My car and I have developed a new relationship due to the audiobook.\u00a0 Where before it represented only the oppressive duties of commute and errand, now it serves as my private listening chamber.\u00a0 Focused.\u00a0 Utilitarian.\u00a0 A reading nook can be entered, a book interrupted by a phone call.\u00a0 But for forty minutes a day, I get to enjoy whatever fiction I choose without disruption.<\/p>\n
Gaiman classifies it perfectly<\/a>, of course:\u00a0 “I grew up in a world where stories were read aloud”. When I heard the next story on NPR was going to be an old favorite talking about my latest obsession, I tuned in (pun intended) closer.\u00a0 The first sentence of his essay on audiobooks did more than simply grab my attention; it enlightened me on part of what I enjoy about the medium.\u00a0 I like to listen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I had a reputation on the schoolyards.\u00a0 Not for shove-fights or brilliant kickball plays, of course. No, the kids knew that if they gave me a chance I would burn up their recess time with over-long jokes.\u00a0 The kind where the joke is on the listener:\u00a0 ‘I can’t believe he made me listen to that whole thing for a stupid pun’. When the other kids asked me to retell one of these extempore epics, it was only to fool another friend into suffering through it.\u00a0 Jump in the lake — it’s not that cold.\u00a0 Here, smell this.<\/p>\n These jokes were my favorite to hear, though.\u00a0 Antimacassar-intricate stories knotted by scout leaders looking to keep the boys entertained on road trips in a time before texting.\u00a0 Yes the puns were bad, but each detail of the protagonist’s journey was built from that wordplay.\u00a0 The disembodied fingers which guarded the drawbridge could not be a full hand.\u00a0 Neither could they be an ominous red or black.\u00a0 The hero could not be a gallant knight; he needed to be the lowest-ranking member of the court to succeed at his Arthurian task.\u00a0 How else could the king let his pages do the walking through the yellow fingers?<\/p>\n See what I mean?\u00a0 Bad (and now dated) pun.\u00a0 But the trick is in the telling.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve been hanging around Podiobooks.com<\/a> for a while now, and most of what I\u2019ve listened to has been read by the authors themselves.\u00a0 Does that add to my enjoyment?\u00a0 A remarkable level of connection between reader and writer.<\/p>\n How different would my perception of Ishmael Wang<\/a> be if Nathan Lowell did not read him?\u00a0 Would a voice actor have made him different somehow?\u00a0 More aggressive, more eccentric?\u00a0 The lines between protagonist and author can get a little fuzzy in any form, but particularly in audio.\u00a0 How much of Wang is Lowell? Does he say things the same way Lowell does? How much Mur Lafferty is there in Kate from the Afterlife<\/em> <\/a>series? Some? Any? Someone else read Daniel\u2019s sections in season one \u2013 why?<\/p>\n When authors read the first-person text of their own stories, I find myself assuming that the protagonist has a great deal in common with the writer.\u00a0 Not intellectually \u2013 I understand<\/em> the difference.\u00a0\u00a0 But the feeling<\/em> is still there.\u00a0 \u201cThis person is talking about himself\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 This is a great fear of mine about my own writing, and I\u2019ve certainly written protagonists who say things I don\u2019t believe.\u00a0 Perhaps I\u2019m just projecting.\u00a0 Or is it that I crave to know the mind of the author?\u00a0 Either way, I can\u2019t stop listening.<\/p>\n The audiobook has its flaws, certainly.\u00a0 I wonder how much I\u2019ve missed by not being able to reread a paragraph or flip back a chapter or two.\u00a0 A narrator puts an interpretive layer between the author and the audience\u2026 but is that really a flaw?\u00a0 Lowell did a great job reading Michael J. Sullivan\u2019s The Crown Conspiracy<\/a>, <\/em>a story <\/em>about as far from the Trader Tales<\/em> as possible. Robertson Dean\u2019s pleasant narration did not detract from my experience with Zero History<\/em> any more than an actor\u2019s detracts from a script.\u00a0 Indeed, the opposite is true more often than not.<\/p>\n Why am I obsessing over this, you ask?\u00a0 I\u2019ve asked a highly talented friend to read Rhymer<\/em> for podiobook distribution. \u00a0Am I taking something away from the listener by denying them the opportunity to hear my mumbling?\u00a0 I say \u2018nay\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018Author\u2019 and \u2018voice actor\u2019 are two different roles, even when performed by the same person.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS \u2013 Boy, I referenced a lot of stuff in this post. A critic at heart, I guess. I often spend more time thinking about other peoples\u2019 work than developing my own.\u00a0\u00a0 If only I could write in the car\u2026.<\/p>\n Seriously, go listen to all of this:<\/p>\n Gaiman\u2019s NPR story<\/a>.<\/p>\n Podiobooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n Nathan Lowell\u2019s Traders Tale<\/em>s<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mur Lafferty\u2019s Afterlife<\/em> <\/a>series.<\/p>\n Michael J. Sullivan\u2019s The Crown Conspiracy<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n