Probably the most accurate description of an introverts thought processes that I have heard. I wonder if Aikmen was an “inward thinker” himself? It really is an odd way to live and one is constantly aware of one’s own apartness.
It's so weird to read about yourself. Realizing that's who you are. I want to share this with everybody I know so they really understand who I am. With all other kindness and love. They still " don't get it.". They don't judge, but it would be nice if I could finally illustrate what it is I experience.
Great story, love Venice. The way he expressed himself on Peggy Guggenheim museum killed me 😂. I am no a fan of modern art, but I absolutely adore Peggy's unfinished palazzo, the only palazzo with a terrace directly on the waters of Canale Grande. I go there every time, for half a day at least, drink coffee in her garden, leave a rose at her grave where she reposes together with her 9 dogs, thank her for her legacy, I walk about her rooms, remind myself that art can be fun and light and then I sit on her terrace and sketch little pictures of the busy waters. In no other place have I felt the spirit of it's creator whtching over it with such love, care and welcome to every visitor. ❤
"Americans doing their duty by a dead ideal" hits the ear painfully today. This story rings so true I feel self-conscious. The story I heard was of a suicidal man who gave up his last scrap of creative power, who longed for the sweet white embrace of death, and went and met her in Venice. Venice was his creativity, always in his mind, possible, waiting for him. But he couldn't find that Venice, because he let himself become fully gray and lifeless. Death is his only consummation, but I believe in the end, she sets him free to find all his color and life again...in the next realm.
Too late, I visited Venice twice back in my college days and loved it! (It probably helped that I neither rode a gondola steered by Charon nor had inappropriate relations with a skeleton.)
Love love LOVED your thoughts afterwards Tony. You are a wealth of knowledge. Reminded me of many ideas and topics to revisit and explore. Thank you! I love your end of story musings.
Tony, Thank You! You have really got a fantastic voice for narrating/ storytelling... In fact, you could read to us the weather forecast and we would happily listen! Mrs D is catching up on the sleep she was deprived of while Jasper was so ill. Mr and Mrs Dingbatt. (And, Andrea's Menagerie🙄!)
Interesting story, beautifully read. Also very much enjoyed your musings in Aikmen’s life. I’m certainly going to search out for more of his writings 👍 Many thanks - you’ve certainly found your own niche.
I like Aickman because there are no explanations for his stories. No Lovecraftian Elder Gods, etc., just out of nowhere weirdness. Did he lean on the Henry James side a little? Sure. But I do believe Aickman was one of the masters of the short story. Thanks for the story and the commentary.
Before he goes to Venice, I think it was after he stopped having the dream, it was mentioned that he thought of death as having “warm white arms”. I felt it was inevitable that the woman was a personification of death in some way and wasn’t remotely surprised when she’d become a skeleton after they’d made love, or that the gondola was drifting out to sea so Fern could meet his death. The French refer to orgasm as the little death, so he had the little death before his major death which gave a sense of completeness, that he’d finished what he came to do. Despite predicting more or less what happened, I still very much enjoyed the story. I didn’t find Fern snobby but more over sensitive to external stimuli and his surroundings. I’m “on the spectrum” and find crowds and noise hard to manage, so maybe I’m just projecting! Anyway thanks again Tony, great story and beautifully read as always. The business about the long sentences - I think they’re fine when reading quietly to oneself, but seem more laborious and lumpy when reading aloud. You always do a masterful job with them.
I found myself starting to weep randomly at various passages within this story. The slow, brooding language is beautiful! As someone who can relate to the character's pained feelings of outside-ness and longing for a kind of supreme affinity, I was entranced by the descriptions. The part about Venice being dead and pillaged, about reality being a nightmare and Venice being a dream also hit home. I have extremely vivid dreams that sometimes go on to make pretty coherent storylines, and so I could relate to him finding solace in his dream, and going away into it from the banality and shallowness of an unfulfilled, unshared inner life. What a melancholic, poignant story! It alternately gave me Thomas Mann and Daphne du Maurier vibes. Thank you heaps for narrating it!
