An appeal for help

 This morning I learned the name of one of the many victims of the Los Angeles wildfires: Simon Vance.  The name resonated with me because he is my favorite audiobook narrator.  It is to Vance that I owe my longstanding deep love of the works of Charles Dickens; he was the narrator of Bleak House that I first listened to decades ago.  Since then, Simon Vance has been for me the voice of Dickens, Trollope, Hardy, Eliot, and Patrick O'Brian along with dozens of other authors.  You see, in my always solitary and often repetitive work, I resort to audiobooks to occupy the time.  Among book narrators, Simon Vance is simply the best.  He has an uncanny ability to create character voices - both male and female - that give life to every passage of dialog.  He has a true actor's capacity to express the emotion and feeling of every scene that I can't help thinking any author, even those long dead, would applaud.  It would be difficult to understate the impact Vance's exemplary work has had on my life for many years.

So I was particularly moved when I learned this morning that Vance was among the many who have lost their home to the southern California fires.  Not surprisingly, a friend of Vance and his wife has set up a GoFundMe page on their behalf to assist in their time of need.  In situations such as this, there are familiar excuses to not help out:  Celebrities are not deserving of help.  Living in that region of California, he is certainly rich.  He should have insurance that will fully and immediately make him whole.  But so strong is my respect and admiration for his work, I overcame these excuses and made a small contribution to the fund.  I mean, Vance is a prominent voice performer, but hardly a household name.  I have no idea what his personal financial or insurance situation is, but I won't begrudge him on that account.  No, he is simply an individual whose work I admire, and I felt called to demonstrate my appreciation by lending symbolic assistance in his time of need.

The fires in southern California are a tremendous tragedy.  For those who wish to help, there are many worthy and deserving aid organizations to which one can donate:  The American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, and Los Angeles Animal Services are just a few examples.  But if you, like me, want to give direct help to an individual in need, please consider the Simon Vance GoFundMe page.

Time Machine

 My day job as a research scientist, while very fulfilling, can often be repetitive, quiet, and solitary.  This lends itself to my heavy reliance on audio books to occupy my mind during the day's tasks.  Currently I am listening to The Duke's Children, by Anthony Trollope.  I am very partial to the English Victorian novelists, including Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, Trollope. Trollope was unique among them as he continued his day job while also being a prolific novelist: he was a senior official in the Royal Mail postal system.  In fact, he is responsible for the design of the characteristic English pillarbox mail collection box.  Therefore, many of his novels have characters writing letters which he describes in much more detail than any other author might.  As a postal enthusiast, I find this especially interesting.

The Duke's Children, by Anthony Trollope.  Folio Society edition.

My first venture into the tale of the Duke of Omnium was, however, not an audio book but a conventional paper one.  While I read the story, it struck me that though this was a common book, it was in a sense a time machine.  Somewhere in London two hundred years ago, a man sat at a table with a simple fountain pen, ink, and some paper.  With that and nothing more than his own creativity and imagination, he created the complex and elaborate world of the former Prime Minister of England and his family's dramas.  Copies of his writings were made by a then-painstaking printing process, and today are made by a more high-tech one.  As I read my book, I experienced in vivid detail the lifestyle of those who lived centuries ago.  Their speech, values, and daily activities were all brought forth to myself, living in the digital world of the 21st century.  Through a humble and simple book, a man's artistic skill and his contemporary lifestyle could be experienced by a modern reader.  Almost directly from his pen into my mind, 200 years later.  An astonishing achievement.

And if one is to read, why not do it with a little style?  The volume of this novel I read a few years ago was published by The Folio Society, a publisher who specializes in classics, printed and bound with extraordinary quality.  No cheap paperback, this.  My numbered, limited edition copy of Trollope's work was leatherbound, with handmade marbled endpapers and a high quality sewn binding.  It also was a complete version, restoring all the extensive text that Trollope grudgingly cut from his original manuscript in order to fit size requirements of his publishers at the time.  A companion text by a literary scholar is included, all contained in a hard slipcover.  As I say, if one reads, an elegant edition makes it all the more enjoyable.

While I enjoyed this novel the first time in its intended form, I now am re-reading (listening) to it via audio book.  This adds an additional layer of interpretation to the process, removing oneself slightly from direct commune with the author.  An audio book narrator can make or break the whole experience, but I have found one of the best.  When I obtain my audio books, my preference is for those read by Simon Vance.  He is simply the best.  A pleasant speaking voice, remarkable ability to give different voices to different characters' dialog, and an astonishing acting ability make him a leader in the field of audio book narration.