I like how you argue with yourself in this essay. Perhaps there's more value in hearing the argument than in being persuaded of one conclusion or another.
It's funny that you chose Van Gogh's /Starry Night/ as an example, because I use it as my go-to example of the rare paintings that can't be satisfactorily reproduced with current technology. I explained why in "The Case of the Starry Night" (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/28727/), my Holmes / MLP crossover:
<<< [can't figure out how to make Markup work on substack]
When I say "stars" and "dark night", however, I give a false impression. The night is certainly dark, yet most of the individual brush strokes contributing to it are from a blue-green palette that could be used for the deep sky of an autumn day. The stars each glow like small, far-off suns, and the night sky is full of bright white stripes that somehow add motion rather than light to the scene, painting the wind.
...
Luna's Starry Night, seen in person, is a conclusive argument for the value of museums even in an age of color prints. I had not been overly impressed by the reproductions I had seen of it, and my low expectations no doubt made the thing itself even more stunning. It was painted – constructed, I should say – from layer upon layer of thick oil-paint brush-strokes, so that it was scarcely a painting at all, but a three-dimensional sculpture, with a glossy shine that prints completely fail to capture, producing reflective lines too bright to reproduce which danced madly if one so much as drew breath as one stood before it. It was hard to dispel the illusion of movement, nor did I want to.
>>>
There are also paintings, like Kandinsky's "Black Square", and Mondrian's rectangles, which are better in reproductions, because the small irregularities are very distracting when seen up close. But I don't think much of those paintings.
I have recommended both the Book (or PDF) of HPMoR and your audiobook to a bunch of people. When I praise the book I talk about how I find it the better story compared to the original, how it's "the same setting but everyone is 2-3 times as smart" and that they should just read the first 4 or 5 chapters and if they don't like it to then put it down because it probably isn't for them but if they do like it that it will only get better and better until the very end.
And when I praise the audiobook I honestly don't talk about your voice, although it's not a bad voice, don't worry about that. What I talk about is that I find it to be produced extremely well, having fitting music in the background in important and high tension points in the story, how there are different people voicing the different characters, which makes it feel a lot more immersive, that the sound quality is very good (which is not a given for a lot of fan-made audiobooks) and that it's over 60 hours of content and that a obviously a lot of effort went into it and yet the quality gets better over time.
I've listened to it multiple times, once or twice before you got volunteers to take over other characters and a bunch more times after you got the volunteers. There are parts of it that I sometimes hear in my head when it kind of resonates with something that I hear or read even though it's months since I last listened to your audiobook. Like "but what happens if it gets completed?!?" by Hermione when Tracey Davis casts her ritual spell. Or "and people won't have to say goodby ever again" right before Harry casts the Patronus for the first time. Or other parts that I don't remember right now but that come up occasionally. Just so you know, your work is living in my head and occasionally speaking up. :)
So, let me make one final point: I think the entire HPMoR story teaches people a lot. I think it makes them better humans in some way. And since not every one is open to every medium and wants to read a book with about 2000 pages the fact that you gave those people access to the story and help them become better humans too is pretty nice. I think you made the world better not just by giving us entertainment but also by improving some of the humans we might interact with randomly.
It is hilarious how badly the model pronounced your name 😅 but maybe AskWho might be up for making the smoother intro to HPMoR https://daystareld.com/hpmor-remix
(although there were a few other character lines needed as I recall from the difference files I generated awhile back, but I kinda would like to keep it a symbol of people power 🤷🏽♂️)
I read Digits ~6months ago, and just now listened to the first half of the first chapter — and at least for now: You still have the Thing. The fidelity and flexibility of your expression of narration is just not there yet.
But as always with these LLMs this will be a temporary issue, and you will have rights to your existential dread in due time ^^;
I hope that AskWho will up the production value as we go along, because I'd hate for there to be an audiobook of it out there that's just good enough so no one will attempt another, but just too bad to really enjoy.
/edit: btw, longtimefirsttime, hpmor is my comfort audiobook that I listen to almost every 6 months, at least 10 times by now <3
I know it's not perfect, but I hope you give it more of a chance. I'm proud of what I'm putting out, and the effort to fully "voice" it with a full cast of characters. I find you can really get engaged with the story with this level of voice tech if you let yourself.
"I think the thing I most fear is being useless." I assure you in that you find a great company of people. But there's actually a greater thing to cope with than "Noone needs you". It's the "Noone needs you, but you *definitely* need them". Feelings of being weak are the hardest to accept. Yet it's still possible
I like how you argue with yourself in this essay. Perhaps there's more value in hearing the argument than in being persuaded of one conclusion or another.
