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Post by cwm on Dec 31, 2014 10:26:50 GMT -5
Well, a few weeks ago I picked up the entire collection of ASOUE audiobooks in a charity shop for just £1 each (totalling £14, as TPP is in two sets), and in working my way through them I've made a couple of notes. I've no idea whether anybody will find them useful, but I may as well post them here:
- In the UK at least, books 1-2 and 6-13 were read by Tim Curry, and books 3-5 by Daniel Handler in character as Lemony Snicket (advertised as 'Read by Lemony Snicket'). - Books 6-9 began with the back cover's Dear Reader letter read by Handler. The back cover of the CD changed references from 'reader' to 'listener', 'book' to 'audiobook', etc, but the version that opened the CD used the original version. - Book 4 was the first to include the 'To My Kind Editor' letter, read by Handler (even after Curry started reading the books again). From THH until TGG, they had to find alternate ways of translating this letter to audio: the letter for TCC had sound effects added to make it sound like Snicket was talking over a radio that intermittently cuts out, the letter for TSS added typewriter sound effects, TGG had an echoing effect added to the voice (with the letter fading out at 'The Grim G...') and the multiple letters at the end of TGG are, for whatever reason, absent altogether. - One of the few actual changes to the text is TEE, when the two pages of blackness are changed to silence. I personally think this moment doesn't translate well in audio and they'd have been better off leaving it as it was, especially as other references to being a book rather than an audiobook aren't changed accordingly. - This is such an incredibly minor change I barely even think it merits noting, but the first few paragraphs of THH were moved out of Chapter 1 to become a preface - everything about sentences ending with STOP, so Chapter 1 now begins with 'The Baudelaire orphans stopped.' - The Gothic Archies song for each book is only played in full for the first four books, I think (I've been listening to these in bed so can't be 100% sure) - TMM also includes 'The World Is A Very Scary Place' from TWW for no discernible reason. (TGG also has an interesting piece of incidental music that doesn't sound like the work of the Archies over the final paragraphs.) - Books 1-5 were on three CDs, each running for around three hours; books 6-9 between four to five hours on four discs; books 10-11 and 13 around six hours apiece on five CDs. Book 12 is on seven CDs despite having a similar runtime to 10, 11 and 13 (necessitating splitting it over two CD cases marked 12a and 12b), and I haven't listened to that one yet, so I'm intrigued to see what's up with that...
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Post by Dante on Dec 31, 2014 14:52:56 GMT -5
Interesting facts, even if they are pointless. I personally quite like that they sometimes made an effort, especially in the Kind Editor letters to reflect the textual distortion, but the inconsistency in things like presence or absence of Dear Reader and Kind Editor letters would just frustrate me. Hmm, not sure how it would be better to do the two pages of blackness, as I kind of feel you need something. A deathly, hollow echoing that lasts for just a little too long? For the ripped TGG Kind Editor letters, just have a ripping noise in the middle of each line and then resume where they pick up; seems simple enough. Oh well. They did try, often enough.
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Post by cwm on Jan 1, 2015 8:19:18 GMT -5
Reasons Why "The Penultimate Peril" Audiobook Is A Bit Odd - The only reason it's on 7 CDs is because there's less on each CD (two chapters to a disc with Chapter 13 getting its own disc, whereas each previous book would normally have 2 1/2 - 3 chapters per disc). I'm fairly sure they could have got this on 5 or 6 discs and hence in one CD case, so I can only assume they didn't in order to get clean chapter breaks - There are fewer chapters on each CD - the previous books would have a chapter break around every 4-6 minutes, whereas TPP has one around every 15-20 minutes, so every chapter is split into just two tracks - The 'Dear Reader' letter is now read out at the beginning of the book again. However, both the version on the back cover of the CD and the beginning of disc 1 miss out the first sentence (so it goes 'Dear Reader, sadly this audiobook...'). - It's the first audiobook to include a copyright warning at the beginning - It's the first to not announce 'END OF DISC X' at the end of each disc
Also, the deja vu joke at the beginning of TCC chapter five is (in my view) completely ruined by altering the text so 'Chapter Five' isn't repeated and not leaving a break between repeats.