I went as a child with my parents - I was about six or seven, I think. I remember it rained so we spent all day in cagoules, and my overwhelming memory is of standing with a crowd packed into a tiny glassblowers shop, watching a demonstration and everyone steaming gently as the intense heat in there evaporated the rain from our hair and clothes...
I’ve visited Venice once, and my experience was largely that of Henry, minus the enchanting and horrific conclusion. This may not be Aickman’s best piece-I agree with those who find it awfully heavy on exposition-yet the way Aickman captures introversion, coupled with that magnificent climax, just can’t be denied. There’s something here that appeals strongly to a specific taste. It’s also fun to juxtapose this piece with Mann’s "Death in Venice," as one might compare Aickman’s “Into the Wood” with /The Magic Mountain/. Both feel like Aickman’s attempt to put a supernatural spin on similar material. I’ve read somewhere that Aickman admired Mann, and you certainly get that sense in pieces like this, where we get a lot of narrative commentary on psychology and its connection to societal trends and issues.
I'm veering off topic a bit, but, this story instantly reminded me of the film, (based on a novel by Thomas Mann. A Death in Venice. It was directed by Luchino Visconte, a big name in his day. The story is about a 40ish English male composer obsessed with a young, blond boy of 15. They are both, (separately) vacationing in Venice. The true horror of the film is the director's obsession to find what he called; "the most beautiful boy in the world." The boy, was 15 year old Bjorn Andresen who played the role of Tadzio. If you have the opportunity, I urge everyone to watch the documentary, "The Most Beautiful Boy in the World." It is the story of how this one role victimized and altered the course of the young actor's life. It is a heartbreaking story, but, an important one, if only so we know what happened to this innocent young man, and most likely so many others during this time in this industry. It's a very moving film. It also is a testament to the fact that the real monsters of this world are much worse than any ever written. Thank you for indulging me with this post. I just recently watched the documentary, and I will never forget it, or Bjorn Andresen.💔
The heart wants what the heart wants, but beware of daring to makes dark dreams come true. Our fantasies remain magical only as long as they are illusory & insubstantial, as in beautiful Venice there is rot not far beneath every masque.
Venice is one of my top three favourites. Get away from the San Marco. Go on a water bus. Get “ into the woodwork”. Be respectful, it is not a Disneyland attraction. Spend more than one day, and ffs don’t arrive on a gd cruise ship!
Wonderful narrator. Intressting story but what a bummer ending. It just doesn't make any sense. I'm all for vague explanations. But this is.. wierd. Spoilers So a Ghost invade a man's dreams to lure him to Venice for..reasons. To kill him? Now that's a short description but... No 1 He seems to go to Venice more or less by a fluke. And years after the dream. 2 Why him? Why wanting to kill him..if he died that is. If anything my interpretation is that there was no woman..he had a breakdown. Took a gondola and drifted away. Anyway just my take. Great narration as always..
I think it's more useful to talk about these characters as being informed by autistic (for instance) people the author knew or who were well-recognized types of people--everybody knew someone like that, from the office, or from church, or from family gatherings--but didn't at the time understand the systemic underlying cause for why you saw these characteristics clustering together. ETA: by which I mean, there's too much of the person missing from even most well-written characters to be able to have a neurotype, much less to diagnose one. But we all know what the author is describing and we relate it to the people we've known in our lives.
Love the story and your reading. Please don't use the phrase High Functioning Autism. What it means is that an individual doesn't get in the way of "nice normal" people. The opposite - Low Functioning Autism - means that the individual intrudes into "nice normal" life in an inconvenient way. Autism may be a spectrum, but it's not linear, from one extreme to the other. It's more like concentric circles, with an individual being in a different segment for each skill. Their positioning changes through time, often each day. Labelling people means that either they are HFA and so don't qualify for support, or LFA and so don't qualify for expectations, independence, choice, capacity and competence. I and other autistics are usually very happy to talk about these things - unless you get me on a day when any human interation is beyond me! :) Please keep reading - I don't know how you keep such a consistent high quality but you do!
