Audio recordings of Wolfe

Lane Haygood · 05 Dec 2008, 21:10 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: lhaygood at gmail.com (Lane Haygood)
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 15:10:04 -0600
Subject: (urth) Audio recordings of Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <AFEFKBJKJDDJOMBNACBNOEPADNAA.nigelaprice at talktalk.net>
References: <AFEFKBJKJDDJOMBNACBNOEPADNAA.nigelaprice at talktalk.net>
Message-ID: <272706220812051310y51fcb73fq98847fde99d339c0 at mail.gmail.com>

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
>
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