Fire Juggler

So, for those of you who aren't on my twitter, and haven't been listening to me flail like a crazy flailing person over this, A PODFIC REC!!! Actually, I'm not sure if this counts as a podfic rec, or whether it's more like 104 podfic recs all lumped into one: The Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology.


Just to reiterate, The Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology is, to quote cantarina1, 104 woman-centered stories by 86 different authors and 47 different podficcers in 64 fandoms, for a total running time of a little over seven and a half hours!!!

Anthologies are a (relatively) new discovery mine. When I first started listening to podfic, I never downloaded them. I don't know why. Well, I do know why, but I feel sorry for that past me who didn't get to experience the joy of an anthology (either the ones read by multiple readers, or the ones read by a single reader). I know that at the time, I wanted long podfic. I wanted complete control over what I was listening to. I wanted [insert fandom here] or [insert pairing here]. Anthologies seemed liked such a gamble to me. I don't remember when the turning point happened. What I do know, is that once I discovered them, I couldn't get enough of them.

For me, anthologies take me to an entirely different headspace than a standard podfic. Downloading and listening to a podfic is like buying and listening to an audiobook. I read the back of the book (or the summary), I decide if it looks interesting to me me, I buy (or download), and then I listen. This is a good thing. It makes me very, very happy (see all my podfic recs). But…anthologies are something else entirely to my psyche….

For me, anthologies are the answer to the request "Tell me a story." They feel much more intimate to me, because I am completely placing myself in the hands of the reader(s). Tell me a story. Any story. Read something to me that spoke to you, and I will listen. For me, in my little OCD world, giving up the control on my iPod is an act of trust. I settle in, like a girl sitting next to my friends by a campfire, and I listen to the stories. All the stories. Willing to be taken on any journey the reader wants to take me on. Completely open to the experience. Strangely, it also makes me feel safe. Like I'm 6 years old again, curled up in bed, listening to my mom make up a story to put me to sleep (someday I shall tell you of the littlest ant who had a nervous breakdown because she didn't know which butt to follow). So yes, Anthologies are an intimate, completely different experience for me, that often hit me (in many ways) deeper than the reading of a single story that I selected.

The Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology is a superb example of this. 64 fandoms means that for many of these stories, I'm only vaguely cognizant of the fandom (if at all). A lot of them are unfamiliar, with unfamiliar characters (The Good Wife, Community, Bas Lag), and I'm always surprised by how ultimately, the themes in stories are universal. Maybe I would get more from a fic knowing the backstory, but I get something different coming to it with virgin ears. The pictures my mind draws in my head are probably a little different, but no less powerful for it.

And the voices. Oh the voices. 47 different readers. So many different accents, different cadences, different ways of inflecting the reading. Hearing the voices I am familiar with made me smile, like I was being greeted by an old friend. Hearing the voices I was unfamiliar with, either because they were a brand new podficcer, or because they tend to read in fandoms I don't listen to, was pure delight.

Listening to this yesterday had me literally laughing one moment and teary-eyed the next. It was kind of this intense roller coaster of emotions that filled me with joy at the same time that it broke my heart. Seven and a half hours of stories.

So, I encourage to make the request, and then to listen, really listen. Tell me a story


>>Click Here to Be Taken To Awesome Ladies Download Post<<



This entry was originally posted at http://fire-juggler.dreamwidth.org/78173.html.