It's funny that you chose Van Gogh's /Starry Night/ as an example, because I use it as my go-to example of the rare paintings that can't be satisfactorily reproduced with current technology. I explained why in "The Case of the Starry Night" (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/28727/), my Holmes / MLP crossover:
<<< [can't figure out how to make Markup work on substack]
When I say "stars" and "dark night", however, I give a false impression. The night is certainly dark, yet most of the individual brush strokes contributing to it are from a blue-green palette that could be used for the deep sky of an autumn day. The stars each glow like small, far-off suns, and the night sky is full of bright white stripes that somehow add motion rather than light to the scene, painting the wind.
...
Luna's Starry Night, seen in person, is a conclusive argument for the value of museums even in an age of color prints. I had not been overly impressed by the reproductions I had seen of it, and my low expectations no doubt made the thing itself even more stunning. It was painted – constructed, I should say – from layer upon layer of thick oil-paint brush-strokes, so that it was scarcely a painting at all, but a three-dimensional sculpture, with a glossy shine that prints completely fail to capture, producing reflective lines too bright to reproduce which danced madly if one so much as drew breath as one stood before it. It was hard to dispel the illusion of movement, nor did I want to.
>>>
There are also paintings, like Kandinsky's "Black Square", and Mondrian's rectangles, which are better in reproductions, because the small irregularities are very distracting when seen up close. But I don't think much of those paintings.
I have recommended both the Book (or PDF) of HPMoR and your audiobook to a bunch of people. When I praise the book I talk about how I find it the better story compared to the original, how it's "the same setting but everyone is 2-3 times as smart" and that they should just read the first 4 or 5 chapters and if they don't like it to then put it down because it probably isn't for them but if they do like it that it will only get better and better until the very end.
And when I praise the audiobook I honestly don't talk about your voice, although it's not a bad voice, don't worry about that. What I talk about is that I find it to be produced extremely well, having fitting music in the background in important and high tension points in the story, how there are different people voicing the different characters, which makes it feel a lot more immersive, that the sound quality is very good (which is not a given for a lot of fan-made audiobooks) and that it's over 60 hours of content and that a obviously a lot of effort went into it and yet the quality gets better over time.
I've listened to it multiple times, once or twice before you got volunteers to take over other characters and a bunch more times after you got the volunteers. There are parts of it that I sometimes hear in my head when it kind of resonates with something that I hear or read even though it's months since I last listened to your audiobook. Like "but what happens if it gets completed?!?" by Hermione when Tracey Davis casts her ritual spell. Or "and people won't have to say goodby ever again" right before Harry casts the Patronus for the first time. Or other parts that I don't remember right now but that come up occasionally. Just so you know, your work is living in my head and occasionally speaking up. :)
So, let me make one final point: I think the entire HPMoR story teaches people a lot. I think it makes them better humans in some way. And since not every one is open to every medium and wants to read a book with about 2000 pages the fact that you gave those people access to the story and help them become better humans too is pretty nice. I think you made the world better not just by giving us entertainment but also by improving some of the humans we might interact with randomly.
Thanks!
It is hilarious how badly the model pronounced your name 😅 but maybe AskWho might be up for making the smoother intro to HPMoR https://daystareld.com/hpmor-remix
(although there were a few other character lines needed as I recall from the difference files I generated awhile back, but I kinda would like to keep it a symbol of people power 🤷🏽♂️)
I read Digits ~6months ago, and just now listened to the first half of the first chapter — and at least for now: You still have the Thing. The fidelity and flexibility of your expression of narration is just not there yet.
But as always with these LLMs this will be a temporary issue, and you will have rights to your existential dread in due time ^^;
I hope that AskWho will up the production value as we go along, because I'd hate for there to be an audiobook of it out there that's just good enough so no one will attempt another, but just too bad to really enjoy.
/edit: btw, longtimefirsttime, hpmor is my comfort audiobook that I listen to almost every 6 months, at least 10 times by now <3
I know it's not perfect, but I hope you give it more of a chance. I'm proud of what I'm putting out, and the effort to fully "voice" it with a full cast of characters. I find you can really get engaged with the story with this level of voice tech if you let yourself.
"I think the thing I most fear is being useless." I assure you in that you find a great company of people. But there's actually a greater thing to cope with than "Noone needs you". It's the "Noone needs you, but you *definitely* need them". Feelings of being weak are the hardest to accept. Yet it's still possible