I have found the lost microphone and fooled around with recording a snip from Glimmerglass. I may do more. Unless the general populace detests my audio self.
Like many people, I dislike recordings of my voice. My father once tried to record me reading Alice in Wonderland when we lived in Louisiana (Wonderland), and I was so self-conscious that I think I lost my mind in a sort of 5-year-old way.
Next time I am going to record in my closet, which is all buffery-buttery-soft and should make for better sound. And thank you to Paul for the gift of the microphone, which I will try not to misplace again. Both books and microphones wander, it seems.
nice. the faint southern accent lends a certain genie say kwa to the sound, sort of flowing along waterlike...
ReplyDeleteMy sixth grade teacher at Alfred I. Dupont Elementary in Wilmington, Delaware (my first stint in the North) thought I was retarded because I had such a strong drawl. I expect that's why I got rid of so much of it. Of course, she was inspiring once I started writing novels...
DeleteLike it very much. Why not do the whole thing and market it? Would your publisher go with that?
ReplyDeleteOn that book, I kept most rights. That's more than I can do right now--I'm already balancing too many plates. But it's a good idea.
DeleteWe all dislike recordings of our voice and - by and large - we're all wrong. And why? Because we all have this idealised and fixed imaginary view of ourselves which gets tested in photographs (which we dismiss as a second's snatch at reality) but becomes harder to escape with recordings because they vary and endure. There's also the personal slippage between our judgment on what we write (sophisticated, elegant, literary, wide-ranging, etc) and the way we sound (often employing an accent related to some place we imagine many will regard as unfashionable).
ReplyDeleteBut if I read your stuff because you're always up to something new and engaging (and I do), what would I hope for from your voice? The answer's individuality, something you'd find it difficult to assess. As it happens I have heard your voice and it fitted both the poetry you write and the self-portrait you post. Except that, I suspect, there'd be more to come, post two martinis. We must all accept that we are not summarised by our voice any more than by one of those photos shot in a studio with our expression just so, and the lighting perfected. We should be proud of our variations.
Ah, now, there's a good comment from someone who is studying voice! And I think you are exactly right.
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