KGB

[ellenkushner]

Went to KGB last night to hear matociquala and Jeff Ford [ADDED: woodburner tells me Jeff Ford is 14theditch on LJ] & 2 others [ADDED: who turn out to be realthog and nballingrud here!] read from Ellen Datlow(who has an LJ but I don't know what it is - ADDED: Ah! Thanks. It's ellen_datlow, of course!)'s new Inferno anthology. Jeff Ford is a god. I want to sacrifice chickens to him. His every sentence is perfection. Nothing is wasted. I love hearing him read aloud; he has a great voice. He doesn't do a Performance (as I do, so you know I think there's nothing wrong with that); he lets the language do the work for him. Although I rarely attend readings (I have trouble sitting still for them when there's so much else to do), I do love being read aloud to. I like to take in text through the ear -- and conversation and information in general, for that matter - which is why I don't read everyone's blogs: I'd rather have lunch with you, or even - gasp! - talk on the phone . . . .

So I'm glad I've taken up the habit of going to the KGB (and NYRSF) readings. I also get to see a big group of people who have become my friends, partly because I see them there once a month, and most of the audience then all go out to dinner after at one of my favorite joints (so this is where I wave to everyone from last night - Hiya! - and also pat myself on the back because I encouraged others to turn up, and they did, and surely they will be there next month for dinner & Michael Swanwick & ? - c'mon, guys, update the site already!). I tell everyone that I go and sit still for the readings just so I can get to the dinners, and that may be so; but the truth is, it's also exposed me to the work of many writers I might otherwise not have taken the time or had the inclination to read.

But then, I like to take in text through the ear. Some people really don't. You?

Comments

[galdrin.livejournal.com]

Ellen Datlow - http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/

[jazzfish]

I'd like to. I'd really like to be able to sit back and absorb the sound of the words, go to coffeeshop readings and such. But I have a lot of trouble taking things in aurally, to the point where I totally lose the thread of what was going on.

It's worst if there's only one speaker, even as gifted a speaker as Mr Neil. Radio shows are alright, I guess because there's enough variance in the vocal quality to keep my attention focused.

(also, ellen_datlow)

[auroramama]

Well, that's interesting. I do better if there's only one speaker. At a party, my aural attention darts around like a minnow.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Would you believe ellen_datlow?

[peregrinejohn.livejournal.com]

Now I've got to find out if I can hear Jeff Ford for myself. This sounds like the sort of person I want to model my vocal work after.

[miep.livejournal.com]

i would be happy to call you at any time. just say the word, evil overlord.

also -- working on a change in cards to a deck that might allow wiscon attendance. stay tuned...

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Jeff Ford also has an LJ - presuming, of course, you mean the dude who wrote Empire of Ice Cream, and not some other Jeff Ford I'm not familiar with. ;D It's 14theditch.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

Oh, to be in NYC, now that reading's there!

I almost always enjoy readings, and certain types of fiction I find more enjoyable to hear read than I do reading it on the page.

There used to be (and sometimes still are) lots of readings at Greyhaven, and I would go to those whenever possible. Always a treat, especially when it was the booming, expressive voice of the late Paul Edwin Zimmer.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Nice to be known as 1 other.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Hi! Nice to see you here! I very much enjoyed your reading, too - though I was sorry not to get the promised vocal range - guess we'll have to wait for next 'flu season for a Night at the Opera....

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I was pretty pleased to produce any vocals at all, to be honest. Today I'm paying for having believed myself well enough to make the trip.

Nice to see you there. Sorry I didn't say hello, but it's been such a long time since we met (Blackpool, UK, when you were promoting Rhyming Tom -- early 90s at a guess) that it was only when Pam and I were halfway home in the car that I suddenly cried, "Bloody hell! I've just realized . . ."

Talking of small worlds: The reason I found your writeup is that Pam is a member of an LJ quilting group; she blogged there about the quilting shop we went to on our way to NYC (and my considerable tolerance in visiting said shop with her without a single suicide attempt), and added a bit about the KGB event; one of her fellow quilters commented that she knew about the latter because, a fantasy fan, she'd just been reading your remarks about it.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

By the way, the fourth reader was Nathan Ballingrud:(nballingrud)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Both the joy and horror of KGB is that there are far too many good people to meet, re-meet (figuring out where/when we met last) and catch up/converse with . . . . It's one reason to come as often as possible; eventually one will manage to sit next to them all at dinner. I hope you & Pam will make it back in when you're feeling better - quilting shop seems to be a small price to pay (or an inducement, if you're Pam). I'll try to recognize you, too, next time - I have a terrible memory, and am very impressed that you could call up Blackpool!

