Hello, my beloved beans, Michael Swain here with a quick message before we hear Abe's awesome sci-fi intro theme song and get started with this episode of like razor blade pie.

It's a great one, which is why it's such a shame that I had some audio issues on this recording. My deepest apologies to you, the listener and our very special guest, Bridget Greenberg for the audio issues on my end.

I just wanted to assure all the small beans that I have just acquired a brand new microphone and XLR cable that should remedy the issue.

So slight audio issues in this episode, but hopefully it doesn't make it un-listenable. If it does, we will catch you next time on like razor blade pie. You've been warned.

Hi there, and welcome back to like razor blade pie, a bite-sized book club podcast about the speculative fiction of Harlan Ellison.

It doesn't begin with a bit, so I'm off the hook. It starts with that nice boilerplate. I think that's real good. I like that crutch.

Welcome everyone. I'm Michael Swam, your intrepid host here as ever, but adjoining me as usual is an entirely new guest, a whole separate person with their own thoughts and dreams and fears and story arc that will surely be resolved in a way that brings us all catharsis by the end of this episode. Guest, please sound off.

I'm guest. I'm Bridget Greenberg. You know, you put a lot of my plate. That's a lot of things to take care of.

It's okay right now. You're just starting out. It's our opening image so you can be flawed. It's a, you know, you're good girl. Yeah, by the end, I'll become a complete hero.

You're already my complete hero, Bridget. Thank you so much. Just for being here, and I'll start out by asking for folks who didn't read along.

You mentioned it's pretty straightforward. Can you not show plot wise or thematically?

Oh, just plot wise. Alright, so we'll talk about themes. But yeah, so this guy enters this silver corridor, along with an enemy of his, a nemesis of his, the corridor projects their greatest fears and they fight to the death over their point of view.

Yeah, that's basically it. I'm scrolling through for the other guy's name. It's Marmworth and Crane. We hate Crane. Yeah.

We're pro. We're team Marmworth at this house. Yes. That's the point of view from which the story is told. I don't know if you walk away being team anyone.

The ending, you see it coming in a kind of telegraphs. Right. A point of the story, but it's still the journey is still weird and fun and interesting.

Yeah, and for the record that ending is they come to see each other's the merits in each other's point of view. Yeah.

Well, okay, I guess we have to say. Yeah, you didn't set up the rule is the more you believe in your point of view. Yeah, the more you dig in.

The more you control the reality of the silver corridor, which is constantly shifting.

Yes. That is what I describe. I'm like, it really is pretty cool. I think it's really cool. I guess that's why I have this podcast. Yeah. No, it is. It's a cool. Yeah.

The imagery. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They come to see each other's point of view and they both die. Yeah.

Yeah. No, it's a neat concept that I think is sadly a universal truth about people arguing or. Oh, no. Well, there's the theme. Okay. So. Yeah.

That's the deep theme. I want to get to in the third act. Okay. I orchestrate this a little bit. Yeah. Okay. That's not true. And there's lots of you said about that. Yeah.

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