Well he has to call it SOMETHING - and these days many in the USA dislike the term Aspergers. I still use that as it is what I was diagnosed with, but I understand that some dislike it nowadays due to Hans Asperger's past. ( Personally I don't believe having something bearing his name indicates my approval of him any more than having German measles would make me Teutonic or chicken pox would make me poultry, but I don't want to cause offense to those that believe it does). In my opinion "high functioning autism" sounds a little patronising - a little bit 'aww bless, manages awfully well, CONSIDERING' but I know it isn't meant that way. Actually I like the terms "a touch of the 'tism" and "AuDHD" (for those blessed with both) that people seem to be coming up with themselves, as more and more of us spot one another online. (See 'Dull Mens Club' on FB, lol).
🤔Hm MsMak12356 I know what you mean. It can, however, be enjoyed when one is pie eyed after the Friday end of week celebrations and returning home at some ungodly hour endeavours to convince oneself that 🙃one is not pie eyed by listening intently to "Never Visit Venice."
This is a story of extraordinary literary dimension and depth. Beyond that, I found your comments analyzing the style extraordinarily valuable and enlightening. Reading what you said made me wish that you would do a book analyzing the style and import of every writer. I had not yet listened to any of the other stories by this author that you had narrated so I had not heard your comments in them. The biographical and psychological profiles you gave were I think for deeper than usual and I found them also extraordinarily illuminating. I personally am usually taken100% agreement with the views of Carl Jung as you are, but I do find them of interest. Your use of the male and female aspects of a personality here with most most constructively unlike some people who use Jung's ideas for very strange purposes that put me off. I personally did not feel involved in the discussion in the comments about the proper use of terminology for divergent personalities. I did know that the American psychological association had rejected the term Asperger's but I did not know why. If the term includes some reference to a better than average ability for the people it refers to, this could not cause any negative impact. Perhaps the contrast with someone who is not classified as Asperger's comes at some sort of negative evaluation. I believe a writer like Aickman both because of style and content must present extraordinary challenges to the narrator of an audiobook, more than most writers, and I believe you met these challenges perfectly. I found Aickman's long sentences to be extraordinarily effective, but at the same time required me to be more alert as a reader needing to focus more than I usually do. Hemingway has made lazy readers of us all. Aickman's long sentences express complex thoughts with the parts of the sentence coordinating really complicated subtle reactions and f fractions of the character and of the issues he's meditating upon. These sentences are calm and clarifying thoughts rather in contrast to the long sentences of William Faulkner which raise a higher emotional pitch, and represent an excitement of almost ecstatic force in the characters and the narrative I'm still mulling over your suggestion that it would have been better had aickman spared his reader with more shorter sentences. It may be true what you say, but the strange effect he had with his style might have been more moderately affective if altered. You refer once your tendency to analyze people in certain ways because of your professional background. Having read a number of your comments on other stories, I recall that you worked as a psychiatric nurse or something of that sort, but someone who has not read those previous comments might wonder what you mean by this reference to "professional." You mentioned it one point that the author went to a certain school, and like most of my fellow Americans I suspect they do not know the reputation of the school or its nature, but it was clear in context. Your comments are extraordinary because they show your personal presence like a friend discussing stories with me, at the same time, without pretension, you draw on a vast knowledge of literature, psychology, writing technique, and all manner of issues that might be relevant to any aspect of a story. Many of your comments go off (ramble is not necessarily a derogatory term) in a charming way on personal concerns and personal things in your life that are not entirely directly related to the story. These are very enjoyable. This comment is exactly the opposite, sticking to the story and going very deep into it, perhaps it is as deep an analysis as I have seen you give to one of the stories you narrated, but I like that. I found it wonderful. This is a story of extraordinary literary dimension and depth. Beyond that, I found your comments analyzing the style extraordinarily valuable and enlightening. Reading what you said made me wish that you would do a book analyzing the style and import of every writer. I had not yet listened to any of the other stories by this author that you had narrated so I had not heard your comments in them. The biographical and psychological profiles you gave were I think