-" It may have
Ryan: been more novel in, in, in-
Jess: Yeah, yeah ...
Ryan: the '40s, whenever this
Damien: was- Yeah. Just a wee bit more.
Jess: I don't think this is the o- it's a, it's a middle-of-the-book story.
Damien: No, but the, the, the string theory, I think it is kinda novel for the time.
Yeah, it should.
Ryan: Yeah.
Damien: And I, I think it is pretty interesting because it's, you know, to me it gives a little bit of that Final Destination, like you can't escape your fate. Like, you know, if you, if you die here, you're gonna die in some related way here. Mm-hmm. There wasn't a ton of relation. It was more circumstantial, but the unifying factor was at the, at the time, right?
Mm-hmm. So 8:00 someone dies. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. 8:00 o- or whenever he got pushed off the, if it was the same exact time- He died ... he died of pneumonia. You know, so those sort of things. That, [00:44:00] that was the marker, was the concept of time.
Ryan: So Damien, you brought up string theory. What do you imagine Bennington actually is?
Damien: Oh, I think it's a town. I think it's a fully developed town.
Ryan: It's a fully developed town. It's just a, it's just a train stop in another universe.
Damien: It's, it's, it's, it's the butterfly effect. Yeah. Whatever prevented it from being d- being developed in, like, let's say Universe X, you know, it was developed in Universe Y.
Ryan: Okay, okay. So it's a different-
Damien: And if Universe Y is a dream world, that's fine as well.
Ryan: It's a, it's a different branch. Different people made different choices, and-
Damien: Right ...
Ryan: some of those choices resulted in Bennington being developed.
Damien: Right.
Ryan: Jess, what do you think? I think it is- Benchester a real place or what?
Jess: Nah, I think it's more fun if his, like, hatred of this guy created a whole nother universe.
Ryan: But a
Damien: universe in which he gets prosecuted for his murder? Yeah.
Jess: Well, he-
Ryan: Well,
Damien: maybe... So
Ryan: maybe that's his guilt talking, right? I think that is fun. Maybe that's his guilt. No, you're,
Damien: you're right. Yeah. He, he con- his guilt constructs an entire separate universe- Mm-hmm
in which he's punished. That [00:45:00] sentences him to death. Yeah. Which is pretty wild. That is wild. That is a serious guilt claim right there. Especially since he- Oh, you feel bad for eating some Oreos? I murdered mys- I, I hung myself at the gallows.
Jess: Especially since
Damien: he, like- At 8:00 in the morning. ...
Jess: he didn't murder this guy, right?
Right. Like- Well- ... in the real universe, he just- No ... died of pneumonia. Right. But in his imaginary world, he died because he pushed him off a cliff. So he's being mur- like, he's being punished for a thing that he's imagining he did, but in the real universe he did not do. He just- Yeah ... died of pneumonia or the flu or whatever it was.
Ryan: We talked, we've talked about balance a little bit. In my mind, at least, I wanna see if you agree or if you think I'm off my rocker. In my mind, on this balance- Well, yes, but the, well- ... on, on these sca- Right, of course
Jess: What? ...
Ryan: on these scales are hubris and retribution, and that they have to be balanced in order for this universe to work-
where Benchester exists. Nah, no. [00:46:00]
Jess: But then does every, does everyone have their own Benchester, or are there- Could be.
Damien: That's a great point.
Jess: Or is there just one Benchester and you're always going in the train- No, because- ... and it'll always take you to the same place?
Damien: Well, I, I would say, I would, I would say to the point- People keep inexplicably dying, and they can't figure it out
I would say to the point that you made earlier, Jess, and that I think that Ryan's question alludes to, is that Benchester is his manifestation of this, like-
Jess: Benchester was inside us all along.
Damien: Maybe the real Benchester is the friends we made along the way.
Ryan: Would the real Benchester please stand up?
Damien: I am Ben Cheston.
I am Ben Cheston. I am Ben Cheston. No, but I think that Ben Cheston just as a, as, like, a moral flag in the ground is this place where you are assessed. Like, so the thought of cheating on your partner is cheating on your partner. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. The thought of murdering your business partner- Paul ... is murder.
And so at Ben Cheston, you are very rapidly, by the way, which can [00:47:00] only happen in the dreams where the legal process is this, is this efficient, is that you're hung at, you know, morning the next day. So he pretty much committed himself to death by the universe in his dream world- It's the first time ... slash second, second universe, and then it manifested to reality in the real world by him falling and breaking his neck in the trap door.
Jess: I don't think it matters, but I think there is more time. I think he's been having these, like, little flashes for a while, and then he's just telling our narrator about them.
