Pssst -- Did You Hear .... ?

"Rumor's half-way round the world e'er truth's half out the door."

I think I heard it that way somewhere. Sound and motion are inherently attention grabbing. The true internet explosion came when sound and lifelike motion could be captured and transmitted via that medium.

I heard a story. It seems enterprising folks are making pastiches of sound clips copied from the audio-book versions of "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope." (Mr. Obama read his own books for the audio-book publication.) Grab a word here and a phrase there, and you suddenly have a famous voice making the most fantastic utterances that were never spoken.

It is not as easy to cite aural / motion sources as print. That is why oral history programs include the generation of printed transcripts, and scholarly studies of films cite frame numbers.

Reputable audiobook publishers record printed texts word for word, including chapter titles, etc. Authorized abridgments consist of excerpts with narrative bridges, and the production makes clear which is which.

In addition to "Aardvark" and "Platypus" I noted in my last post, I've listened to the "birth - start of 1861" portion of Ulysses S. Grant's Personal Memoirs. That portion runs just under 5 hours; the remainder of the memoir runs nearly 19 hours. The work is considered a masterpiece of autobiography but I've never found time to read it although I've owned a copy for many decades.