Fire in the Dark: Original Audio Excerpts

The audio excerpts included below are identical to those included in the multimedia e-book version of Fire in the Dark and have been placed here for the convenience of those readers whose e-book devices are not equipped to play the audio.

Talarico: Fire in the Dark

– excerpts from the original recording sessions –

To the Listener:
– The original recording sessions between Kate and Ron were intended for transcription rather than for listening, and thus no consideration was given to ambient noise, of which there is much as a result. The listener will hear coffee cups being placed on hard surfaces, wind chimes, birds chirping, the shuffling of papers, use of a microwave, water running at the sink, music playing, the phone ringing.

– In all cases, the audio excerpts contained herein are from the original recording sessions. At times and for the sake of economy, different segments from the same story were cut and pasted into a single new audio file in order to combine and highlight certain details from a man’s story or an interview session without including others. Because of this, the listener might notice an occasional awkward transition from one mini-segment to the next within the same excerpt.

– The names indicated in the audio legend are the same fictitious names as those used in the book and belong to the same man (e.g. Alex in the audio recording is the same Alex as in the written narrative).

– Since the original recording sessions are raw and unedited material and the written narrative drawn from those sessions has been edited (as explained in one of the book’s appendices), there will often not be a word-for-word correspondence between the audio excerpts herein and their corresponding written narratives in the book.

– Finally, in order to protect the identity of the men in these original audio excerpts, pronouns have been mechanically substituted for the men’s names. Thus, for example, John said becomes He said; for John becomes for him; and John’s alcoholism becomes his alcoholism. The recordings of the he-him-his substitutions were simply pasted over the men’s names. This results in some noticeable awkwardness in Kate’s vocal quality, because while that quality changed within the same recording session, between recording sessions, and through the years, the pronouns pasted never vary in vocal quality (e.g. the very same recording of he is used throughout every excerpt). And this use of pronouns-only could also result in some confusion unless the listener keeps in mind that (1) with rare exception, every recorded unit presented here is from a different man’s story, and (2) the intertrack pause tones are intended to alert the listener to this.