Damien: Okay, that's, that's fair. Okay. That's fair. I guess- Okay, I
Ryan: was gonna say more time how, but yeah, okay. Is this a weird fiction story?
Damien: I think so.
Ryan: Yeah?
Damien: Do you
Ryan: think it's not, Ryan? I would agree. No, I would agree. I would agree.
Damien: I- Cool, three yeses. Moving
Ryan: on. Yeah. Less discussion there than I thought there might've been. Uh, it is, it is in a collection called Not Exactly Ghosts, so at least the title of the collection acknowledges- I was gonna say, it didn't feel like a ghost story Yeah, it's true.
The
Damien: first
Ryan: publication, right? It feels like a bad dream ... this is, uh, slightly, slightly off. Uh, how'd you like the writing here?
Damien: I liked it. [00:48:00]
Jess: I also liked it. I liked the kinda like cranky, pain-in-the-ass narrator.
Damien: Yeah.
Jess: I liked, I liked how he described things, and I liked how- I liked Frent describing the murder in the most like, "Well, then I saw Paulie."
Damien: Just humdrum. Yeah. It reminds me- It was so incredible, like all these pivotal moments in the story that you're just like, "Oh, I thought there'd be a little more buildup," but no- Nope ... there certainly wasn't.
Jess: Um, in The Only Good Indians, the Stephen Graham Jones novel-
Damien: Mm-hmm ...
Jess: where there's like a big thing that happens, but it's written in a very similar way, where he's just like- Sure
doing something, and all of a sudden you're just like, "God, okay." Oh, geez. Like, I-
Damien: You gotta go back and read it a few times. Like, "Wait a minute- Yeah, 'cause- ... did I miss something?" '
Jess: Cause if you-
Damien: Was there
Jess: more? ... if you're narrating it, you know, you're just sort of like, "Oh, yeah, then I pushed him off a cliff." I think that that's a, a fun way to explain what you're doing.
Damien: It, it w- it [00:49:00] was really interesting the way it was just like, "You know, and I saw him there, and we were up in the cliffs, and then for no real reason I, I pushed him off, and he fell forward," and that was it. It was like within one sentence.
Ryan: I really appreciated that style of writing. I appreciated the pacing of this story.
I thought it was- Agree ... really well done. I like the way- So, what, okay ... it was broken up into these little chapters.
Jess: For the pacing,
Damien: the- There were like five parts, right?
Ryan: Yep.
Jess: The first time I read it, I was just like, it's weird that we're getting this frame story, and that- Mm-hmm ... the actual Ben Cheston story is honestly like a couple paragraphs.
It's not long. It's just sort of like, "Oh, yeah, I started imagining a train- Right, right ... and now now I'm getting hung to death." But I was just like, that's a weird choice to make, to not have that be the bulk of the story, to have it be- I dug it,
Ryan: though.
Jess: No, I liked it, too. I mean, I did, I did too. Yeah. But it is a really weird choice to be like, "Oh, the weird thing is-
Damien: But I'll, I'll tell you what, if-
Jess: just a little bit" ...
Damien: if you're looking at trying to bring some, um, [00:50:00] some fuzzy logic into this concept of parallel universes or did it happen, didn't it happen, like high-level framing I think really works to your advantage because it sort of relies on reader interpretation.
Jess: Mm-hmm.
Damien: I also really liked, not for nothing I didn't mention this 'cause I thought maybe it would be in the Q&A, but we haven't gotten there yet, directly referenced in this story is The Battery- Oh, yeah.
Yeah ... by John Metcalfe.
Ryan: Yes. Yeah,
Damien: yeah. Like, how funny is that? Another story in this collection, and- I actually had that written down as- ... and one of which is, like, outlined ...
Ryan: a, a question to bring up if we, if we, uh, were pr- uh, needed more time to talk, but we don't. Not surprising.
Jess: I also like- Yeah ... that the author directly brought up that there's a trapdoor, and basically said, "Well, more on that later."
Damien: Yeah, more on that later. Like-
Ryan: Well,
Damien: and there
Ryan: was ... TBC ... he wasn't telling a lie.
Damien: Right.
Jess: That was... I mean, I, I, I got a kick out of that, to be like...
Damien: It was all pretty funny. Yes. It was, it was the Anton's, uh, or, or the Chekhov's trapdoor- Yeah Yes ... in the story. We've had a
Ryan: [00:51:00] lot of those this season.
Damien: We have. We have.
But well executed, I would say. Yeah, this one, I think- To be honest, as I read this story, and when he, like, sat down and then he fell through, I was like, "Oh, yeah, that little son of a bitch." Oh,
Ryan: yeah. Right.