for deeper than usual and I found them also extraordinarily illuminating. I personally am usually taken100% agreement with the views of Carl Jung as you are, but I do find them of interest. Your use of the male and female aspects of a personality here with most most constructively unlike some people who use Jung's ideas for very strange purposes that put me off. I personally did not feel involved in the discussion in the comments about the proper use of terminology for divergent personalities. I did know that the American psychological association had rejected the term Asperger's but I did not know why. If the term includes some reference to a better than average ability for the people it refers to, this could not cause any negative impact. Perhaps the contrast with someone who is not classified as Asperger's comes at some sort of negative evaluation. I believe a writer like Aickman both because of style and content must present extraordinary challenges to the narrator of an audiobook, more than most writers, and I believe you met these challenges perfectly. I found Aickman's long sentences to be extraordinarily effective, but at the same time required me to be more alert as a reader needing to focus more than I usually do. Hemingway has made lazy readers of us all. Aickman's long sentences express complex thoughts with the parts of the sentence coordinating really complicated subtle reactions and f fractions of the character and of the issues he's meditating upon. These sentences are calm and clarifying thoughts rather in contrast to the long sentences of William Faulkner which raise a higher emotional pitch, and represent an excitement of almost ecstatic force in the characters and the narrative I'm still mulling over your suggestion that it would have been better had aickman spared his reader with more shorter sentences. It may be true what you say, but the strange effect he had with his style might have been more moderately affective if altered. You refer once your tendency to analyze people in certain ways because of your professional background. Having read a number of your comments on other stories, I recall that you worked as a psychiatric nurse or something of that sort, but someone who has not read those previous comments might wonder what you mean by this reference to "professional." You mentioned it one point that the author went to a certain school, and like most of my fellow Americans I suspect they do not know the reputation of the school or its nature, but it was clear in context. Your comments are extraordinary because they show your personal presence like a friend discussing stories with me, at the same time, without pretension, you draw on a vast knowledge of literature, psychology, writing technique, and all manner of issues that might be relevant to any aspect of a story. Many of your comments go off (ramble is not necessarily a derogatory term) in a charming way on personal concerns and personal things in your life that are not entirely directly related to the story. These are very enjoyable. This comment is exactly the opposite, sticking to the story and going very deep into it, perhaps it is as deep an analysis as I have seen you give to one of the stories you narrated, but I like that. I found it wonderful.
Probably the most accurate description of an introverts thought processes that I have heard. I wonder if Aikmen was an “inward thinker” himself?
It really is an odd way to live and one is constantly aware of one’s own apartness.
I thought so myself, as an introvert :) I want to read / listen more of his stories now.
It's so weird to read about yourself. Realizing that's who you are. I want to share this with everybody I know so they really understand who I am. With all other kindness and love. They still " don't get it.". They don't judge, but it would be nice if I could finally illustrate what it is I experience.
Great story, love Venice. The way he expressed himself on Peggy Guggenheim museum killed me 😂. I am no a fan of modern art, but I absolutely adore Peggy's unfinished palazzo, the only palazzo with a terrace directly on the waters of Canale Grande. I go there every time, for half a day at least, drink coffee in her garden, leave a rose at her grave where she reposes together with her 9 dogs, thank her for her legacy, I walk about her rooms, remind myself that art can be fun and light and then I sit on her terrace and sketch little pictures of the busy waters. In no other place have I felt the spirit of it's creator whtching over it with such love, care and welcome to every visitor. ❤
"Americans doing their duty by a dead ideal" hits the ear painfully today. This story rings so true I feel self-conscious. The story I heard was of a suicidal man who gave up his last scrap of creative power, who longed for the sweet white embrace of death, and went and met her in Venice. Venice was his creativity, always in his mind, possible, waiting for him. But he couldn't find that Venice, because he let himself become fully gray and lifeless. Death is his only consummation, but I believe in the end, she sets him free to find all his color and life again...in the next realm.
I must remember to read the comments last!
Beautifully written, beautifully read - thank you!
Too late, I visited Venice twice back in my college days and loved it!
