Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I'll differentiate between fiction and non-fiction. With non-fiction, I see it mostly as an information delivery system and the means are irrelevant if the goal is achieved. But I think the book club people have a point in regard to fiction, where the listener is subject to and influenced by the narrator's interpretation of the text. This isn't always or necessarily a bad thing, but it's there.
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Unless one book club member is going do a mind meld and force everyone to read it the same way, then those
kinds of differences will be present in every reader's perceptions anyway. Haven't you ever read a passage and interpreted one way, the you re-read it later and interpret it a whole new way, maybe with a change in meter or emphasis, that totally changes the tone or meaning?
Certainly the narrator will influence it, but not everyone will be influenced in the same way. For example, some people will latch on to the voice performance as "THE way" the character sounds, and others will dislike the narrator's take and actively reject that portrayal.
So I don't see a valid point. Different readers will get different things out of the same text and so will different listeners.