Writer's Block: Reading Aloud

[fajrdrako]

[Error: unknown template qotd]

Shakespeare.

I can think of others, too.

I have heard a lot of my favourite authors read from their works: Dorothy Dunnett, Guy Gavriel Kay, Karin Lowachee. It was wonderful.

Comments

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

Sei Shounagon, though I'd need a translator; I don't speak Heian Japanese...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

But it would still be fun to hear, don't you think? I like hearing things in Japanese. What does Heian mean?

A week ago I went to a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that was partly translated into Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Tamil, and a few other Indian languages. I couldn't understand any of them - I couldn't even tell which were Indo-European and which weren't - but it was lovely to hear, and the acting was so good, the meaning came across. Just not the words.

Language is a funny thing.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Heian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_period) is the time-period 794-1185 or 1192 in Japan. It's roughly contemporary with a lot of our friends!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Woo, yes, spot on!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Some of the people I've heard:
Sorley MacLean
Norman McCaig
Edwin Morgan
Iain Crichton-Smith
Alasdair Gray
Jessie Kesson (I was reading on the same platform with her)
Douglas Dunn

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Cool!

I don't often get to hear readings by UK authors.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Eddie Morgan (now well on in his 80s) is more or less the laureate of Glasgow. He's also a gay icon, although he didn't officially come out until he was 60. (He had, however, already written and published poems about cruising on Glasgow Green, so one would have to have been a tad naive not to realise…)

At St Andrews, I was in a student writing group that Douglas Dunn co-ordinated.

A couple of student friends are now novelists: Douglas Galbraith and Harriet Smart.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I'd love to have heard Guilhem IX or Rudel or de Born; to know how the music is meant to sound, whatever the modern interpretations.
Federico Garcia Lorca.
Marina Tsvetaeva.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That would have been wonderful. I'd also love to have heard Marie de France doing her stories with music. Or to hear something in Anglo-Norman!

I did once hear someone read sections from Boccaccio in what was supposed to be the original dialect - and it drove me nuts, because it was difficult to follow. I wish I'd had the chance to study it beforehand.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I've heard Dorothy Dunnett, Guy Gavriel Kay, Neil Gaiman, and Lois McMaster Bujold give readings of their books -- and they were all wonderful. So was Pierre Berton. And Jasper Fforde. And Gordon Dickson. And Spider Robinson (with musical interludes). And A.L. Kennedy. And Terry Pratchett.

In general, I love author readings -- probably the one I liked least was Margaret Atwood reading from The Blind Assassin: the book didn't grab me, and her flat style of speaking irritates me (heresy, I know). Neither did the only P.D. James' reading I heard really inspire me -- mostly because she cut it so short.

I remember Kathy Reichs (this was before she was famous, when she was promoting her first book) giving an absolutely fascinating slide show on forensic pathology for most of her reading -- it was great except for the parts where I had to look away for the sake of my stomach.

Isaac Asimov, from what I remember, didn't do readings; he just blethered. But that was OK, too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've head Neil Gaiman speak, but I don't think I've heard him read his works. What an oversight! I have never heard or met Lois McMaster Bujold, to my sorrow. I heard Pierre Berton speak, but never heard him read. Jasper Fforde I believe we heard together - wonderful. Who is A.L. Kennedy? I think I heard Terry Pratchett read but I'm not sure. I've heard Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, too, and Ed Bryant, and... others.

I've heard readings from lesser-known writers too, and almost always enjoy it.

[editrx.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would so love to hear Dunnett read from her books.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I heard Dorothy Dunnett reading from her works several times - the most interesting being in Toronto, where she read the cat scene from Spring of the Ram. She was a very... gracious... reader, and took a diabolical joy in her listeners' reactions.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

I am not sure how to count Shakespeare, seeing as how he's a playwright and all -- though he did perform in his own plays (as you know, Bob), and of course my first stop when I get that time machine is the original Globe!

My less-complicated answer, though, is definitely Chaucer.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason for my answer is that I would have loved to have seen Shakespeare as an actor. And to hear his take on his own works would be delicious. Or to ask him questions. None of this nonsense like "What Hamlet man?", I want to know the ins and outs with the Fair Lord and the Dark Lady. (So paparazzi-like of me!)

Chaucer: yes!

I was also considering Milton and Donne.