(It probably helped that I neither rode a gondola steered by Charon nor had inappropriate relations with a skeleton.)
This is crazy, Ive been dwelling on "The Same Dog" by Aikman lately. What a gifted writer
Love love LOVED your thoughts afterwards Tony. You are a wealth of knowledge. Reminded me of many ideas and topics to revisit and explore. Thank you! I love your end of story musings.
Thank you Nadia Minverva (she is one of my fave goddesses, her day is my birthday)
Tony, Thank You!
You have really got a fantastic voice for narrating/ storytelling...
In fact, you could read to us the weather forecast
and we would happily listen!
Mrs D is catching up on the sleep she was deprived of while Jasper was so ill.
Mr and Mrs Dingbatt.
(And, Andrea's Menagerie🙄!)
Very interesting story. Well read, as usual. This guy had some vivid dreams. Glad that I rarely do!
You really have a rare talent Tony ❤. Mr Aikman wrote this story for you. A wonderful reading 👌
That's lovely
Ready for another Fall with Classic Ghost stories !!!
I'm gearing up
Thank you! I would love to visit Venice! Happy Halloween everyone!
🍁👻🎃☺️
Interesting story, beautifully read. Also very much enjoyed your musings in Aikmen’s life. I’m certainly going to search out for more of his writings 👍 Many thanks - you’ve certainly found your own niche.
I really enjoyed the talk afterwards. It was an added bonus.
hmm.... we must not paint everyone with the same brush ...
I like Aickman because there are no explanations for his stories. No Lovecraftian Elder Gods, etc., just out of nowhere weirdness.
Did he lean on the Henry James side a little? Sure. But I do believe Aickman was one of the masters of the short story.
Thanks for the story and the commentary.
Enjoyed this. To the listener the wordiness of this writing is enjoyable.
Before he goes to Venice, I think it was after he stopped having the dream, it was mentioned that he thought of death as having “warm white arms”. I felt it was inevitable that the woman was a personification of death in some way and wasn’t remotely surprised when she’d become a skeleton after they’d made love, or that the gondola was drifting out to sea so Fern could meet his death. The French refer to orgasm as the little death, so he had the little death before his major death which gave a sense of completeness, that he’d finished what he came to do.
Despite predicting more or less what happened, I still very much enjoyed the story. I didn’t find Fern snobby but more over sensitive to external stimuli and his surroundings. I’m “on the spectrum” and find crowds and noise hard to manage, so maybe I’m just projecting!
Anyway thanks again Tony, great story and beautifully read as always.
The business about the long sentences - I think they’re fine when reading quietly to oneself, but seem more laborious and lumpy when reading aloud. You always do a masterful job with them.
Well thanks... after those spoilers I don't need to listen to the story.
You are a Master narrator, Tony. ❤
oh thank you
Very atmospheric. I enjoyed your interpretation of his process.
Perfect! A masterful interpretation of a masterpiece.
Great reading. Thank you. ❤
I found myself starting to weep randomly at various passages within this story. The slow, brooding language is beautiful! As someone who can relate to the character's pained feelings of outside-ness and longing for a kind of supreme affinity, I was entranced by the descriptions. The part about Venice being dead and pillaged, about reality being a nightmare and Venice being a dream also hit home. I have extremely vivid dreams that sometimes go on to make pretty coherent storylines, and so I could relate to him finding solace in his dream, and going away into it from the banality and shallowness of an unfulfilled, unshared inner life. What a melancholic, poignant story! It alternately gave me Thomas Mann and Daphne du Maurier vibes. Thank you heaps for narrating it!
I have been to Venice in fact I went to a Vivaldi Concert in a Church in Venice it's worth going
Yep.
That sounds utterly divine!
Stinks of fish!
I went as a child with my parents - I was about six or seven, I think. I remember it rained so we spent all day in cagoules, and my overwhelming memory is of standing with a crowd packed into a tiny glassblowers shop, watching a demonstration and everyone steaming gently as the intense heat in there evaporated the rain from our hair and clothes...
Venice is a stunning place with that light the backstreets get from the water but unfortunately overrun with tourists
Brilliant.
