Free Audiobook: "The Market for Liberty"

[markuzick]

When used in the narration of a non-fiction book, it's quite off-putting. Every time he did it, I found myself shaking my head in smiling embarrassment for him and thinking to myself,"Oh Ian, behave yourself!"

If you were reading the book, how would you read the words in quotes?

Quotation marks around words and phrases in written material can signify a lot of different emphases.  I think that as you, Ian, read the book, you consistently interpreted the emphasis as derisory, and shared your interpretation.  I think it probably could have been done no other way, but one consequence of injecting that much of yourself into your audiobook is that some people won't get past your sometimes mocking tone.

BTW thanks for recording this book.  I'm enjoying it more than Capitalism And Freedom.

Thank you Tarheel. I totally misunderstood Ian's question, but you got it right! I've deleted my old reply. Now I can answer it properly:

I would have read the words in quotation marks to sound as if the speaker was a regular person.

This is not a comic book or a satirical allegory. It's meant to be a serious work of political philosophy. Your mocking interpretation is stereotyping people who the book disagrees with. It's a propaganda tactic called poisoning the well. It's similar to a tactic used in Nazi propaganda films that portray Jews as cheap, dirty and crude, hook nosed misers.

People who already agree with the authors conclusions may find it amusing, but as an educational and recruiting tool for people unfamiliar with the philosophy of liberty, the reaction to this crude devise, in all but the most dull witted listener, will be one of skepticism and dismissal.

The reader should be able to judge the ideas and facts presented in this book on their own merits, without narrator implying that they are bad people if they don't immediately agree.

I appreciate all your work, but the recording needs to be fixed up.

[FTL_Ian]

I appreciate all your work, but the recording needs to be fixed up.

Nah.   

[mikehz]

Hey, it's free--what do you want?

I thought it was well done.

[alkanen]

Just finished the book yesterday.  Thanks Ian, greatly appreciated.

I do, however, agree that you read it a bit too fast for me to be able to really integrate the information.  You're in radio mode when you read =)

[travisbickle]

I've listened to most of it. Everytime you say Government or talk about the government side you can feel the passion of hatred in your voice. I'm used to it since I listen to the show, but the condescending tone might be off putting to people not already on the "side of liberty". It's probably a marginal point but whatever.

[FTL_Ian]

If my tone is what distracts them from the ideas, fuck 'em.

[markuzick]

If my tone is what distracts them from the ideas, fuck 'em.

If I spoke to you in a tone of voice that implied that you were a fool if you didn't immediately agree with me, I think you'd be offended to the point of distraction too.

What if I said "You must be an idiot if you don't agree with the above statement." ? Will that help you to understand and change your mind? I think not.

[Paul-ish]

If my tone is what distracts them from the ideas, fuck 'em.

My friend and I listen to this audio book in the car while I drive him to school. He had pretty much never heard of Libertarianism before we started listening. Now, before we have even completed the book he said he considers himself an Anarcho-capitalst.

As for the mocking tone, I think I helped my friend with that by identifying the tone as the readers own mocking voice and not part of everyones' idea anarcho-capitalism. I made it clear to him that the reader is a radio host and so that is normally how he does things on his show, because that's radio, but by no means is the whole movement inflammatory. Now we just laugh and make fun whenever Ian reads like that. Our favorite one is "You Wright brothers will never get that thing|contraption? off the ground"

[markuzick]

If my tone is what distracts them from the ideas, fuck 'em.

My friend and I listen to this audio book in the car while I drive him to school. He had pretty much never heard of Libertarianism before we started listening. Now, before we have even completed the book he said he considers himself an Anarcho-capitalst.

As for the mocking tone, I think I helped my friend with that by identifying the tone as the readers own mocking voice and not part of everyones' idea anarcho-capitalism. I made it clear to him that the reader is a radio host and so that is normally how he does things on his show, because that's radio, but by no means is the whole movement inflammatory. Now we just laugh and make fun whenever Ian reads like that. Our favorite one is "You Wright brothers will never get that thing|contraption? off the ground"

It's lucky your friend had you around to do damage control. The recording is a gift to the already converted, but it should probably be withheld from potential recruits.

[MobileDigit]

Ian you should probably add a link to the PDF of the book somewhere: http://www.mises.org/books/marketforliberty.pdf

[FTL_Ian]

Done, thanks!

[Porcupine_in_MA]

Hey Ian does anyone know what happened to the authors? Did they get abducted by aliens from Mexico? Or die? Or what?

[FTL_Ian]

Word has it that Morris is dead and Linda is living in Alaska.

[Morpheus]

Thanks for sharing this with us Ian, I'm enjoying it!

[Harry Tuttle]

I just listened to the first 5 chapters today.

After all of the talk about Ian's "mocking tones" I was ready for something over-the-top.

In SoCal driving I've listened to MANY audiobooks and my opinion is that he read it BEAUTIFULLY. It is important to add some form of enunciation to certain words and I think that Ian's take on it was well within the spirit of the book.

I think there is the proper amount of personality or animation in this recording to help engage my mind. Thanks Ian.