Or is this a bit inappropriate?

[Mycatishere]

I was listening to an audiobook today, and I’ve already read the book - wanted something easy to listen to while I got on with other stuff.

So in the book, one of the characters is called Maggie and is half sister to a character named Bonnie. Bonnie is white British and is narrated with a slightly cockney accent (she’s Scottish in the book but anyway …) and she and Maggie have different fathers. But there’s no mention in the book, no hint, of Maggie having grown up anywhere other than uk.

Yet Maggie is narrated with a Jamaican accent am I alone in thinking that’s a bit off, really?

No. This is just not how audiobooks should be or need to be.

I asked a question. But I guess you are just here to get a fight going?

When an author has their work published in audio format, there are (presumably, based on my very limited discussions with an author friend who has 3 fiction books in hardback, paperback and audio format) many meetings with the contracted narrator.

When the author wrote the character of Maggie, who's father is black, perhaps she intended her to have picked up a slight Jamaican accent from her father's family (we don't know if he WAS Jamaican but we don't know that he WASN'T?) and asked the narrator to apply one? The author had to approve the finished work after all, I doubt the narrator just arbitrarily applied the accent they felt most suited Maggie's heritage.

The other posts are referring to the current thread about the person randomly identifying as French and speaking in a French accent when they are, in fact, not French.

what's the book anyway

I can’t see a question.

Im certainly not trying to get a fight going. I genuinely have no idea what point you were trying to make with that particular anecdote. Why is it OK for a book to present a woman raised in Britain (there is absolutely nothing to suggest otherwise in the book) to have a Jamaican accent because an erstwhile colleague of yours went on holiday and came back with the accent?

That is not ‘said’ in any way aggressively. I would honestly like to know what your reasoning is.

I doubt the narrator just arbitrarily applied the accent they felt most suited Maggie's heritage

Do you think so? I think that’s exactly what they did.

What question?

I pointed out that someone born and bread in the U.K. could have a Jamaican accent.

My colleague had a Jamaican accent because her parents came from Jamaica and had Jamaican accents. She never lived there - I didn’t say she left for a two week package holiday a cockney and came back with an accent.

And yes - you do come across as spoiling for a fight.

I disagree. The narrator should just read it in their own voice and accent. They are reading not acting. Do you think male narrators should adopt falsetto to read female characters?

But the Scottish character has a cockney accent!
Maybe the narrator can only do two accents.
There’s a possibility of racism here, but I suspect it’s more that the narrator just isn’t very good.

@KittenKong

You answered my post by telling me that an ex colleague of yours went to Jamaica and came back with an accent. OK , except that is really not what the post is about.

When I answered, you replied saying ‘I asked a question’ but you didn’t.

I am not spoiling for a fight at all but silly comments inferring that it’s fine to put on Jamaican accents for black/mixed race people because of my-friend-who-went-on-holiday do deserve a bit of a sharp response tbh.

To be fair @Bessica1970 the Scottishness is inferred rather than said outright but I do think it’s a poor narrator generally.

However, there is a huge and obvious difference between a Scottish woman becoming cockney and a British woman becoming Jamaican.

You dont listen to many audiobooks, do you?

The great ones are the ones in which the narrator really gets into the character. They add all the inflections, the emotions, the voices. It is acting.

When you read a book, you have all that in your head. Listening to it is the same. It should not just be a monotonous voice "just reading" it.

You need characterisation and all the rest of it.

Audiobooks are not "just reading". Skin colour and cultural background of the narrator dont matter. What matters is the storytelling. And storytelling is an art.

You are totally wrong. I'm really dyslexic. It has taken many many years for me to be able to read and write as well as I do. Audiobooks were a godsend. And I deserved to enjoy books as much as my friends. I m

I said…

“I worked with a woman with a Jamaican accent. She’d only been there on holiday but it was where her family was from.”

I didn’t say “oh my colleague went on holiday and came back with an accent”

You were asking if there could be a reason why the character has an accent. I put this as a suggestion.

If it wasn’t explained in the story, yes it’s weird. Maybe (if it’s a book) the adaption for audiobook missed some info out.

No, it didn’t. I have read the book.

The narrator or whoever decided to give a mixed race woman a Jamaican accent for absolutely no other reason than the fact she is mixed race - I think that’s really unacceptable.

*posted too soon

I managed to enjoy them because of great narrators putting in all the inflections and voices, which help when you cant see the punctuation. My friends could all read it their way with emphasis when needed and see all the speech marks. I had great narrators really getting into it to give me that experience.

Audiobooks should not just be reading aloud.

Thing is I imagine someone asked them to do this. That's even worse imo as that means at least 2 people were involved in the decision.

The rest of my original post about the narrator having most likely worked closely with the author and discussed how each character would sound appears to have been ignored, but anyway - I've listened to hundreds and hundreds of audiobooks and yes, narrators use different tones and inflections for male and female characters and accents to denote regional or international variations.

Maybe it's just a shit book with a shitty and racist narrator who thinks all black people speak with Jamaican accents. Just stop listening to it then.

@5128gap

And yes. Male narrators do female voices and female narrators do male voices. It's all part of the narrating. It's why not just anyone can do it and why you have really popular narrators. Some people will start a new author simply because of the narrator being one of their favourites.

I agree with you OP, it's inappropriate. I listen to loads of audiobooks, the best narrators use different voices for different characters. The less good ones 'just read', but at no point should any of them assume an accent based purely on race, unless the author requested it, which sounds unlikely in this case.

@GillyGumbo but I am not asking if I should listen to it or not

If both author and narrator decide mixed race = foreign that’s very disappointing. But just not listening to it isn’t the answer. I actually do think these things need dragging out into the open and for people to say hey, hang on, that’s not acceptable.

But Claire from steps appears to be making people tee hee. Because mixed race people being foreign - that’s funny, right? (And I know that wasn’t your post @GillyGumbo , sorry.)

Yes we get it. Racism 😂😂😂😂😂 So funny. Anyway.

This is happening everywhere @Mycatishere . Because no media wants to be accused of being too white, it's seen as unfashionable, not correct, and behind the times. So some characters are randomly allocated different races etc.

Even Dr Who now (though I like that young man so I don't mind.)

As a Classicist, I find it annoying in historical dramas when it's inaccurate.

The 'Claire from Steps' references relate to a different thread.

@me4real i honestly don’t think it is that. The book is about nine or ten years old for one thing and in all honesty is hardly what you’d consider high literature

I doubt anyone else would have picked up on it, it’s a minor character - but having read the book and knowing there is literally nothing suggesting the character in question would have a foreign accent apart from being mixed race, I am a bit taken aback.

Funnily enough the main plot of the story is that a mixed race child (but of a different race) can’t be adopted by a white family!