For our next meeting on 9/13, I want you to write a blog post and report on it with a very brief (max 5 min) presentation on any audiobook version of a fiction text that you can get your hands on. Sources might include:
- free/open texts read by amateurs on librivox.org (which Rubery mentions in his article)
- texts you download/check out from your local library or the GC’s library
- texts you buy from iTunes or Google Play or audible.com
- texts you own or discover at flea markets/secondhand stores
I’d like you to think about and comment on some of the following:
- production values: how much went into the recording, in terms of vocal training, editing, recording technology, etc.?
- style: is there a single voice or multiple voices? Does the narrator (or do the narrators) do “voice characterization,” modulating the voice for different characters, or not?
- fidelity: is the recording abridged or unabridged? Does it stick rigorously to the text or deviate from it?
- affect: what does it feel like to “read” this text? How does it differ from reading a printed work of fiction?
