It's the words stupid!
'I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. (sound fx: wind whistling in trees) The wind was howling outside, (sound fx: heavy rain against window pane) and the rain was beating and splashing against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. (sound fx: terrified scream) I knew that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a shawl round me, and (sound fx: footsteps) rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door I seemed to hear a low whistle, (sound fx: whistle) such as my sister described, and a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had fallen. (sound fx: metallic clang) As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, and revolved slowly upon its hinges. (sound fx: creaking door) I stared at it horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. (sound fx: body hitting the ground) She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was the band! The speckled band!'
Excerpt from The Adventure of the Speckled Band/The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Some bright sparks – probably the same guys who brought Muzak to a supermarket near you – have decided that what eBooks really need is a soundtrack. Their first offering is a Sherlock Holmes story but others are in the pipeline. Now, you can call me an old curmudgeon, but I'm no dinosaur: I've embraced the new technology and love my kindle, I've even gone so far as to publish an eBook myself, but do we really need sound effects to enhance the digital reading experience? To paraphrase ex-president Bill Clinton – it's the words stupid!
Yes, words. Books are full of them. Just words, but as you read them, a whole world comes to life in your head. Simples! Consider the passage below: in a few beautifully written sentences, the author provides a great deal of information about the narrator of his story.
At dawn, if it was low tide on the flats, I would awaken to the chatter of gulls. On a bad morning, I used to feel as if I had died and the birds were feeding on my heart. Later, after I had dozed for a while, the tide would come up over the sand as swiftly as a shadow descends on the hills when the sun lowers behind the ridge, and before long the first swells would pound on the bulkhead of the deck below my bedroom window, the shock rising in one fine fragment of time from the sea wall to the innermost passages of my flesh. Boom! the waves would go against the wall, and I could have been alone on a freighter on a dark sea.
Opening paragraph to chapter one of 'Tough Guys Don't Dance' by Norman Mailer.
We don't need to hear the cry of the gulls and the surf pounding against the sea wall to picture the scene – it's all there in the words. And what sound could be used to inform us as subtly as the words do that the narrator is a troubled and lonely man – metaphorically adrift on a sea of trouble?
My three-year old granddaughter loves books that have bells and buzzers she can press. That's fine. She hasn't learnt to read yet. She has to rely on the illustrations and her grandfather to tell her the story. The bells and buzzers are just a bit of fun for her and keep her amused. When she can read, she won't need them and neither does anyone else who can read. It's just another example of dumbing down: in effect, reading for dummies.
Filed under: writing fiction/humour Tagged: Arthur Conan Doyle, dumbing down, Norman Mailer, Sherlock Holmes, sound effects, soundtracked eBooks, The Speckled Band, Tough Guys Don't Dance
