Audiobook reading: FlutterDoomshy · 10:14am May 18th, 2021
I just found out about this one: a PM notice in my inbox. A few minutes ago, I finished listening to it through YouTube, and -- I think this is the first reading I've had where I could say Death Of The Author applied.
Okay: before anyone says or does anything, let me explain.
One of the deliberate choices in writing this story was that Doomguy would never speak. All communications would be made via gesture, body posture, and the occasional displayed object. In the strictest sense, he has no dialogue. And the person who read this story took a few of the boldface and italicized lines -- things which I had intended to represent Fluttershy's thoughts being particularly intense, as I had rendered them without quotation marks -- and gave them to Doomguy.
It's possible to look at this as Fluttershy thinking about what he might be saying. But even so, for this version of the story, he effectively speaks three times.
And it changes things, just a little. I'm not sure it's necessary for the worse. The tone just becomes a little different here and there, with the payoff for that change coming towards the end, as an extra sense of foreshadowing. The last such line, in text, was meant to represent Fluttershy realizing that she might have to give Angel up. Here, given to a different speaker...
Because the interpretation was different, the story changed. And I'm telling you about that in advance, because I knew how I'd meant the text to originally come across. Hearing the switch was somewhat more of a shock for me than it'll probably be for anyone else, but I still wanted to warn everyone --
-- and to ask something.
If you listen to this one (and it's about an hour), hear the reading and the little change it created... what do you think it does to the tone? To characterization and intent?
As a writer, you can never hope to fully control how a voice resounds within a reader's mind. This is just the external audio version of that.
Just don't post any open complaints regarding the error. Those who worked on this put a lot of effort in, and I'm not going to request that they alter the files. Their effort was offered freely, and audiobooks are precious things. I have to appreciate the gift. So let's just call this an interpretive version.
And there's one more thing you should know before you go in.
They rocked the Tom section.
Nah man, you rock.
I didnt know they audiobook version of this
That switching of the italicised text, be it misinterpretation, accident, or deliberate choice...
Death of the author isn’t so bad, is it? If the heart of the story beats just a little bit louder...
Congratulations. If this keeps up, Your printed volumes may have to come with a CD box set as well.
Interesting. I did like how you did Doomguy. It can be hard at times to have a character communicate with little to no dialogue, but you made it work
this reminds me of a crazy thing i saw where someone came up with the idea that Doomguy is actually...LINK!
they are both "silent protagonists", they both wear green, they are always fighting demons, they both begin recent games awakening from hibernation...
the craziest part was a picture from a Doom game showing what appears to be a Triforce symbol on a wall!
I agonized over that voice, I will admit. I worked on this recording off and on for a few months and a good deal of that was spent considering just how to do it. From the text it seemed obvious that The Biped spoke no words; nothing was in quotes for him. Yet he conveyed words nevertheless. I tried reading those words in the narrators voice. It worked somewhat. But then there was the point where Fluttershy reacted to one word. How to convey that... Narrator's voice did not seem to match that. Omitting the words worked even less well. They needed to be conveyed. What to do. I vacillated between narrator's voice, nothing and... something contrived. I settled on contrived. It was not a choice which left me particularly pleased. But I felt it was the best of poor options. I have encountered similar situations many times over the years. Some things simply work better in print. And most of the print composed by Estee works very well indeed. -I
P.S. Now I understand what happened. And it was indeed totally my fault. I transferred the text to a Word file so I could highlight it give it to the voice actress for her parts. The italics did not survive the transcription. And I used the same copy to record my narrator's lines. If I had seen the italics I might have understood that all of it was Fluttershy thoughts and not merely the thoughts which I did attribute to her. Alas the perils of technology. My apologies. -I
5521336
Translation between print and audio or video is difficult. Even with multi-million dollar budgets Hollywood has trouble finding the balance. Swapping those lines from Fluttershy to the Doomguy...
The core of the story remains. Both sides are coming to terms with loss. In the print version, Fluttershy gets there first. That is completely in character for her. And when the Doomguy gives up, her desire to help is natural.
In the audio version, the Doomguy gets there first. And that’s heart-rending. Behind the weapons, the armour, and the scars is a human. He could take Angel at any time, but he doesn’t. Because, despite all that has happened to him, he remains a good person. That shines a little brighter in your reading, and it is no bad thing.
So, congratulations. I hope there are more Estee readings from you in the future, ‘cause this is a really impressive debut.