What a sad story. I'm glad to never have lost touch with my adventurous inner child. 😅 Fern needed emotional CPR daily poor chap
I’ve visited Venice once, and my experience was largely that of Henry, minus the enchanting and horrific conclusion. This may not be Aickman’s best piece-I agree with those who find it awfully heavy on exposition-yet the way Aickman captures introversion, coupled with that magnificent climax, just can’t be denied. There’s something here that appeals strongly to a specific taste.
It’s also fun to juxtapose this piece with Mann’s "Death in Venice," as one might compare Aickman’s “Into the Wood” with /The Magic Mountain/. Both feel like Aickman’s attempt to put a supernatural spin on similar material. I’ve read somewhere that Aickman admired Mann, and you certainly get that sense in pieces like this, where we get a lot of narrative commentary on psychology and its connection to societal trends and issues.
Thank you dear Tony😊
I love the Friday uploads SO much!! What a lovely treat... 🖤🎃🖤
Been there twice. Rather enjoyed it despite the crowds.
“Read by Tony Walker” 😁😁😁
Hi Tony, thank you for another Aickman, I have become a big fan. I've been looking for your reading of The Hospice, can't find it, is it here?
+@carolrios9216 should be
Excellent reading, thank you. And your commentaries are superb👏👊💜
thank you very much. It’s really nice of you to say that.
I knew it couldn't turn out well. Dreams rarely do.
Sadly true
Keep dreaming and trying!
Thanks!
Thank you!
I'm veering off topic a bit, but, this story instantly reminded me of the film, (based on a novel by Thomas Mann. A Death in Venice. It was directed by Luchino Visconte, a big name in his day. The story is about a 40ish English male composer obsessed with a young, blond boy of 15. They are both, (separately) vacationing in Venice.
The true horror of the film is the director's obsession to find what he called; "the most beautiful boy in the world." The boy, was 15 year old Bjorn Andresen who played the role of Tadzio. If you have the opportunity, I urge everyone to watch the documentary, "The Most Beautiful Boy in the World." It is the story of how this one role victimized and altered the course of the young actor's life. It is a heartbreaking story, but, an important one, if only so we know what happened to this innocent young man, and most likely so many others during this time in this industry. It's a very moving film.
It also is a testament to the fact that the real monsters of this world are much worse than any ever written.
Thank you for indulging me with this post. I just recently watched the documentary, and I will never forget it, or Bjorn Andresen.💔
The heart wants what the heart wants, but beware of daring to makes dark dreams come true.
Our fantasies remain magical only as long as they are illusory & insubstantial, as in beautiful Venice there is rot not far beneath every masque.
What time do you call this?
Venice is one of my top three favourites. Get away from the San Marco. Go on a water bus. Get “ into the woodwork”. Be respectful, it is not a Disneyland attraction. Spend more than one day, and ffs don’t arrive on a gd cruise ship!
Oh Robert, Daphne beat you to it. I'm avoiding Venice at all costs!
:)
I kept waiting for a dwarf in a red duffle coat to show up...
Wow!
Wonderful narrator. Intressting story but what a bummer ending. It just doesn't make any sense.
I'm all for vague explanations. But this is.. wierd.
Spoilers
So a Ghost invade a man's dreams to lure him to Venice for..reasons. To kill him? Now that's a short description but...
No 1 He seems to go to Venice more or less by a fluke. And years after the dream. 2 Why him? Why wanting to kill him..if he died that is.
If anything my interpretation is that there was no woman..he had a breakdown. Took a gondola and drifted away.
Anyway just my take.
Great narration as always..
I think it's more useful to talk about these characters as being informed by autistic (for instance) people the author knew or who were well-recognized types of people--everybody knew someone like that, from the office, or from church, or from family gatherings--but didn't at the time understand the systemic underlying cause for why you saw these characteristics clustering together.
ETA: by which I mean, there's too much of the person missing from even most well-written characters to be able to have a neurotype, much less to diagnose one. But we all know what the author is describing and we relate it to the people we've known in our lives.
