Topic: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

*pulls plug on the TV*

(*whole room goes dark — inexplicably*)

*flashlight clicks onto face*

Yo.

I guess we're all gonna be stuck in this shelter for a minute, so disinfect a beanbag chair and let us read books.

In this thread, every day, until our present season of hiding has ended (and perhaps with some exceptions), I shall endeavor to publish yet another hour-or-so of narration from some book or another; eventually, we'll all be left with playlists full of audiobooks (or whatever-o-books) (or audio-whatevers) we can treasure as a meager social entertainment amidst our [surprising and newfound and definitely-virus-related] 'social distancing,' of late.

Know what else? You should read something for us, too. Don't have to. Don't have to finish anything you start. (Although, y'know, we'd definitely appreciate it if you at least tried to finish what you start — but, lord knows, I'm probably gonna drop out of this shit at some random point myself, so... let's establish an exit ramp, right?)

My main concern for this thread is that we play it reasonably safe with the copyright stuff; for instance, I plan to begin by reading from the sci-fi novel "Blindsight," which is fantastic — and certainly worth your money — but which also happens to be available in its entirety, right now, on the author's website. So. Eh. Fanfics; personal writings; personal essays being written and recorded especially for this thread (hey, why not?); these things are probably fair game. For all I know, maybe "Blindsight" isn't. Who knows. We must prepare for heartbreak.

That said, I don't expect too many people to post stories. I think we'll mostly just be doin' a book-club thing.

So let's do a book-club thing.

Encouragement is encouraged. Discouragement is discouraged.

#fuckyeahreadstuff



On Spoilers

We're all [presumably] going to be listening to these stories for the first time, 'in real time,' in this thread; this leaves us in a bit of a pickle as-relates the 'spoiler' problem. I think we should probably be assuming that all posts are likely to contain some non-critical semi-spoilery stuff — at least from recent episodes, if not the most recent one; we'll play it by ear — and as such, we'll just all be expecting to be gently spoiled here and there, and do our best to write posts which allow people to make that decision for themselves. As such, most posts will not need to use the 'spoiler' tag — but also, as such, when serious spoilers are at play, we still have the 'spoiler' tag to turn to. When in doubt, use the tag.



On Episodes

As conversation continues for nine million pages, I intend to update this first post and maintain it as a source for all of the as-yet-posted recordings in the thread, organized nicely; this way, anybody can jump to most-recent for chit-chat, or thread-OP for listening. (I'm not gonna mess with that stuff right at this instant, but sometime later, this sentence will be removed and a new section will be added.) If, for whatever reason, you want to post stuff in the thread but don't want me to transclude it in the first post, kindly include a '#notOP' at the beginning of your post, and lo shall it remain behidden! ('Less-un-hidden,' anyway.)



On Sharing These Readings, or This Thread

Until further notice:

Whatevs.

(Subject to change.)



On How-Much-Of-A-Dick-Teague-Constantly-Is

[still typing]

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

"Blindsight" (Peter Watts) :: Pt. 01

Notes:

Not all future posts in this thread need to be YouTube links — or even include video, etc.. I'm only doing it this way because: 1) the book is on a website; 2) OBS allows me to easily record from my desk; and: 3) YouTube allows me to easily play that shit back much, much faster — which happens to be my preferred speed for listening to myself drone on and on about how great I am or whatever like god this guy won't shut up. 1.5x is my go-to.

***

This recording — Pt. 01 — actually started as a semi-private reading for my journal a few days ago and only became something I realized I'd be 'publishing' as of Pt. 03 (which I recorded this afternoon). This shouldn't interrupt your listening experience too much, but I worried  things may be a bit awkward if I didn't mention it. In any case, if the link didn't start you there automatically, you might want to start your playback at :46 seconds.

***

Also, I'm only going to apologize for it once, and only because I know it's the world's least-acceptable habit, but:

I'm not super sorry about drifting from the wording on the page, here and there — except when I really fuck something up as a result, which does happen. Indulgent and awful as this habit is, I consider the downsides a fair price to pay, given they happen fairly infrequently, and given they seem to consistently result in [what I would arrogantly consider to be] an 'easier-to-follow' narration in general. This is not to suggest that I'm improving their writing; I'm usually not. But I'm not a professional, and these aren't professional recordings, and I'm not rehearsing this shit, and I'm certainly not editing this shit, and — given all that — I want the damn things to be As-Listenable-Anyway as possible. I rarely 'add' more than a syllable or two, to retroactively tweak my emphasis; mostly, I 'shorten' some clauses, in an attempt to clarify their impact. (Impact which I would have fucked up, in my performance; not impact which the author fucked up in their words. To say the same thing again: It's not that I'm 'clarifying the writer's meaning,' so much, as I'm 'salvaging my-and-the-listener's comprehension kind of.')

But, yeah. Sorry. Not cute. Mea culpa.

***

I fucking love this book. Thanks Abbie.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Well, folks, I am not an ideal narrator and do not have a perfect mic, but nonetheless: here's the first chunk of Imogen Binnie's Nevada! One of my favorite books, about a trans woman slowly unraveling in NYC. There's some background gonks in my opening greeting but they go away once the reading starts. Apologies in advance for any points where enunciation goes out the window, I stumble over a sentence here and there, and/or I mush letters together.