[meener.livejournal.com]

i wish i had been able to go to the reading! though i'm more of a text through the eye person, myself - at readings, my mind will tend to grab onto the cadences of the voice rather than on the actual contents of the words if i'm not careful. which is an enchanting experience in its own way, but not always the best way to engage in a story.

that is why i appreciate a good Performance - something about the dynamic aspect of it, and its visuality, helps me focus on both the words and the sounds. :)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I like readings if people are good readers, or good performers, which as you point out isn't always the same thing. I've been to some excruciating readings by people who can write but can't read aloud. I don't often go to readings though, because people so often read a part of a novel. This then screws up the pacing of reading the novel for me, because I've heard part of it aloud in advance. I'm fine if it's something I've already read, but otherwise I only go to readings of whole things. Now that I have so many friends who are writers this leads to a constant need to apologise for why I'm not going to be at their readings, but I just have to explain I'm not going to be there because I want to like the book.

Depends what I'm trying to take in

[auroramama]

For content, especially content I need to remember, it's written text all the way. I lost what little ability I had to hear-and-remember a long time ago. Probably in college, where I discovered that taking written notes on a lecture vastly improved my ability to remember it, even if the notes were illegible, or I never even tried to lege them.

For atmosphere, emotion, esthetics? Viva voce. And then there are those voices I'd listen to because they're music.

When you're listening to someone who isn't quite loud enough, do you find that looking at their mouth move helps or hinders your abiity to catch the words?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

March is Michael Swanwick and David Keck. It's on MY website :-)
http://www.datlow.com/

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're a classic aural learner. I'm a visual learner. Readings and audiobooks drive me straight up the wall! A reader who is unusually mellisonant or extremely witty will hold my attention for a while, but other than that ...

[bondgwendabond.livejournal.com]

I really love a good reading, and also hearing someone whose work I've read and loved read regardless of how good they are at it. There's just something about inflection that you take away and bring to their prose from then on. You internalize the way that phrase would actually be turned, catch little ticks of humor that might have passed smoothly by before. Yeah, I love a good reading, because it can reveal new layers in the text.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I find that humor, in particular, can be so subtle & individual that you can miss it altogether until you hear the author reading aloud. (That's how I came to love Grace Paley: I was assigned to read her in college because she was coming to campus, and I couldn't make head nor tail of what I read [have mercy; I was 19!] - then I heard her read, and light dawned over marble head: "Ohh! She's **funny**...!" My Spanish _Swordspoint_ publisher says he nearly made the same mistake with me - but the Lord moved him to come to my reading in Glasgow [!], and he Saw the Light. Oddly enough, my French translator was there, too. We'll see how that one goes....)

[vcmw]

I like to have books read out loud to me, but I don't interact with the book in the same way at all. I particularly like to hear plays, poems, and children's books read out loud. Some books that are very pleasurable to read silently are less pleasurable to read out loud and vice versa.

Howl's Moving Castle; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Nicobobinus; and a few of the Harry Potter books have all been read out loud here - we keep swearing we'll do the Complete Works of Shakespeare some year or other.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

we keep swearing we'll do the Complete Works of Shakespeare some year or other.

Just take it Bard by Bard....

which is a joke you won't get unless you're an Anne LaMotte fan

[vcmw]

I got a second hand copy of her Bird by Bird quite recently. I don't know if that makes me a fan, but I thought it was really good - especially the way she is so honest about the emotional turmoil of it all.

And it's probably true in this context as well - thinking about all those plays at once is a bit overwhelming. Getting through just The Tempest or something is probably a better way to think of it (and then Measure for Measure, and so on...).

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Reading Shakespeare aloud is one of the great frivolous pleasures of life. Turning it into a Project is OK if that makes you happy; otherwise, just pick a play and relax!

[ladyuranus.livejournal.com]

I can't do live readings for the reason you mentioned-- I get all fidgety. Although it's always nice to hear an author read their work, I get much more out of it reading it visually.

Maybe some of it has to do with the internet age-- I much prefer e-mail to phone, etc. It's much more plannable, you can re-think your words...

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

All of which is true - but I think we're just hard-wired from birth for text or sound - which is why someone like you is so much more happy in the internet age....

[thumbelinablues.livejournal.com]

*wavesback* Megan here, the one attached at the hip to Liz all night. It was so nice to meet you! I also get fidgety after a while at readings, but I really enjoy listening to someone interpret the piece; I got a different feeling from Jeff Ford's reading than from my reading of Jeff Ford -- both good, but different. It was funnier out loud and creepier in my head. And dinner, of course, was awesome.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I was so glad I could spend at least part of dinner with you! Thanks for sharing the space - and the food!

Yes and yes about Jeff Ford - see my comments to bondgwendabond above!