Your description of what you did with the music in Prism sounds lovely and appropriate (to me, anyway). And musical interludes, while they may not be everyone's cup of tea, generally don't overlap with the text. Personally, I think they're a great way of marking a scene break when a long pause just isn't sufficient to the task.

What I can't imagine is listening to a story being read while there is music with lyrics being played in the background. There are times when I have trouble reading a book while the radio's going.

Fay, love, what Anne said. You're a dear to think hard about it, both for the good and the bad, but 'Suela's rant, to quote her post directly, was:

But now I'm going to ask you, as politely as I can: do not read over music.

Not intros, outros, section breaks, lead-ins, but actually reading the fic while music is going on -- and, yeah. Either I can't make sense of the story in the first place, can't remember a damned bit of it five minutes later, or my brain tries to follow the music and I can't make sense of that either because there's talking in the way.

(I'm not hearing-impaired, but I'm cognitively utterly fucked when it comes to making any sense at all of recorded speech when there are other soundtracks competing.)

I don't think that what you're describing of your podfics would be the same kind of issue at all for me (and I only speak for me); but at the same time, I think it's a damned fine thing when people stop to think about access issues wrt speech -- too often, they just don't.

And 'Suela, I want to thank you for raising the issue for just that reason. And I'm really sorry it turned into an entitlement-fest on you. Wish I were surprised.

I was kind of taken by surprise because usually stories that use ridiculous plot contrivances and characterization that in no way resembles the characters I'm familiar with reveal themselves fairly early on. With this one, I was really enjoying the set-up, nodding along with the dialogue as sounding right to me and feeling that people's reactions to each other were spot on. Then the massive load of WTF? got air-dropped into the middle of the story, characters started behaving in ways that completely contradicted not only canon but how they behaved earlier in the story, and cardboard original characters started coming out of the woodwork to railroad the plot to its predetermined end.

I wish there were a polite way to ask the author if she could go back to just before it went off the rails and rewrite the second half with the same style and sensibility as the first.

That's too bad, Matt, because that really can ruin an otherwise decent story. I've gotten 20 chapters into a 30 chapter serial and given up in a WTF that way, too. It reaaly sucks. Almost more than an unfinished story. Unfinished stories you can at least imagine how it might end without being radically disabused. Something already finished just pokes at you and keeps tearing the scab off every time you go back to see if it really is that bad.

Fortunately for my fic, I think I've got a pretty decent beta reader, who would never dare let me get away with that.

And I want to thank 'Suela for sticking up for those of us who can't focus on two things at the same time while listening. Either music or talking, but not both at the same time, thank you very much. Intro music, OTOH, is tres cool. It can really set the mood of story and I'm willing to bet Fay chooses really cool music.

Yeah, the podfic of Fay's that I've listened to has tended to have short clips of music (not whole songs) that do a very good job of setting a tone or a mood. I think it's a great add. Music, especially with lyrics, in the background of the reading would be a totally different story.

Fay, as amych said. While I think it's a subjectivity issue with regards to the use of music for interludes and lead-ins (i.e., some people like it, some don't, for some it depends on the music choices, just like vids), my primary issue was with people reading over music. I am an absolutist on that: it's a failure of accessibility, and a disservice to both the story and many of the potential audience members.

On a personal note, I don't like entire songs used as interludes. I want to get to the next part of the story, already, not wait through Johnny Cash singing about Folsom Prison or whatever. But that's not an accessibility issue, it's a personal preference and a formatting aspect. (I do wish people would label the stories when they use entire songs, though.)

In either event, it's my understanding it's not that hard to not use music when putting together podfic, and those of us with hearing problems would like to have the option of listening to a music-free story.

Stolen from Consuela on LJ:

Horrible Fanon Childhood Showdown.

There's only one woman on the list!

I have to admit, I'm not up on fic in many of these fandoms, so I'm guessing about a lot of them. Knowing Bodie has a lot of fanon misery does make me want to seek fic out, though.

I'm very disappointed in Torchwood fic that Ianto couldn't give Daniel Jackson a run for his money--or perhaps I just underestimate the woobiness of Daniel.

What happened to DiNozzo (I don't really follow NCIS) that made his childhood suck worse than Logan Echolls?

perhaps I just underestimate the woobiness of Daniel.

Daniel, IN CANON, watched his parents crushed by a falling museum exhibit. I imagine his fanon childhood is filled with terrible foster home experiences and the like.

Who has more fanon childhood misery?

Jim Kirk (Star Trek (2009)) 47 (67.1%)

Alex Krycek (The X-Files) 23 (32.9%)

I find this very hard to believe. But it's one of the very few where I'm familiar enough with both candidates to even have an opinion.

But honestly, the entire post is making my head explode:

Who has more fanon childhood misery?

Worse fanon childhood?

More fanon ~manpain~ incurred before age eighteen?

Why are these separate questions? What makes them different?

Seriously, I'm getting way too worked up about this.