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Princile as applied to poetry and stories?
I thought that whole 'left-brain/right-brain' thing had been totally discredited some years ago...?
Is this actually the most excellent romance novel?
Love the story and your reading. Please don't use the phrase High Functioning Autism. What it means is that an individual doesn't get in the way of "nice normal" people. The opposite - Low Functioning Autism - means that the individual intrudes into "nice normal" life in an inconvenient way. Autism may be a spectrum, but it's not linear, from one extreme to the other. It's more like concentric circles, with an individual being in a different segment for each skill. Their positioning changes through time, often each day. Labelling people means that either they are HFA and so don't qualify for support, or LFA and so don't qualify for expectations, independence, choice, capacity and competence. I and other autistics are usually very happy to talk about these things - unless you get me on a day when any human interation is beyond me! :) Please keep reading - I don't know how you keep such a consistent high quality but you do!
I have Autism and I use that term all the time.
Well he has to call it SOMETHING - and these days many in the USA dislike the term Aspergers. I still use that as it is what I was diagnosed with, but I understand that some dislike it nowadays due to Hans Asperger's past. ( Personally I don't believe having something bearing his name indicates my approval of him any more than having German measles would make me Teutonic or chicken pox would make me poultry, but I don't want to cause offense to those that believe it does).
In my opinion "high functioning autism" sounds a little patronising - a little bit 'aww bless, manages awfully well, CONSIDERING' but I know it isn't meant that way. Actually I like the terms "a touch of the 'tism" and "AuDHD" (for those blessed with both) that people seem to be coming up with themselves, as more and more of us spot one another online. (See 'Dull Mens Club' on FB, lol).
@@julierobinson3633 the online community is FANTASTIC!
Maybe you shouldn’t label others as “nice normal people “ in such a depreciating way.
@@ellenlaird8857 You have misinterpreted :) usually it's me, being autistic, but I'll happily let you do it this time!
Aickmen !
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sorry. I wish I could give this more of a listen, but it just doesn't hold my interest. Kind of boring truthfully.
Check out " The Same Dog" on Encrypted Audio by Aikman, a mesmerizing story
Being fair I don't love every story I narrate (or read myself). Nothing wrong with that. I like getting injections for example and most people don't.
@@ClassicGhostYou funny!
🤔Hm MsMak12356 I know what you mean. It can, however, be enjoyed when one is pie eyed after the Friday end of week celebrations and returning home at some ungodly hour endeavours to convince oneself that 🙃one is not pie eyed by listening intently to "Never Visit Venice."
@@ClassicGhostYou like getting injections? Backs away cautiously...
This is a story of extraordinary literary dimension and depth. Beyond that, I found your comments analyzing the style extraordinarily valuable and enlightening. Reading what you said made me wish that you would do a book analyzing the style and import of every writer. I had not yet listened to any of the other stories by this author that you had narrated so I had not heard your comments in them. The biographical and psychological profiles you gave were I think for deeper than usual and I found them also extraordinarily illuminating.
I personally am usually taken100% agreement with the views of Carl Jung as you are, but I do find them of interest. Your use of the male and female aspects of a personality here with most most constructively unlike some people who use Jung's ideas for very strange purposes that put me off.
I personally did not feel involved in the discussion in the comments about the proper use of terminology for divergent personalities. I did know that the American psychological association had rejected the term Asperger's but I did not know why. If the term includes some reference to a better than average ability for the people it refers to, this could not cause any negative impact. Perhaps the contrast with someone who is not classified as Asperger's comes at some sort of negative evaluation.
I believe a writer like Aickman both because of style and content must present extraordinary challenges to the narrator of an audiobook, more than most writers, and I believe you met these challenges perfectly.
I found Aickman's long sentences to be extraordinarily effective, but at the same time required me to be more alert as a reader needing to focus more than I usually do. Hemingway has made lazy readers of us all.
