Monday, March 9, 2009

Lots of Cash, Both Rhetorically and in Reality

Earlier, I had mentioned how the huge sums of dumb money mentioned in Dumb Money no longer seemed so huge, thanks to the trillions being tossed around in the discussions about the various facets of the Obama rescue plan. As the story advanced, however, the chunks of change have grown larger, and my ability to be shocked has been restored. For instance, in 2007, the total of debt insured through credit default swaps was $62 trillion. May I never live to see the day when such a sum fails to amaze me.

Another thing about audio books: lots of English words have multiple pronunciations, or common mispronunciations (W's foremost legacy?). For instance, in The Big Con, the narrator refers to a "clique" of people with a two-syllable iteration of the word in question, and I'm quite certain I've always heard it as one (although maybe I just speak naco English). I remember thinking that his pronunciations of "deify," "salons," and "substantive" were all likewise unusual to my ears. If I were the author of an audio book, and a narrator went with an alternative pronunciation without my consent, that would irritate me immensely. Is there such thing as "narratorial malpractice"?

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