Re: Ranking the Hugo & Nebula Winning Novels, Best to Worst

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 06:57:47 -0400, dbd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (David
DeLaney) wrote:

philospher77@xxxxxxxxx <philospher77@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
goldfarb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Goldfarb) wrote:
If Gerry Quinn is like me, he finds Cherryh's prose at the level of
words and sentences somehow repulsive. (I haven't tried _Cyteen_
specifically, but I have no reason to think that it's any different
from the ones I have.)

Which (along with people's comments about Green's _Nightside_ books)
always makes me wonder if there are distinctly different reading
"styles" around. For example, when I read books, I "hear" the story.
Once I've nailed the character and narrator "voice", Cherryh's and
Green's prose is just perfect. But I can see that, say, if you are
someone who "sees" stories, then the prose is probably going to be
more problematic. But I could be wrong.

Whereas when I'm reading at speed, I -can't- 'hear' it - I read too fast for
that, faster than anyone (including that guy on the one set of commercials
from a while back) can talk. But whatever it is I'm doing uses the same set
of circuits that hearing does, or at least some of the processors for it,
because when I'm absorbed in reading something about the only way to reliably
get my attention vocally is to use my name...

Hmm... I'm not sure that's what I mean. What I mean is that I
actually hear the story as if someone is reading it aloud, but with
added sound affects. Nightside practically oozes with noir background
music, for example, and that distinctly noir voice... mostly Bogart,
but a little smoother. When Arafel meets the intruder in her forest,
I can hear the fire crackling, the wind rustling the leaves, and her
voice is soft, smooth silk.

But I can (and have) entirely missed the fact that people were talking
to me when I am engrossed in a book, so maybe it is the same thing.
That's the difficulty of trying to figure out how other people
experience life.

And in case anyone is wonder, yep, long-time posters here have
specific voices associated with them, too.

Rebecca
.

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