Damien: Yeah.
Ryan: Jess, I think I only have to direct this question to you. Damien's already answered it. On a scale of one out of 10 train stops, how many Destinys are you gonna give this?
Jess: Oh, this is, this is 10 Benjestins.
Ryan: Yes, it is. Yes, it is. I'm, I'm in full agreement.
Damien: Yeah.
Jess: Thanks. And I think there's, there's obviously a reading where it's just like, yeah, it's in his head and he's guilty. But like, I don't think it matters. But it doesn't matter. Yeah,
Damien: like, so- Because what constitutes a separate universe?
Is it a physical, like, proximal-
Jess: Is
Damien: it a dream he's having? ... uh, like, destination? Or is it- It's often in the
Ryan: eye of the beer holder.
Damien: Right. It's on the eye... Thank you, epithets from a spring break T-shirt. I, I appreciate that. No, this is a, this is a, this is a 10 of a, out of 10, like, [00:52:00] muddled train warnings for the next stop
Ryan: That's gonna take us to our whiskey ratings.
This is how we rate our stories here on Whiskey and the Re- Weird from one to five fingers of whiskey. Jess, what are you giving Branch Line to Bennington?
Jess: I, even a four and a half. I kinda kicked out of the story. Oh, wow. Wow. And I know that, like, you know, when we do a season, we try to, like, end with a bang.
So like- Right ... maybe it would've made more sense to do The Yellow Wallpaper last or something like that. But when I was reading reviews of this collection to figure out, like, should we cover it? Do people like it? Has anyone read it? Mm-hmm. Like, this is the one story that everyone mentioned as just, like, one of the most fun ones in the collection.
So I thought it would be worth ending just because it's-
Damien: Interesting ...
Jess: it's got a little more, I don't know, like, meat to it in the sort of like, it very directly fits the theme of the book. It's really well-written. It's a fun read. So- Yeah ... I liked it just that it also kinda distilled the book in a way that, like, like, we're not arguing about, [00:53:00] right?
Like, it just, yep, this one fits in the collection really well. Yeah. Like, it's a good story and I like it. Four and a half.
Damien: Nice. Damien, what are you gonna give the story? Yeah, uh, for a lot of the reasons that, uh, Jess said, but I mean, I don't know if I'd go four and a half- It's a bop ... but I'd go a very, very strong four plus a little bit of a crank in the knuckle.
The Donnie Darko-ism and attraction- Mm-hmm ... and magnetism to this story of, like, things that happen and are, like, fated, but happen in a scientifically, like, parallel string theory universe way, I really appreciated. I also just really like the fact that we all know a Saxon. You know? That we all have a Saxon in our life that is just like- I'm gonna push that Paul
Jess: right off a cliff
Damien: it's like, it's, like, not somebody- With a microbird ... it's not necessarily somebody who is a bad person, they just really get under our skin. And so it helped me to express and to ventilate a little bit about the, those individuals in our lives that are not necessarily [00:54:00] bad people, but just, like, really, really annoying, obnoxious individuals.
Ryan: I was sitting here thinking, "Who do I know that's a Saxon?"
Damien: You know a Saxon.
Ryan: But, uh, yeah. But I was thinking of, like, in the historical sense.
Damien: Yeah, I guess it does carry a bit of a different defo for you. So I thought the, the writing was really fluid. It was an easy read. It was a fun read. It was a contemplative read, that not just because I was summarizing, but because I wanted to go back and read it again.
It was a nice, enjoyable piece. Mm-hmm. So I give it a very, very strong four. Not four and a half, but I give it a strong four. What about you, Ry?
Ryan: I'm coming in with four fingers, too.
Damien: Okay.
Ryan: I really, really liked this story. I always love it... Well, first of all, I th- I think we should all take a moment to appreciate the work that Jess goes into in putting together the order of the stories for a season- Hundo P
'cause she does a great job with that in trying to make sure we end with, uh, with one that is gonna be really good. But with a lot of these kinds of stories that we read, I've either heard of the story before or I've heard of the author before, uh, [00:55:00] particularly the ones that I really like. So here was a story, I had never heard of the author, I had never heard of this particular story before- Right Yeah, true
and I, and I really, really liked it. Thought it was a cool idea. I loved the train to Metroland thing. I loved the interplay of worlds, the sense of consequence, the heavy sense of consequence there was- Yeah ... and how, how that maybe interplayed with is, is my guilty conscience creating those consequences?