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Post by Dante on Jan 1, 2015 10:14:59 GMT -5
It seems like some of these decisions, like not repeating the "Chapter Five," are to avoid listeners thinking there's some error in the recording and that they need to take the disc out, but a little patience would resolve that. Hmm. One wonders how many different people handled the audiobook scripts over the years; that would explain some degree of inconsistency, though some things, like dropping one line from the Dear Reader letters that could easily be edited, are harder to account for.
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Post by gliquey on Jan 1, 2015 11:40:59 GMT -5
It seems like some of these decisions, like not repeating the "Chapter Five," are to avoid listeners thinking there's some error in the recording and that they need to take the disc out, but a little patience would resolve that. Hmm. One wonders how many different people handled the audiobook scripts over the years; that would explain some degree of inconsistency, though some things, like dropping one line from the Dear Reader letters that could easily be edited, are harder to account for. I seem to recall someone thinking there was a problem with the printing of their copy of TCC because of the repeated page (although the text at the bottom of the pages is different). And having just finished reading File Under yesterday, I think Handler enjoys deliberate confusion - "are these solutions really meant to be here?" / "should I read them now, or will it spoil the answer to another mystery?" So it's not just the audiobooks that could be misleading when these jokes/tricks/twists are included. But of course, it might have confused more people in audio form. Do you think Handler would know about these audiobook changes - adaptations of "Dear Reader" letters and stuff like that? In an interview he implied that he never really got told about how linguistic puns (e.g. "lousy" in TGG) were translated to foreign languages, so I would imagine there's a similar situation here. I wonder if Handler would have preferred to have had the "Chapter Five" page of TCC repeated.
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Post by cwm on Jan 1, 2015 13:45:59 GMT -5
After the 'To My Kind Editor' letter is read in TPP, there is a bizarre collection of sound effects provided without further explanation before the CD ends: a gavel bangs thrice, the sounds of a lift going downwards, and a violin playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
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Post by Dante on Jan 1, 2015 15:02:59 GMT -5
Do you think Handler would know about these audiobook changes - adaptations of "Dear Reader" letters and stuff like that? In an interview he implied that he never really got told about how linguistic puns (e.g. "lousy" in TGG) were translated to foreign languages, so I would imagine there's a similar situation here. I wonder if Handler would have preferred to have had the "Chapter Five" page of TCC repeated. Handler's previously said that he wasn't much involved with the illustrating of ASoUE either; I get the feeling that he generally didn't have much connection to what went on at the publisher's side once he'd finished writing the book. (Though I imagine the overhaul of TBL was probably run by him, as that was a pretty major change to what was probably a much more limited text.) There is evidence that he has a slightly more hands-on approach to ATWQ; for instance, he's said somewhere that the File Under audiobook narrators are mostly just anyone he could round up who owed him a favour, or something like that. As for that ending to the TPP audiobook, it strikes me as just weird enough to be totally reasonable for a Snicket book.
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Post by cwm on Jan 1, 2015 15:37:40 GMT -5
At the risk of dragging this thread off-topic: I've never heard of the 'overhaul' to the Beatrice Letters before, could you explain it please?
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Post by Dante on Jan 1, 2015 17:13:11 GMT -5
What I mean is that it's fairly obvious Handler wrote it as plain text, and the false documents, objects for the photographs, probably things like the fold-out letters and actual glued-in calling cards, were the work of HarperCollins production assistants. There was an old article floating about once about a pair of HC staff hitting the antique stores in search of objects to photograph and documents to reproduce; likewise, it's pretty obvious that the press-out letters and the posters wouldn't have been in Handler's plan, not least as the former render completely redundant the way the coded letters are hidden in each piece of correspondence.