Anyway, without further ado, here it is! More to follow.

Teague wrote:

I fucking love this book. Thanks Abbie.

But of course!

Last edited by Abbie (2020-03-14 04:00:24)

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

^^^ I am excited to listen to these recordings. Love getting an introduction to y'alls favourite books!

My thoughts upon reading Teague's pitch for this thread:

- Ooh, I could read The Masque of the Red Death! (got into it because global pandemic and also because I'm currently reading The Phantom of the Opera)
- No, no, Basil Rathbone did that so much better than I ever could.
- Ooh, I could read Peter Pan! Or maybe Alice in Wonderland!
- Uh...maybe? But I want to contribute something more unique.
- Oh, okay...wait. I have an idea.

The Idea: LatinAlice reads e-lit

I love digital literature, and these works are already available to read for free online. So I present you with two stories.

Story the first: Black Box by Jennifer Egan (54 min)
Originally published as a series of tweets on the New Yorker's Twitter account over nine days, it's a science fiction short story in the form of "mental dispatches" from a spy.

Story the second: Vesp: A History of Sapphic Scaphism by Porpentine (video | audio) (45 min)
"A vespo-sapphic pesticidepunk UV romance thriller" by the incomparable Porpentine Charity Heartscape. This is a piece of interactive fiction (hypertext), so you can watch the screen capture of me playing it, or just listen.

alicia ♆
twitter | instagram | website

Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

"Blindsight" (Peter Watts) :: Pt. 02
Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Nevada - Session 2

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

"Blindsight" (Peter Watts) :: Pt. 03
Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Man, if I ever actually end up not being able to go into work - either staying at home sick, or because the store closes - I will absolutely listen to these. As it is, my time is a bit full.

Not too full to record something, though. Got halfway through the first chapter of mine last night, will record the second half tonight, stitch it together, and upload it.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Nevada - Session Three

(I say session four in the recording, I am not smart.)

Btw, if anyone wants to follow along in text form, here's a link to PDF/ebook files! All free under Creative Commons.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

I will be reading Free Radical by Shamus Young. This was published online in 2003, and eventually made its way to print-on-demand then Kindle. It started as a System Shock fanfic, and grew from there. Feel free to follow the above link to the Forward where he talks about the background of it; I won't be reading that, instead starting with the first proper chapter.

Chapter 1 - Keys

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Welcome, Boter! I like your choice of book!

As this thread's short story contributor, tonight I bring you all a fairy tale.

East of the Sun & West of the Moon (24min)

Last edited by LatinAlice (2020-03-16 18:04:59)

alicia ♆
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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

"Blindsight" (Peter Watts) :: Pt. 04
Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Bookmarking this thread.

The difficult second album Regan

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Nevada - Session Four!

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Free Radical
Chapter 2 - Search

I'm pleased that I didn't have to edit this one. A couple tiny stumbles, but man did I have a few issues with Chapter 1. I'd also pre-read Chapter 1 (like a practice dry-run); this one I haven't read in years, and I think I'll do the rest "cold" as well.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Today's episode is a three-in-one featuring short stories from Electric Literature's The Commuter.

Stories:
- "Osterizer Classic Series 10 Cycle Blender" by Emily Everett
- "Someone Who Will Feed Me Cherries" by Emily Brout
- "Brocade" by Naomi J. Williams

3 Stories from The Commuter (22min)

Last edited by LatinAlice (2020-03-17 04:22:16)

alicia ♆
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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

THANK YOU GUYS FOR DOING THIS SHIT WITH ME.

thankyouthankyouthankyou. So much good content! And... activities!

---

"Blindsight" (Peter Watts) :: Pt. 05
Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Nevada - Session Five

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

white queen, red heart by molly hall (@ofgeography) (40min)

alicia ♆
twitter | instagram | website

Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

"Blindsight" (Peter Watts) :: Pt. 06
Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

With permission, humility, and nothing but bad accents, let us embark upon the reading of a new Episode I.

This fucking novel was co-written by our own Abbie Phelps and our also-own (kinda) Nate Grizzle, who rule.

It is damn good.

"Episode I: The Looming Force" (Abbie Phelps and Nate Grizzle) :: Pt. 01
Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

^ So yeah, I hadn't put this in Pitches, Fixes, and Rewrites yet because we were gonna wait until the whole trilogy was finished, but yep, Nate and I are rewriting the entirety of the prequels as fanfic-novels, because we're masochistic people. tongue We're gonna be doing a huge second-draft pass on the trilogy once it's finished because we rushed Episode II and are unhappy with how it turned out, but we're hugely excited to write Episode III (in the middle of outlining right now), and we're pretty proud of Episode I too! It'll have some fixes made in the rewrite pass too, but this draft is still something we put a lot of time into, and when Teague asked to narrate it we were INCREDIBLY excited. So happy for this to be the way it drops on the forum. big_smile If you care to read in text form, it is on AO3 and FFN.

Last edited by Abbie (2020-03-18 19:42:41)

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

Nevada - Session Six

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

"Blindsight" (Peter Watts) :: Pt. 07
Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "Tales In Your Shelter: A Shared Internet Claustrophy," by COVID-19

"Episode I: The Looming Force" (Abbie Phelps and Nate Grizzle) :: Pt. 02
Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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