Monday, January 17, 2011

"Might As Well" Recordings

We had a wonderful response to the "Might As Well" challenge. Max Cantor, Nathanael Sylva, Catherine Russell, Nicholas Sabin, Cassie Nichols, Icy Sedgwick, Annie Evett and Tony Noland all submitted recordings.

Max Cantor is a computer programmer. He hosted the original Bathroom Monologues and gave me the audio player you're about to use.

Mr. Cantor's reading.

Nathaniel Sylva is a professional actor living in New England. He's unfairly more handsome than most of us. Scorn him as you listen to his talent.

Mr. Sylva's reading.

Catherine Russell is a writer who frequently participates in #fridayflash and #spokensunday. I can't help but call her Gany, which makes less and less sense over time. She does a weekly Writing Niche podcast on her site.

Ms. Russell's reading.

Nicholas Sabin is a philosopher, and therefore more qualified to say words like "tautologically" and  "epistemologically" than most of us. He once went as Ludwig Wittgenstein for a Halloween. Cringe at his intellectual acumen while you listen.

Mr. Sabin's reading.

Icy Sedgwick submitted her recording through Audioboo, which you can peruse through this link. Icy is a writer based in London, England, with subjects including tragedy and psychic parrots.

Annie Evett also submitted her recording through Audioboo. Annie is a writer based in Queensland, Australia, who has essentially played the boss lady for #spokensunday for months now.

Tony Noland kept with the trend of Audioboo. Tony is a writer of fine flash fiction, aspiring novelist, and blogger with a keen interest in bear trapping.



Mr. Noland's reading: Listen!

Jax of Tangled Yarns also tired her hand. She's penned serials, flashes, book reviews and introspective posts on her blog. This was her first Audioboo joint.

Jax's reading: Listen!

Lizze is the most unexpected reader to date. I met her playing videogames last night, mentioned this in passing, and was surprised to find her rendition pop up in the Comments. She used the file sharing service Dropbox to stream her edition.

Lizze's reading: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19137321/mightaswell.wav


Finally, Cassie Nichols is the tech-savvy one. She recorded using her webcam and put it up on Youtube. You can watch her reading the monologue below:




 If you'd like to record your own version of "Might as Well," go ahead! Link to it in the Comments section and I'll add it to this post.

 The original text of Might As Well:
Why? You can only speak around your why, for the truth is that whatever happened once tautologically happened once. What has not happened at all may as well not happen. Anything perceived as happening once may happen again (may well have happened innumerable times before you perceived the once). Only that which never happened may well have never happened, but new things emerge all the time. Gadgets, individuals, sayings – things aligned, but things unique. Things that happened. That which has yet never happened might well happen along any minute. Perhaps it will happen five times right in a row, right across the floor. If it doesn’t, then it might as well not. But it may as well. In the vastness of this universe, you cannot demonstrate epistemologically that anything has not happened. Is not happening. Certainly you cannot demonstrate it in the infinite probability bubble universes outside our own, where all probabilities play out. It isn’t just our universe and one where the Third Reich won the war. It’s this one universe, and this universe where I hesitate half a second (for effect), and this universe where I use “that” instead of “this” in one of the places in this sentence, and this universe where I use “that” in another position that is wholly grammatically incorrect. It’s an infinity, and that means everything, and that means whatever happened once has happened every way it ever possibly could somewhere. If it didn’t, then it might as well not have. But if it did, then it might as well have, and that is truth, and truth is meaning, and if you oppose that meaning then you oppose truth, and the opposition of truth is wrong.

8 comments:

  1. I enjoyed listening (and watching!) the various recitations of your work. It's interesting to hear the variety in the readings. Thanks for letting me participate! :)

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  2. I LOVE THE WAY YOU TALK ICY!
    They're all great, seriously, but ICY I am in LOVE with your voice!

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  3. I agree - I love Icys voice too...

    I've just had a dismal try at it.. http://audioboo.fm/boos/257436-might-as-well-challange

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  4. am transferring links for this over to Spoken Sunday
    http://spokensunday.wordpress.com

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  5. I can't resist any essay that uses the word "epistemologically".

    See my version here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/257895-might-as-well-by-john-wiswell

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  6. http://audioboo.fm/boos/258408

    Look...I found the right place to put this. It was fun!

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  7. Hi John! I figured I'd try my hand at this as well, and maybe next time we'll actually get to play Alien Swarm together ;)

    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19137321/mightaswell.wav

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