Audiobooks discussion

Interesting article

https://slate.com/culture/2021/06/aud...

I do get the concepts in the article and I think we've all noted problems from time to time related to accent or ethnicity or gender as portrayed by the narrator. But I'd hate to see audiobooks either turn into bland readings to avoid offense or multi-cast productions to provide "authentic" voices for every character. It's a minefield.

Really interesting article. One of my favorite narrations is Dion Graham who is Black narrating A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, who is white. He didn't play up any kind of accent but I thought he was great fit. This was over 20 years ago, and it was unusual that he got that job.

Robin P wrote: "Really interesting article. One of my favorite narrations is Dion Graham who is Black narrating A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, who is white. He didn't play up..."

Graham is terrific. I just listened to him narrate a book about Nureyev.

Faith wrote: "Interesting article

https://slate.com/culture/2021/06/aud..."

As you say, interesting article.

I have mixed feelings about these issues. I often know nothing about narrators other than their names. Usually if I know more it is because of information at beginning or end of book. I know at least two, possibly 3 or 4, narrators I've listened to are gay. Some narrators I've listened to: Black US and maybe British narrators, Asia, Oceania, South Africa, Wales, First Nations, Irish and Irish American and more.

I want a narrator who enunciates clearly, reads text in appropriate tone and voices characters in such a way that I can tell who is speaking and that is not contrary to authors' descriptions.

I prefer one or two narrators. I don't mind male main characters voiced by females or female main characters voiced by males. I don't want "full cast" narration with each character voiced by a different narrator. I usually opt for print or text-to-speech over full cast.

I want characters to have tone indicated by author. I don't care if white character is voiced by black narrator or straight character is voiced by gay narrator. I do care if character is voiced like caricature of some aspect of the character. I've listened to more than one book where every gay man is voiced very effeminate despite authors' descriptions to the contrary and way too many books with 30ish military, police, action-adventure women voiced contrary to authors' description. Somehow I just don't see a giggly teen or staid matron using a sword to carve up a murderous monster.

I think it's good to have narrators of the same race when possible.

Examples:

I listened to The Life And Times Of Frederick Douglass By Frederick Douglass from librivox.org. It is narrated by a man who sounds white. That's fine, of course, but it just didn't sound "right" to me. Here it is: https://librivox.org/life-and-times-o...

Later, I listened to Roots by Alex Haley. It is narrated by Avery Brooks. Some may know him as Captain Sisko on Star Trek - Deep Space 9. He was superb and I think his voice added something special to the story.

Right now I'm listening to The Autobiography Of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. It is read by Lawrence Fishburne. He is excellent in this role...and I use the word role deliberately. He sounds as if he is portraying Malcolm X, which of course he is, rather than simply reading a book.

I don't think white-sounding narrators would be nearly as good as Brooks and Fishburne are for these two books.

Respectfully submitted. I hope this isn't misinterpreted as racism or anything uncivil.