A Very Spidery Audio Drama!

On Monday (9/24), I participated in the first of the four live “tweet-alongs”. We listened to an audio drama-Anansi Boys. The actual process was pretty easy. I just sat at my computer (well, actually, I was lying down on my bed with my computer on my chest and stomach). Twitter is very quick and easy to use, so throughout watching, I rarely felt like I was not catching something because I was too busy typing. I don’t have any memory of listening to an audio book before, though I’m sure at some point I have, so this was completely new to me!

One thing I noticed the most was that all of the background noises, including the music, really helped to establish a scene, when otherwise we the listeners would have no idea where the characters were. For example, the music and voices helped to establish that the characters were at a bar before they mentioned going over to the bar. The music also helped to establish the characters personalities. For example, Charlie had more modern music, whereas there was more jazzy music in a flashback. In addition, the music really set the mood, such as the slower, more dull music when Charlie had the hangover. Finally, there was the sound that meant that Spider, the brother, mind-controlled (or whatever he does) someone. Without it, the audience would otherwise just hear the person suddenly change their tune without any reason why, whereas with this sound we can tell something happened, and in context, that he mind-controlled them.

Another major thing that I noticed was the various characters’ voices and their dialogue. The accents vary, signaling who belongs to what group and how they relate to Charlie. For example, the Floridian people relate to Charlie as that is where he grew up, and are connected with his late father, whereas the British people are his current life in England. His brother Spider’s very American accent, especially when among the British characters, really helps him to stand apart from them, seem different. What also helped was that Spider is EXTREMELY dramatic. He says things like “Dark as night, sweet as sin” and “Blood calls to blood like sirens in the night”. This wording really sets him apart from the other characters, especially his brother Charlie, who speaks normally, if a bit timid and confused most of the time. Other than Spider, the dialogue seems very natural and down-to-earth, which helps the audience connect with the story and the characters before all of the spiders and gods and everything are mentioned.

I made my tweets as a thread, so that they were easier to find and group together. Here is the thread. Click on it to see all of the tweets:

Getting ready to listen to ds106 radio! #ds106 #ds106radio

— Francesca Maisano (@FCMaisano) September 25, 2018

This is where the Featured image is from. I really did NOT like looking for a picture. I absolutely had spiders-just looking at pictures of them makes my skin crawl! I should have searched “spider silhouette” first, not just spider! However, I thought a spider picture was applicable. This is the only picture that I can stand to look at!

https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=55905&picture=clip-art-spider