And as I mentioned in the writing section, I really enjoyed the, the pacing. Even if I could see the end coming a little bit, that, that was, that was not that big of a problem for me. So four fingers of whiskey for me for Branch Line to Bencheston. We all liked this one. If you liked this story as, as much as we did but you're looking for something slightly less heady, uh, you might like The Midnight Meat Train.
But if you wanna do something really cool- Jess is here to tell you what you should check out.
Jess: Okay, obviously check out The Midnight Meat Train, both-
Ryan: If you haven't seen The Midnight... or read The
Damien: Midnight Meat Train, please do, just because it takes place on a train. Nothing else is really coincidental to the story.
It's also a movie- But just go read or [00:56:00] watch The Midnight Meat Train ...
Jess: that's pretty bad and Bradley Cooper's in it.
Damien: Yeah.
Jess: So do that. Also, there is a 2004 Japanese creepypasta called Kisaragi Station- Ooh ... which is the equivalent of, you know, it was like a Japanese forum. But basically someone posting in real time a story as though it's true on, you know, like Twitter, but, you know, uh, some Japanese form, of a...
You know, it's a woman tweeting her experience of- Ah ... being on a train and just, like, things are getting slightly weirder, and she stops recognizing the station names. And she's, like- Mm ... interacting with people who are just like, "Oh, you need to get off the train," and sort of justifying why she can't or coming up with a plan of what she should do.
And it's, it's, you know, one of the oldest stories on the internet. Mm-hmm. It's been... You know, if you look on YouTube, there's people who, you know, do [00:57:00] reenactments of it. They made it into a movie. I don't know the quality of any of those things other than, like- ... the, the original story is fun and it's- The
Ryan: source material is great.
Damien: Yeah. The,
Jess: the original, like- Old-timey internet-ness of it is, is charming
Damien: Well, it is interesting 'cause I think in nine seasons, this is the first time we've referenced a creepypasta.
Jess: Sure. Yeah.
Damien: Yeah. You know, as like an original internet culture phenomenon, fanfic, whatever you wanna call it. A creepypasta reference- So the-
is the first ...
Jess: whoever originally wrote it, I don't know that. I didn't look it up. I don't know who-
Damien: That's the thing about creepypastas- Yeah ... no attribution necessary,
Jess: right? Yeah. You're fine. They'll figure it out.
Damien: That's awesome.
Ryan: That is awesome. Well, that's gonna do it for this episode and this season- This season
of Whiskey and the Weird. Hey, bibbidi-bobb. Thank you so much for joining us for this season and for this episode tonight. And if you wouldn't mind dropping us a rating or review wherever you find your [00:58:00] podcasts. We always wanna thank Dr. Blake Brandes for the music for Whiskey and the Weird, and Damien, if they would like to tell us where their train stop is, where can they do that?
Damien: Choo-choo. All aboard. Mind the gap. You can find us on the meta properties at Whiskey and the Weird, at Whiskey and the Weird on Meta. Uh, we spell our whiskeys with an E, and we hope you do, too. If not, then that's okay. We'll see you in season 10 where you can think about your decisions and then come back with a different frame of reference.
Ryan: Thank you so much for that, Damien. And, and Jessica, speaking of that, we, we haven't decided what we're gonna read next. So- No,
Jess: we haven't. Sorry,
Ryan: wolves ... those meta properties are gonna be important for you to pay attention to if you wanna get ahead.
Jess: Everything's 15-
Ryan: Uh, where we will drop information just as soon as we get it
Damien: Follow as we decide in real time, yeah.
Ryan: Yeah. Yes, just as soon as we, as we decide what's
Jess: coming next. If you have a suggestion, I guess, let us know if there's something that we
Damien: haven't covered. But look, there's, there's 45 volumes of this series now. Can, can
Ryan: I
Damien: say, yeah, but also- Yeah ... it seems that this series has been extremely, extremely popular.
I'd like to attribute that popularity to our pod. [00:59:00] Oh. But also to the fact that there are- I'll take that, and there's no 1,000 different iterations ... a, you know, a thousand different iterations that are coming through on these collections, and they all are really intriguing. And there are some that we're, I know that we've discussed sort of off-cam some of the ones that we wanna do for season 10.
I don't know if we wanna tease those or not, but- But
Jess: we're also in the US, so we're on
Damien: a slightly delayed release. Right. Right. So if, if any of our friends across the pond wanna send us some, uh, preview copies and just say, "Hey, this is, this is the jam for next season," then please let us know.
Ryan: I'm Ryan Whitley.
Jess: I'm Jessica Berg.
Damien: And I'm Damien Smith.
Ryan: And together, we're Whiskey and the Weird, reminding you to keep your friends through the ages and your creeps in the pages. Bye-bye, everybody