24 responses so far ↓

• 1 Seth // Aug 21, 2008 at 5:26 pm

  I loved your reading of this story. I’ve recently reviewed it at my blog http://www.freelistens.blogspot.com where I discuss the story and my reflections about growing up in the South. Free Listens reviews one free audio book and story every week. Thanks for sharing this story.

• 2 John Garcia // Mar 2, 2009 at 9:13 am

  A little bit to slow.

• 3 Erica // Sep 30, 2009 at 2:13 pm

  This was pretty slow. I could have read the story in 15 min myself. However, the slow reading gave me time to grasp and understand the story a lot better!

• 4 Amy // Jan 27, 2010 at 9:19 am

  Thank you. This was wonderfully done and I appreciate the pace in which you read the story.

• 5 J. Winchock // Feb 11, 2011 at 6:23 am

  Thank you so much for putting this on-line. I teach high school English and had the story on CD to use in class to demonstrate the necessity of close reading, but the CD has disappeared. It was so nice to be able to share the burden of both reading and analysis.

• 6 Eddie // Mar 4, 2011 at 10:07 pm

  Ignore the pace comments. I think that a story such as this, that does not follow a traditional method that Faulkner shows in this story, needs to be read slowly. I taught this to my class where I read it to them, and they said I read too quickly and they missed a lot of facts and key information without me spoon-feeding it to them. However, I played your podcast (my kids think I’m so cool) for another class of the same ability and said, the pace really helped clarify and keep track of what’s going on. So, overall, on this story miss, you are the master teacher!

• 7 J. Adkisson // Apr 8, 2011 at 8:35 pm

  This reading is one of the best I’ve heard of this great story. Perfect speed. You also capture the mood of the story very well.

• 8 manda // Aug 4, 2011 at 7:41 am

  Hi there! The reading of this story was great! My only suggestion is that when an author from the early 1900′s drops an “N-bomb” it is ok if you do as well in the reading of his work.

• 9 warren // Oct 18, 2011 at 8:11 am

  Sounds like she’s fellating each word as it comes out, kinda’ like that whispering scene on Poltergeist. It’s hard to get past.

• 10 miette // Oct 18, 2011 at 8:58 am

  Warren: not an image most men have a problem with, but I’ll take your word for it.

  Manda: I read to the text! I don’t censor that way (hence the approval of Warren’s comment).

• 11 The Zig // Nov 2, 2011 at 10:07 am

  I also teach this story to high school English students and I finally had to abandon this reading of the story because the kids were dying. I appreciate your efforts, but pregnant pauses between every paragraph of texts doesn’t really add much to the experience of the text. As soon as I paused your reading and announced that I would read the rest of the story to them, each of my three English sections expressed enormous relief. I hate to be blunt about this, but your tone while reading sounds mostly self-important, as if your enunciation of Faulkner’s diction is what matters more than the story itself. Miss.

• 12 miette // Nov 2, 2011 at 10:19 am

  Hi Zig: I might suggest familiarising yourself with your teaching material before exposing it to your students? Assumptions of self-importance aren’t “blunt” so much as “rude” and a little “assholic,” and I’d hope a shaper of young minds to be equipped with better critical tools.

  I read this piece slowly because I wanted to wring meaning from it, and that took some time. As you can see from the previous comments, the pacing here is a topic of contention. I welcome you to submit your own reading.

  Best,
  – Miette

• 13 TEACH // Nov 7, 2011 at 5:31 pm

  I have to agree with Zig. I have been desperately looking for an audio reading of “A Rose for Emily” with lots of dramatic quality and theatrics. I plan to have my students analyze the tone of the piece, so it helps if the text is read with a little more feeling. I think this would be a great audio text for a bedtime story, as I believe it is intended, but it isn’t quite right for a classroom. I appreciate the effort though!

• 14 Hossein // Nov 27, 2011 at 12:34 pm

  thank you very much indeed for your nice , steady, smooth, attracting, and attending voice for reading “A Rose for Emily”. I tried to play the audio program in my class as well, but as one the comments went it was a liitle bit , but not too, slow for high school and colledge students. i myself recommend that you record the story as a narration and radio play type so that it works more deeply on the listeners. however, i hope these don’t understimate your great job.
  sincerely yours
  H. Golebostan

• 15 Nick // Nov 28, 2011 at 8:19 am

  this story fucking sucks

• 16 Joseph // Nov 28, 2011 at 11:47 am

  I appreciate your efforts in bringing this story to audio, although I must say your technical adjustments have not yet reached perfection. The recording was much too enhanced and as I have thus tried to excuse the audio distractions, I was only capable of tolerating them for the first 3 min into the story. I must tell you ma’am the burdening task of following with your tone was inaccessible due mainly to the constant pauses and continuous sticky swallowing and lip-smacking, all amplified and enhanced with your in-house technical team. It was much too gross for lack of a better term, it just needed to be addressed. Thank you in any case for your participation in spreading many fine readings. I look forward to having the pleasure in experiencing what changes you have made since receiving this input. Until then Godspeed.

• 17 miette // Dec 5, 2011 at 7:47 am

  Joseph:

  Thanks for your note– as you may read in the FAQ (hopefully; it’s actually been a while since I’ve updated them), my earlier technology setup was desiring in endless ways. I’m a reader and writer first, and only stumbled onto more comprehensive knowledge of recording and editing as my recordings developed an audience. I hacked my way through it, but you’re right about those earlier recordings. Caveat emptor.

  So, the story on which you’re commenting was recorded in 2008. There have been quite a few upgrades since, and if you listen particularly to recordings from 2009 onward, you may be more satisfied.

  If you find older stories of particular interest, let me know. Maybe I’ll re-record some day.

  All best, and hopefully you’ve met your weekly quota of Gross.
  – Miette

  Nick: Fucking Right?! — Mtte.

• 18 Steven // Jan 21, 2012 at 7:00 am

  You have an amazing voice. This helped me a lot!!
  Thank you!!

• 19 Alex // Jan 23, 2012 at 6:04 pm

  I greatly apreciated this

• 20 Vanessa // Jan 25, 2012 at 5:13 pm

  Soooo awesome!

  Thanks so much:]
  made reading this story for english way better:]
  Thank you!

• 21 Teacher Fail // Feb 1, 2012 at 9:23 am

  Teachers shouldn’t be looking for audio for their students to listen to, the students should be reading the book. If they want to listen to an audio of it ( because they wish to get smarter) they should look on their own time. Don’t encourage the young people to be lazy fucks just because you hate teaching. Assholes. You have a lot of nerve to complain about something that is FREE.

  Teach fail is teach fail. Leern to teech stoodents.

• 22 miette // Feb 1, 2012 at 10:14 am

  Well, well, well, without knowing in what context the audio is being taught, we have no way of knowing whether teachers are being lazy with their teaching. Comprehension of material recited orally and presented as written text are two different skillsets, both of which can help young readers and writers understand narrative and structure.

  That said, of course, playing a recording blindly — especially my recordings– and registering complaints afterward about my pacing, microphone technique, or recording technology is lacking in things like tact and foresight, and I’d be inclined to agree that it does assume a certain amount of laziness on the teachers’ part.

  I love when I see this site linked up on teachers’ pages– very few things melt my heart in the same way. I just hope that teachers know what, and why, they’re teaching audio stories.

• 23 Rachel // Feb 1, 2012 at 10:48 am

  If you’re looking for something a bit faster listen to Finnegans Wake on UbuWeb Sound.

• 24 miette // Feb 1, 2012 at 12:42 pm

  Rachel: I would install one of those “like” thumbs-up icons for your comment alone. — Mtte.

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