The Narrator
The Narrator
Hello. Good evening. Or good morning. Whatever. Let me introduce myself. I will be your narrator for this text and any fictionalized story you read. I will know everything about the story, but I’m not going to tell you just yet. I’ll reveal all the details and facts one by one, bit by bit. There may even be a little surprise at the end. If you’re reading an autobiography, your narrator will be, in all likelihood, the person who wrote the book—that is, if you are familiar with his or her voice. If not, I may get the gig. If you’re reading a textbook, the narrator will possess a more scholarly demeanor. Sorry, that’s not my jam.
During my narration, I may sound similar to you. In your head, that is. I employ the same voice as you and the same accent. You may think you don’t speak with an accent, but you do. If you were in Fiji, people there would think you have an accent. Unless you’re from Fiji, then you would fit right in. But as I narrate a story, I will retain your accent; until some dialogue is introduced in which case, I may possibly use a different accent. This all depends on how creative you are.
I want to warn you right from the start: I won’t pronounce every word correctly. This is not my fault; it’s yours. You see, even though I know everything about the story you’re going to read, I’m only as smart as you. If there’s a phrase in French, and you don’t speak French, I’m probably going to gloss over it with the attention span of a gnat. For example: Pourquoi suis-je si bête? See what I did there? I simply mumbled through it without knowing what it meant—unless you know French, in which case so do I, and it made perfect sense. In fact, I know every language, as long as you do too.
If you’re a female, then in most cases I will be female as well. If you are male, you guessed it—I will have a masculine voice. Let’s get back to dialogue for a second. If a male is speaking, then I’m going to use a masculine voice. The opposite goes for feminine voices. However, this all hinges on how adept you are at creating voices; so don’t blame me if all the people in the story sound the same. My job is to tell the story. Your job is to embellish.
If I am narrating a story in English and it is not your first language, I may go a little slower so you can keep up. Or, if the story is above your usual aptitude, I will take this under consideration and speak at a rate commensurate with your level. You may find this cumbersome, but don’t worry, I’ll speed up over the big words. If you’re the inquisitive type, I will eagerly go over those words, or even entire sentences, a second time, so you can familiarize yourself with the information.
Sometimes, if what I’m narrating is a bit stuffy or not to your liking, you may not pay full attention to me, and I will have to reread a paragraph or even an entire page. Maybe more than once. This is all part of my job description, and I won’t feel any animosity toward you. But if you fall asleep while I’m doing my job, and I am forced to stop, now that’s just rude; in which case I will start to reread little bits here and there until I find where I left off. Please pay attention.
Let’s talk about skimming. This happens when you are either in a hurry or you’re looking for something specific and don’t want me to read the entire text. I’m most willing to oblige. I will read a few words from each sentence, usually at the start of a paragraph, but sometimes I’ll only concentrate on the more engaging words that catch your attention. Sometimes I will skip entire sections or even pages. This is entirely up to you, so don’t blame me if I can’t find what you’re looking for. I’m a narrator, not Google.
Page numbers: these are usually not included in my narration. You can look at them for points of reference or curiosity, but unless you genuinely want me to, they’re not a part of my everyday workload. Can you imagine hearing me say something like, “Joaquin had all the necessary ingredients ready for—page 112—a delicious spaghetti dinner.”? Yeah, let’s leave those unspoken.
Chapter numbers, on the other hand, I would be happy to announce—especially those having a caption letting you know the subject matter of the chapter. I enjoy reading those unless you don’t want any spoilers, but authors wouldn’t do that. Would they? Narrating chapter headings is akin to a butler announcing guests at a party. You know their names, but you’re not quite sure what to expect when you get a little alcohol in them.
Well then, I think that basically does it. You now know everything about me and have become familiarized with my work. You know what to expect from what I do, and therefore, your own limitations. I sincerely hope our partnership will be enjoyable for each of us, and that we will be entertained, no matter who is doing the reading and who is doing the narrating. So, what do you say? Shall we begin?