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Post by Poe's Coats Host Toast on Jan 1, 2015 21:37:13 GMT -5
- Book 4 was the first to include the 'To My Kind Editor' letter, read by Handler (even after Curry started reading the books again). From THH until TGG, they had to find alternate ways of translating this letter to audio: the letter for TCC had sound effects added to make it sound like Snicket was talking over a radio that intermittently cuts out, the letter for TSS added typewriter sound effects, TGG had an echoing effect added to the voice (with the letter fading out at 'The Grim G...') TGG also has an interesting piece of incidental music that doesn't sound like the work of the Archies over the final paragraphs. Would absolutely love for you or anybody else owning the audiobooks to upload these audio extracts.
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Post by cwm on Jan 2, 2015 6:04:36 GMT -5
I'll see what I can do, but my computer is very old to the point that it's not even up to taking CDs any more since one of the front panels fell off.
I think I've said this before in one of the reread threads, but it's worth repeating here: the audiobook of "The End" skips several pages of text in chapter 1. The version on the audiobook goes like this: I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes. The eldest Baudelaire did not bother to point out that as they were all alone in the middle of the ocean...
In other words, it skips from late in page 2 to the beginning of page 6 (UK edition). It's worth noting that "The eldest Baudelaire..." marks the beginning of a new track, as an authoring error would seem to be the most likely explanation for this.
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Post by Dante on Jan 2, 2015 8:14:13 GMT -5
Checking the book, the missing pages are the ones which give an overview of the Baudelaires' and Olaf's identities, as well as explaining how they got into their present situation of being all alone in the middle of the ocean. That's a pretty significant bit of contextualisation to skip. But then again, this is the same publisher which managed to send Egmont a file for The End with several of the illustrations uninserted, and regardless of the fact that Egmont either didn't check it or didn't think to ask, it's pretty shoddy work. I wonder if The End's publication was slightly rushed.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Jan 2, 2015 8:33:29 GMT -5
I remember counting the number of "ever"s the audiobook narrator reads in TRR - predictably fewer than the text, but I can't recall by how much.
Also, I may be able to do something about the TGG audio, provided I can find my set. Oddly enough, I don't remember the My Kind Editor letter being included at all ... worth taking another listen, in any case.
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Post by cwm on Jan 2, 2015 10:29:09 GMT -5
Checking the book, the missing pages are the ones which give an overview of the Baudelaires' and Olaf's identities, as well as explaining how they got into their present situation of being all alone in the middle of the ocean. That's a pretty significant bit of contextualisation to skip. But then again, this is the same publisher which managed to send Egmont a file for The End with several of the illustrations uninserted, and regardless of the fact that Egmont either didn't check it or didn't think to ask, it's pretty shoddy work. I wonder if The End's publication was slightly rushed. Do you know how long it took them to correct the missing illustrations, Dante? Is my first edition error copy that I've never replaced for a corrected version particularly valuable? Also: The audiobook of "The End" once again has each disc split up into tracks of between 3 to 6 minutes, does not include a copyright warning at the beginning and does announce 'END OF DISC' where relevant - so that's three areas where TPP is the odd one out. Somewhat bafflingly, the insert with "The End" listing all the tracks does not indicate which tracks mark the start of new chapters like all the other books do. The back cover also promotes the audiobook as having a bonus interactive CD which is nowhere to be seen - more research needed on that point, I think...
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Post by Poe's Coats Host Toast on Jan 2, 2015 11:26:15 GMT -5
The back cover also promotes the audiobook as having a bonus interactive CD which is nowhere to be seen - more research needed on that point, I think... Hmm.. I'd try just putting one of the audio discs (maybe the first, or last?) into a computer and see if there's anything on it. I remember this being a thing in the 2000s (today bonus things like that are probably just offered through the internet, maybe with a promo code or something).
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