Finally, some un-anonymous criticism...

[mistressjinx]

Woke up today to a sour comment on my last project from JAK_in_the_box:

"Some mispronounced words, and it was disconcerting to hear certain scenes done in what I think of as the Harlequin Romance Sex Scene Voice, the soft husky drawl you use, but you seem to use that voice for everything outside of story notes. I had to skip parts because of that. You sound totally different when you do readers notes."

The comment made me a little mad. I messaged my beta listener (jsea) who assured me that I pronounced everything correctly. She surely would have caught the mispronuncations on one of her four complete listen throughs. The only thing that could be construed as wrong is the witch chant that is used through out. At one point, myself and two other people (I think you were in on this piscaria) tried to figure out how to say it, so I eventually went to the author for her input and what you hear in the podfic, is what she settled on. So I'm a bit hurt that this accusation is out there that I didn't put enough care into my project to make sure that my words were pronounced correctly. Of coarse, they could be from a different country then me though....

What gets me here is the idea that it's something to rip me apart about, that I use a narrative/reading voice. I admit I do. Over the last year, I've developed my reading style. Let it evolve into what it is naturally. It's the way I'm comfortable narrating. I connect to the words better when I'm giving a performance. In essence, when I podfic, I'm acting. If all actors just used their own voice, everything would be quite boring, I think. When I get anons and comments like this damning the way I read, it hurts. My story notes are me talking. So of coarse they are going to sound different. Because I'm not performing that bit.

Le sigh. I'm so very unhappy about this comment. I didn't know what to say to the person because I wanted to rip their face off and piss in their mouth...but instead I just said, "Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. <3". I didn't want them to win, I didn't want them to have the satisfaction of breaking me. Is it possible the only consolation is that they didn't say it anonymously? So now I know what to expect when I see their name from here on out. (BTW, they have another one of my projects bookmarked;) and have zero contributions to fandom whatsoever.)

Well in a weird way they won a little bit. I had plans to record today, but instead I just went back to bed. I'm just so angry about this shit. I wanna rage.

Comments

[akamine_chan]

I'm sorry; I really don't understand why people think this kind of thing is all right. I know if I got a comment like this on one of my stories I would rip them a new asshole and then delete their fucking comment.

It's rude and entitled and uncalled for. Grrrrr on your behalf.

[piscaria]

I don't get people who feel the need to comment about shit like this. I mean, I know how much it sucks to start listening to a podfic and realize that it isn't working for you, especially when it's a story you love. But listening preferences are so subjunctive. There are a handful of podficcers I really dislike listening to, but that's my issue to deal with, not theirs. I would never imagine leaving a snippy comment like that on a podfic because of it. The voice is such a deeply personal thing to criticize.

And of course it's completely unhelpful to bring up mispronunciations without actually pointing out the words they think were mispronounced. For what it's worth, I definitely don't remember any mispronunciations in Tiny Houses. My guess is they're getting all pissy about some regional variance.

[mistressjinx]

So akamine responded to them and they elaborated a bit on it. Apparently they don't like my "Harlequin Romance Sex Scene Voice" because I use it entirely throughout the podfic. They felt it was in bad taste for me to use my narrative voice while reading a post-rape scene. They failed to notice that I had to perform the spectrum of emotion throughout this audiofic, instead could only hear my sexy voice.

They also pointed out that I said the word 'nyan' wrong. They didn't know the word themselves, but that when they looked it up, realized I had pronounced it incorrectly.

They were a big bag of dicks, and when akamine pointed that out they chose to delete the comment although failed to apologize or take responsibility for their entitled attitude or unsolicited criticism.

Akamine actually gave me the courage to tell them how I felt, and I thanked them for taking down their comment because it was hurtful and unwanted.

I hope they learned the difference between leaving a "review" and "criticism" since they didn't realize their was a difference before someone pointed it out to them.

LE SIGH.

Thank you for your words.<3

[glittertine]

For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing by answering like you did and writing this on your own journal instead of putting it into the answer. I'm sure it's hard to see it as anything but mean, but the comment surely isn't actually meant that way.

To be honest, I don't understand why someone would leave a comment like that, either. Maybe what they wanted to say is that they would prefer your comments-voice to your performance voice, but like the other commenter said, this is a personal preference, and if the listener hasn't realised that, it's their loss. Or maybe this was their unwieldy, weird way of saying "please, please, read the fics in your normal voice, I like that much better" - which is something that is hardly ever articulated in podfic fandom because everyone is so focussed on only leaving positive feedback. I dunno.

The only thing that actually made me podfic instead of just listen to it was when the n'th story was read by a reader whose reading style I cannot stand. I realised that I would give anything for someone, anyone, to repod this fic. That is not to say I don't like them personally, or that they make mistakes in readin - I don't actually think I've ever observed mistakes. It's just that listening to their podfic makes me want to rip my hair out and throw things. So I thought, maybe other people feel this way, too, about a variety of readers. And adding one more voice that is different, one more style, one more accent that I might loathe but that others might like - that that would be a good idea.

I think it's utterly clear that a podficcer can never please every listener. So, while I understand that the comment hurts, it's probably best to just shrug and count this person as someone who just didn't like your choices, just like you might no like other people's choices but still accept/tolerate/maybe even like them, anyway.

[mistressjinx]

Thank you for your take on it. I am definitely doing the shrugging it off part. I'm okay with the idea that people don't like my stuff. I just wish they did what I do, and closed the window/file and moved on with life, and not tried to offer me a plate of criticism.

I vented out what I needed to to move on. Thank you for indulging me by reading and commenting:)

[analise010]

I think that you handled this is in the most classy way possible. You put your feelings here, in your personal journal while responding in the best way you could. Not everyone is going to like our work and maybe this person has a different pronunciation than we do? (Ex. Brits pronounce lieutenant as "left-tenant") As long as you know your podfic was quality when you put it out there, that's all we can do. Stay strong, Jinxy! <3

[mistressjinx]

Thanks:) I'm over it now. It felt good to get my feelings out. <3