Aickman's long sentences express complex thoughts with the parts of the sentence coordinating really complicated subtle reactions and f fractions of the character and of the issues he's meditating upon. These sentences are calm and clarifying thoughts rather in contrast to the long sentences of William Faulkner which raise a higher emotional pitch, and represent an excitement of almost ecstatic force in the characters and the narrative
I'm still mulling over your suggestion that it would have been better had aickman spared his reader with more shorter sentences. It may be true what you say, but the strange effect he had with his style might have been more moderately affective if altered.
You refer once your tendency to analyze people in certain ways because of your professional background. Having read a number of your comments on other stories, I recall that you worked as a psychiatric nurse or something of that sort, but someone who has not read those previous comments might wonder what you mean by this reference to "professional."
You mentioned it one point that the author went to a certain school, and like most of my fellow Americans I suspect they do not know the reputation of the school or its nature, but it was clear in context.
Your comments are extraordinary because they show your personal presence like a friend discussing stories with me, at the same time, without pretension, you draw on a vast knowledge of literature, psychology, writing technique, and all manner of issues that might be relevant to any aspect of a story.
Many of your comments go off (ramble is not necessarily a derogatory term) in a charming way on personal concerns and personal things in your life that are not entirely directly related to the story. These are very enjoyable. This comment is exactly the opposite, sticking to the story and going very deep into it, perhaps it is as deep an analysis as I have seen you give to one of the stories you narrated, but I like that. I found it wonderful.
This is a story of extraordinary literary dimension and depth. Beyond that, I found your comments analyzing the style extraordinarily valuable and enlightening. Reading what you said made me wish that you would do a book analyzing the style and import of every writer. I had not yet listened to any of the other stories by this author that you had narrated so I had not heard your comments in them. The biographical and psychological profiles you gave were I think for deeper than usual and I found them also extraordinarily illuminating.
I personally am usually taken100% agreement with the views of Carl Jung as you are, but I do find them of interest. Your use of the male and female aspects of a personality here with most most constructively unlike some people who use Jung's ideas for very strange purposes that put me off.
I personally did not feel involved in the discussion in the comments about the proper use of terminology for divergent personalities. I did know that the American psychological association had rejected the term Asperger's but I did not know why. If the term includes some reference to a better than average ability for the people it refers to, this could not cause any negative impact. Perhaps the contrast with someone who is not classified as Asperger's comes at some sort of negative evaluation.
I believe a writer like Aickman both because of style and content must present extraordinary challenges to the narrator of an audiobook, more than most writers, and I believe you met these challenges perfectly.
I found Aickman's long sentences to be extraordinarily effective, but at the same time required me to be more alert as a reader needing to focus more than I usually do. Hemingway has made lazy readers of us all.
Aickman's long sentences express complex thoughts with the parts of the sentence coordinating really complicated subtle reactions and f fractions of the character and of the issues he's meditating upon. These sentences are calm and clarifying thoughts rather in contrast to the long sentences of William Faulkner which raise a higher emotional pitch, and represent an excitement of almost ecstatic force in the characters and the narrative
I'm still mulling over your suggestion that it would have been better had aickman spared his reader with more shorter sentences. It may be true what you say, but the strange effect he had with his style might have been more moderately affective if altered.
You refer once your tendency to analyze people in certain ways because of your professional background. Having read a number of your comments on other stories, I recall that you worked as a psychiatric nurse or something of that sort, but someone who has not read those previous comments might wonder what you mean by this reference to "professional."
You mentioned it one point that the author went to a certain school, and like most of my fellow Americans I suspect they do not know the reputation of the school or its nature, but it was clear in context.
Your comments are extraordinary because they show your personal presence like a friend discussing stories with me, at the same time, without pretension, you draw on a vast knowledge of literature, psychology, writing technique, and all manner of issues that might be relevant to any aspect of a story.
Many of your comments go off (ramble is not necessarily a derogatory term) in a charming way on personal concerns and personal things in your life that are not entirely directly related to the story. These are very enjoyable. This comment is exactly the opposite, sticking to the story and going very deep into it, perhaps it is as deep an analysis as I have seen you give to one of the stories you narrated, but I like that. I found it wonderful.
Interesting writer new to me. Hope you honour us with more of his work en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Aickman