For
me ebooks and audiobooks are utilitarian.
Ebooks are convenient and audiobooks are an efficient way to ingest
books I don’t feel I have time for otherwise.
I am even pretty comfortable listening at 1.5 times the original speed
of the recording. However, I have a
friend who mostly only reads audiobooks and seems to have strongly formed
opinions about narrators. I’m not sure
what all of his appeal factors might be but there is something about
Mediatore’s “audible presentation” appeal factor at work here (2003).
This new appeal factor specific to audiobooks is kind of fascinating, though for me, really hard to quantify. If a reader really likes a narrator it’s pretty easy to set them up with other books read by that narrator, but how do you find read-alikes? Maybe it works to identify the level of celebrity a narrator possesses. Some readers enjoy and some stories might be invigorated by a famous personality. For example, I really want Morgan Freeman to continue to be able to give me directions on the Waze app (but I think that feature has been discontinued), but if Morgan Freeman tried to read a Thomas Mann book to me it might take me out of it too much. Some stories benefit perhaps from a lower profile celebrity or sometime performer with talent in the area of performance but with less unique flair that might distract from what the author is trying to accomplish. But “audible presentation” isn’t just about the narrator and their ability to “characterize” and capture the tone of the book with their voice, it includes musical flourishes, sound quality, and track length among other aspects (Mediatore, 2003). These unique aspects of audiobooks are all suddenly production details that add in to the variability of a reader’s experience of a text that we used to think of as mainly the author’s. Suddenly we can’t think just about the textual appeal factors that we’ve relied on, we’ve got to think about this new appeal factor, audible presentation, too.
Ebooks experience a similar effect in the ability of the reader to change aspects of the textual experience they’re having, though since these are solely under the control of the user and their device it’s even harder to track. Things like font size can affect pacing, font color can affect tone, not to mention the lack of a tactile experience of the progress one has made in a book through the heft and visual thickness of each half of the book and how that affects the sense of pace (Dunneback, 2011). For example, I used to predict the “perp” in Law & Order based on how far through the episode we had progressed. (It’s never the suspect that’s brought forth in the first twenty minutes, they spring it on you in the last few minutes.) This is an aspect of the genre and because I have a wall clock and the show starts on the hour I can adjust my expectations of the plot. This is much less so when the consistent variable of start time and the measurement device of a wall clock are compromised or taken away completely. This is also true of the physical feel of a book. I’ve totally sat and looked at the last third of pages I’ve yet to begin in a book and surmised, “Hmm. The third act…” These sorts of orienting tactics within a plot or genre are part of the comfort and craft of genre fiction. Ebooks take much of this away and for this reason may work for different genres better than others. I wonder if it’s less fun to read a plot-bound Mystery as an ebook with few physical reminders of your progress than it is to read a Fantasy as an ebook that simply keeps spawning the “landscape” you’re interested in at the touch of your finger (Saricks, 2009).
This new appeal factor specific to audiobooks is kind of fascinating, though for me, really hard to quantify. If a reader really likes a narrator it’s pretty easy to set them up with other books read by that narrator, but how do you find read-alikes? Maybe it works to identify the level of celebrity a narrator possesses. Some readers enjoy and some stories might be invigorated by a famous personality. For example, I really want Morgan Freeman to continue to be able to give me directions on the Waze app (but I think that feature has been discontinued), but if Morgan Freeman tried to read a Thomas Mann book to me it might take me out of it too much. Some stories benefit perhaps from a lower profile celebrity or sometime performer with talent in the area of performance but with less unique flair that might distract from what the author is trying to accomplish. But “audible presentation” isn’t just about the narrator and their ability to “characterize” and capture the tone of the book with their voice, it includes musical flourishes, sound quality, and track length among other aspects (Mediatore, 2003). These unique aspects of audiobooks are all suddenly production details that add in to the variability of a reader’s experience of a text that we used to think of as mainly the author’s. Suddenly we can’t think just about the textual appeal factors that we’ve relied on, we’ve got to think about this new appeal factor, audible presentation, too.
Ebooks experience a similar effect in the ability of the reader to change aspects of the textual experience they’re having, though since these are solely under the control of the user and their device it’s even harder to track. Things like font size can affect pacing, font color can affect tone, not to mention the lack of a tactile experience of the progress one has made in a book through the heft and visual thickness of each half of the book and how that affects the sense of pace (Dunneback, 2011). For example, I used to predict the “perp” in Law & Order based on how far through the episode we had progressed. (It’s never the suspect that’s brought forth in the first twenty minutes, they spring it on you in the last few minutes.) This is an aspect of the genre and because I have a wall clock and the show starts on the hour I can adjust my expectations of the plot. This is much less so when the consistent variable of start time and the measurement device of a wall clock are compromised or taken away completely. This is also true of the physical feel of a book. I’ve totally sat and looked at the last third of pages I’ve yet to begin in a book and surmised, “Hmm. The third act…” These sorts of orienting tactics within a plot or genre are part of the comfort and craft of genre fiction. Ebooks take much of this away and for this reason may work for different genres better than others. I wonder if it’s less fun to read a plot-bound Mystery as an ebook with few physical reminders of your progress than it is to read a Fantasy as an ebook that simply keeps spawning the “landscape” you’re interested in at the touch of your finger (Saricks, 2009).
Works Cited:
Dunneback, K. (2011). E-books and Readers' Advisory. Reference & User Services Quarterly, (4), 325.
Mediatore, Kaite. (2003). Reading with Your Ears: Readers' Advisory and Audio Books. Reference & User Services Quarterly, (4), 318.
Saricks, J. (2009). The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.
Dear Craig,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the act of listening to audiobooks is generally influenced by how quickly one can speed through the information. It’s incredibly practical and effortless to let a narrator supply one with information, instead of attempting to make the conscious effort to actively read and understand the information. However, I think listening to content can make information much easier for our brains to process unless our brains are actively thinking about the content. So, listening to audiobooks can be about as mindless as watching a television show.
Have you read the complete content of any ebook? I’ve never tried reading an ebook from start to finish. If I remember correctly, I haven’t specifically attempted to read a snippet of text from an ebook. As a future librarian, I should be more aware of ebooks, but they haven’t interested me. I also don’t really own any technologies that can utilize ebooks, such as the Amazon Kindle or the Nook device from Barnes & Noble.
In addition, I find it interesting that you watch certain television shows and read books from your own expectations of the plot. You are probably setting yourself up for disappointment. Great writing is experienced and is not anticipated in stories. Also, have you ever heard of the concept of trope inversion? I think certain individuals can’t stomach the idea of subverting expectations for literary plots, but the payoff from an inverted trope can be immensely satisfying.
I'm interested in trope inversion, though I've never heard the phrase before. I think Literary Fiction often does this, though I wouldn't have thought of calling it that.
ReplyDeleteExcellent job expanding on the prompt response, I like your point about voice appeals, currently there isn't a master list out there to help patrons find "rich, deep baritones narrating historical fiction," or something else specific. I've noticed that many readers will try out books outside of their genre if a favorite narrator of theirs is narrating it. It's not an exact science, that is for sure! Full points!
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