“Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music.”

Benjamin Franklin

Really, I meant to write more about the colourful props of my virtual life in this second post of Flawnt’s vues virtuelles, which, in a sudden attack of self importance,  I considered calling “Flawntology”. But I didn’t want to start a church or become responsible for the breakout of religious wars. Call me Ishmael.

I realised that I wasn’t quite up to it – unlike the young James Joyce, who dreamt for a (short) time of becoming a revered fashion writer in London (if I got my sources right) and became a badly dressed revolutionary instead. Though I might be able to write about buttons and tailcoats, I’d much rather reflect on buttocks and thighs. Fashion writing is too tighty-whitey for the likes of me. Instead, I admit to hearing voices…

A couple of weeks ago I listened to live readings in-world for the first time: a friend, Patens Porta, a centauride with a ponderous but pleasant personality and very nice to look at, told me, excitedly stomping her hooves and shaking her breasty belongings, that she had heard Stosh Quartz, a virtual poet of note, read one of my texts at the Poet’s Meet, another regular event at Milk Wood, Awen (Tuesdays at 10 am SLT in the Milk Wood Library Building). The text was teenage want which I had written for my niece, who was then caught in terrible teenage wars of want, a few months earlier. the text has got a poetic ring to it though it is prose (as is all my writing), and it had never been read. I don’t even think I ever read it aloud myself – though i’ve heard that’s a good idea.

Later that day, I joined Sabreman Carter, a published romantic poet and real-life yorkshire man, for one of his open mike poetry events (search for events to find any of the 7+ weekly events put on by him). Luckily, Stosh was present, too, and willing to give us another reading with her voice, which is both fragile and forceful – I was blown away by the powerful impression that the reading, and the entire event, left on me. I even joined in and read aloud in public myself, beginning with listen, and later a poem that i like very much, The Panther by Rilke.

Other poets read then, too, and a number of people simply read poems they liked. It was a most pleasant surprise: to find out that I had a voice at all! For those of you who are commercially minded: it makes business sense, too – the ROI for reading and being read aloud to an audience of a dozen people or more in-world is fantastico – headsets are affordable and you can smoke, eat and drink on your own couch and wiggle your toes – while being listened to and receiving the most delightful responses (people will be kind to you, and Sabreman Carter does ever so lovely a job moderating these events – e.g. every Thursday at 2 pm SLT at Avgi.)

online readings bring the poetry to the people rather than force the people to go to the poetry – and they rarely get embarrassing – neither for poet nor listeners: when you don’t like what you hear, simply turn off your audio. Word craft being such an intensely subjective art, this seems valuable. Nobody has to avert their eyes, begin to fidget on their chair or share with a neighbour in hushed tones (but somehow, magically, just loud enough for the poet to hear) how much they despise this piece…(awww as I write this, I can feel the Crushing Critic’s sword slither up my glorious guts).

Having got quite a kick out of voice, other people’s and my own, I am going to do it again – and if i can, you surely can, too, since I’m not even a real person but a mere figment of an aging writer’s fertile and fiendish imagination. Don’t forget to drop me a line if you are going to a voiceful writing event, or let me know if you’d like me to read some of your work!

Virtually & audio-visually enhanced yours
Flawnt Alchemi

Article written by Flawnt Alchemi.