If you are visually impaired and you prefer audio books but you don’t want the usual pedestrian fare of the most popular science fiction novels and short stories, you’re plumb out of luck. The good stories just aren’t out there. How do I know?
My Dad, Horace L. Gold, was the founding editor of the magazine which became the ezine which I currently edit at galaxyezine.org . It’s not about money, it’s about great science fiction.
For the reader or listener who can’t see the choices laid out in front, there’s little hope. Plowing through a list of unknown stories won’t really clarify anything unless you know what you’re looking for. Most people choose what they will read by author’s name, which is a tragic mistake.
I’ve been in the sci-fi field actively and professionally since 1949 — I read the “slush pile” for Galaxy, which were the unsolicited stories, which means that the author did not yet have an agent. I went through an average of 300 manuscripts a week instead of doing my homework, and was paid 25 cents a week salary, plus an expense account for lunch at several nearby restaurants.
Lucky he had me do the first readings of those first-effort stories by wannabe writers. One of them was a direct word-for-word story out of Spiderman Comics. My Dad would have bought it had I not alerted him. It seldom happens, but once in a while, something like that will slip through or, in this case, almost slip through.
Net result is that I have an unintentionally encyclopaedic knowledge of what great stories were written by what great authors, and I know within an issue or two when and where the story first appeared. Sometimes I can tell you the anthologies in which you’ll find them reprinted. I can’t help it, I’m suffering from High Attention Syndrome, for which there is no cure. Even the occasional Bardo Vacation does little to blunt the affliction.
So with all the millions of crap stories out there, all obeying Sturgeon’s Law, ie; “90% of everything is crap”, where can you find the good stuff?
Answer is, you need an anthologist. I’m an editor, proofreader, publisher, illustrator and I also happen to be an anthologist. I’ll be happy to serve you in the capacity of a guide through the science fiction stories that are worth hearing.
I can name a dozen stories just off-hand that you will definitely be glad you heard, and every story I produce in audio form will be a story that I can personally guarantee you’d never hear if not for our production.
Hey, sighted folks, I want to talk to you, too. Just a moment of your time, please.
I happen to be one of those visually impaired folks, and it doesn’t tend to get any better with age. I have worked with sight-impaired people since the 1960s, in the production of Large-Type and corrected-scan books for the State of California. Look it up under “Doneve Designs”. It’s not enough to merely scan a book and blow it up. To get it to scan right for tunnel vision, you have to actually consider Scan-Exhaustion, and make the lines slightly shorter. That means resetting the type; the current providers of such books do nothing in this area except make the type bigger by blowing up the page. It’s cheaper that way.
That’s part of the standard popular computation, that blind people can’t make a powerful contribution to society, and that’s where they’re wrong, dead wrong. I can name hundreds of visually impaired folks with a variety of degrees of impairment, of course, who made a helluva difference.
Right off, I’ll name my longtime friend, a family friend (my stepdad Donner, who was head of marketing at Capitol Records signed him to the label). jazz pianist George Shearing. I could go on and on, but that’s not the point, nor should it be an issue. It’s total nonsense that visual impairment means a worthless person. The problem is that this idea makes it hard to get appropriations.
Reverend Gary Davis, whom I led for a while in NYC, was blind. Tell me he didn’t make a great contribution. I could go on and on and on.
Back to my premise; you’re a science fiction reader, and you happen to be sighted, let us say. No problem, you go online, research a bit, find some interesting stories, download them, read them, no problem.
For the sight-impaired, none of that is possible without special help. There are almost no websites that are now navigable by the blind. This is not at all surprising, because it’s hard as hell for the blind to use a computer, period, let alone futz about on the internet.
So what’s the solution?
I aim to serve as an audio anthologist. I will get readers for Galaxy stories from the very first issue to the last. My plan is to organize the stories in anthology form, with music and sound effects.
I have a number of celebrity readers in mind.
Distribution to the blind will probably be through the Library of Congress. No other distribution, for instance, to the sighted, is being considered at this time.
The cost of this project will be outrageous, but worth every penny. If you know anyone who can help, please get in touch.
I plan to offer an honorarium to the readers and technical staff who produce the programs. At the moment, I have the following stories:
Dragon Lady by Evelyn E. Smith, read by Catherine Oxenberg
City of the Dead by Robert Sheckley, read by Harry Nilsson
World According to Horace — a compendium of H.L. Gold audio, including rare recordings at cons where he was guest of honor.
Robert Sheckley & EJ Gold Collected Audio Stories — extemporaneous storytelling.
It’s a big project, one that has lain dormant for a number of years. Why now? Because finally the technology exists to be able to produce this and distribute it effectively.
Since all the products are free, there’s a definite limit to what we can do without funding. Someone call in a solution. Your help is very appreciated.
I hope this clears up questions about what the GAP — Galaxy Audio Project — is all about.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby