Audio recordings of Wolfe

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 3:06 PM, Nigel Price <nigelaprice at talktalk.net>wrote: When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things we discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some time ago at a science fiction convention. The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion. They invited questions from the floor, and would then specify imaginary members of the audience to ask questions, saying things like, "Yes sir, the gentleman with the green T-shirt in the back row. What was your question?" To cover the lack of a question, Gene and Fred (or whoever) would then say, "I don't think that the microphone picked up your question, so I'll repeat it for the benefit of those listening to the recording. What you wanted to know was..." They of course asked themselves all the questions about their own work which they always hoped fans would ask, and then answered them as they saw fit. Apparently they kept this up for the entire length of the proposed panel session. Gene says that he never heard the recording broadcast or used in any way and therefore supposes that the recording engineer tumbled to their little game when he played back the tape. Still, it's interesting to think that this recording might still be out there somewhere. I couldn't help wondering what questions Gene asked himself, the questions which he wishes we the fans would ask, presumably instead of the ones which we actually come up with! I wondered whether anybody here had a copy of this recording, or knew anything more about it. The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The Tree is my Hat" - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out there. Nigel _______________________________________________

When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things we discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some time ago at a science fiction convention. The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion. They invited questions from the floor, and would then specify imaginary members of the audience to ask questions, saying things like, "Yes sir, the gentleman with the green T-shirt in the back row. What was your question?" To cover the lack of a question, Gene and Fred (or whoever) would then say, "I don't think that the microphone picked up your question, so I'll repeat it for the benefit of those listening to the recording. What you wanted to know was..." They of course asked themselves all the questions about their own work which they always hoped fans would ask, and then answered them as they saw fit. Apparently they kept this up for the entire length of the proposed panel session. Gene says that he never heard the recording broadcast or used in any way and therefore supposes that the recording engineer tumbled to their little game when he played back the tape. Still, it's interesting to think that this recording might still be out there somewhere. I couldn't help wondering what questions Gene asked himself, the questions which he wishes we the fans would ask, presumably instead of the ones which we actually come up with! I wondered whether anybody here had a copy of this recording, or knew anything more about it. The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The Tree is my Hat" - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out there. Nigel _______________________________________________

-----Original Message----- From: Lane Haygood [mailto:lhaygood at gmail.com] Sent: Friday, December 5, 2008 01:10 PM To: 'The Urth Mailing List' Subject: Re: (urth) Audio recordings of Wolfe If you have blind or seeing-impaired friends, ask them about getting the American Printing House for the Blind audio recordings of Wolfe's books. I listened to the "Book of the New Sun" that way. Made for an interesting series of car trips. Lane On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 3:06 PM, Nigel Price <nigelaprice at talktalk.net>wrote:

When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things we discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some time ago at a science fiction convention. The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion. They invited questions from the floor, and would then specify imaginary members of the audience to ask questions, saying things like, "Yes sir, the gentleman with the green T-shirt in the back row. What was your question?" To cover the lack of a question, Gene and Fred (or whoever) would then say, "I don't think that the microphone picked up your question, so I'll repeat it for the benefit of those listening to the recording. What you wanted to know was..." They of course asked themselves all the questions about their own work which they always hoped fans would ask, and then answered them as they saw fit. Apparently they kept this up for the entire length of the proposed panel session. Gene says that he never heard the recording broadcast or used in any way and therefore supposes that the recording engineer tumbled to their little game when he played back the tape. Still, it's interesting to think that this recording might still be out there somewhere. I couldn't help wondering what questions Gene asked himself, the questions which he wishes we the fans would ask, presumably instead of the ones which we actually come up with! I wondered whether anybody here had a copy of this recording, or knew anything more about it. The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The Tree is my Hat" - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out there. Nigel _______________________________________________

-----Original Message----- From: David Stockhoff [mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net] Sent: Friday, December 5, 2008 02:21 PM To: urth at lists.urth.net Subject: Re: (urth) Audio recordings of Wolfe Witz, I'd love to hear those MP3s. Maybe I could turn my wife on to Wolfe with that as a strategem. We enjoyed the Tree Is My Hat audioplay. BTW, I've cleaned up those text files you sent me quite a bit and will continue to do so; when I'm happy with them I'll send them back. Lots of symbol "blowouts."

Good to see you back, Nigel, and apparently in good health.

Nigel Price wrote: When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things we discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some time ago at a science fiction convention. The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion.

The idea of a panel with Gene Wolfe and Fred Pohl attracting no one amazes me. Had I been at that convention there would have been at least one attendee!

and Nigel, I haven't heard details, but I hope you're feeling better.

Son of Witz said...

and Nigel, I haven't heard details, but I hope you're feeling better.

Thanks, Witz. I'm slowly getting there! Nigel

Son of Witz wrote: As I've mentioned before, I scrounged the web for Wolfe audiobooks. I found MP3 recordings of the Tapes read by Roy Avers (great reading). I assembled them all up into M4U audiobook format for consolidation and the Resume function. I can make them available on line via megaupload or something. Again, I'm not sure if this is welcome or not. I really only care if wolfe would be upset or not. any ideas anyone?<<

Nigel Price wrote: The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The Tree is my Hat" - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out there.

Roy Lackey wrote: I have a 60 minute mono audio cassette from American Audio Prose Library of a 1984 interview of Wolfe by Chris Merrick.

Nigel Price wrote: The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The Tree is my Hat" - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out there.

On Dec 6, 2008, at 4:28 AM, Nigel Price wrote: Roy Lackey wrote:

I have a 60 minute mono audio cassette from American Audio Prose Library of a 1984 interview of Wolfe by Chris Merrick.

And this is still available - thank you, Roy! I'll send off for that. The American Audio Prose Library also offer the recording of Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" that I bought from the US branch of Audible. They even do a joint package of the readings and the interview bundled together. Nigel _______________________________________________

Nigel Price quited and wrote: I have a 60 minute mono audio cassette from American Audio Prose Library of a 1984 interview of Wolfe by Chris Merrick.

And this is still available - thank you, Roy! I'll send off for that. The American Audio Prose Library also offer the recording of Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" that I bought from the US branch of Audible. They even do a joint package of the readings and the interview bundled together.