Who Voices History Usually Owns the Book
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 09:40PM 
Who Voices History Usual Owns the Book(part of my Let's Make Sweeping Generalizations Series)
There's an old saying that says history is written by the winners. I think that's also true in the audiobook industry. History is voiced by the winners. And when I say winners, I say it with an English accent.
The more one listens to the classics, classic histories of ancient Greece and Rome and classic retellings of the classic myths, the more you'll realize that they are all told with English accents even though the British Isles were fifteen hundred miles and a couple of written languages away from the center of the action.
Now, some of the explanation may be obvious. One-English accents always sound learned and knowledgeable no matter what they are talking about; and two--the BBC adapts and produces many of these stories and they apparently live in England. However, I think there is something stronger and more prevalent going on.
At least since the early "sun never setting on the British Empire" nineteenth century when Elgin brought his marbles back from the Parthenon to the London Museum and Shelley eulogized "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone" in Ozymandias the British have romanticized the peoples and civilizations that had fallen (historically and culturally) before them. They gave the classic heroes, both historic and imagined, the best voices they knew-their own.
But British writers and historians didn't just assigned their favorite British voices to their favorite ancient mythological characters. They also threw into the mix their cultural values. This is reflected in audiobooks by Odysseus having a nice manly upper class or at least a Hugh Grant sounding voice while something like the Cyclops is always going to have a lower class grumbly voice. Comic characters usually get Cockney accents while the first mates that are going to get eaten in the next scene usually sound Irish.
So, I guess what I'm saying (and to use a little audio terminology) is that when we listen to books about the classics we are often hearing them through British tinged delays, echoes and audio processing. I'm not saying that it's good or bad. I'm just saying it.
I'm also saying that if the Ancient Greeks would've hung on and prevailed as the dominant culture up to the present, our histories would've been read by Anthony Quinn.
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Brian Price
920 Creekside Lane
Plainfield, IN 46168
317/203-5044
check out: http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com
our newest play "Jokes In Space" is just out
920 Creekside Lane
Plainfield, IN 46168
317/203-5044
check out: http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com
our newest play "Jokes In Space" is just out
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