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A Principal Challenge of Modern
Story-telling
by Daniel Vimont
I'm very grateful to Niamh for
the invitation to take part in these wonderful Plum Tree conversations, which
seem to me to be something of a 21st century version of the stimulating and
enlightening French salons of centuries past.
Since Niamh's invitation was in
the context of my work (and works) as an audiobook narrator, I'd better begin
my part of the conversation at least somewhere in the neighborhood of that
topic. (Who knows where things might veer from there? But that's where I'll
start.)
Let's talk first about
challenges. (That's like skipping the pleasantries and getting straight to the
car chase.) It may be a bit masochistic of me, but I love the fact that as an
audiobook narrator/producer, I face a broad array of challenges every day:
artistic and technical challenges, as well as marketing and financial
challenges. And all of these challenges are overhung by the fairly relentless
meta-challenge of not losing faith in my ability to effectively take on any of
these challenges. (That last one probably sounds very familiar to you, even if
you're not an audiobook narrator.)
In adhering to what I perceive
to be the belles-lettres nature of these Plum Tree conversations, I'll take on
the artistic issues here and leave discussion of the others to some other blog.
It will come as no surprise to
you if I say that during every moment that I am recording an audiobook, I am
reading words off of a page. However, at any moment in which you are listening
to an audiobook of mine, if it ever sounds
like I am reading to you then I have
failed (and failed rather abysmally), to meet one of the fundamental challenges
that I set for myself. When I am reading to you (and of course, every second
you are engaged in one of my audiobooks I am, in fact, reading to you), it must
never ever sound like I am "reading to you".
When your favorite musician
plays or sings for you, does it sound like they are reading notes off of a
page? Hell no!! They are just making beautiful music for you to enjoy, and any
notation that may or may not be in front of them while they are doing it does
not in any way come into your conscious experience as a listener.
Likewise, if I come across
sounding as if I have printed words in front of me that I am reading to you,
then the magic (that I feel must be
there) has been lost. Even though my voice is physically coming through your
earbuds or emanating from your car or living room speakers, it must feel as if I am having a very
intimate conversation with you (just you),
with a spontaneity that distinguishes a natural conversation from a recitation.
Do I succeed at this? Do I come
across as someone who is simply reading something aloud to you, or do I come
across as someone who is telling you a
story? That is for you to decide.
It is up to you to be the judge and jury (and, if necessary, the executioner --
let's hope it doesn't come to that).
Do I think other audiobook
narrators succeed at this? Honestly, very few. But it also seems that not many
of them are even trying to get beyond sounding like they’re "reading".
Which leads me to tentatively conclude that audiobook narration as an art form
is in its very early stages of development.
So if each of us is on our own
Joseph Campbell "hero's journey", then this is mine: hacking through the underbrush in unexplored, unmapped
territory, working to give birth to a new art form.