Anthologies: Yay or Nay?

[blueyeti]

I keep getting the urge to create anthologies. Collect a few ficlets and such which would each be <20 minutes, and make an anthology. Preferably something which otherwise feels a little silly/indulgent, like John Sheppard/Blowjobs = OTP, with three or four fics of John giving blowjobs. Or fics which are so odd and so short that if I were downloading them I would spend more time trying to figure out where to save them than listening. But mostly I'd feel pretty ridiculous posting multiple blowjob ficlets, and a multi-author anthology seems more downloadable.

I did one anthology before, with 30 minutes of Sam Storyteller's Lord Peter Wimsey ficlets. But that's a single author, in a single fandom; it's just convenient. Would you download (or hey, create) an anthology of multiple authors with a single theme? For me, it's a (theoretical) personal preference. I rarely download anything which is under 15 minutes or so unless I already love the author, or am completely enamoured of the reader, because that way they'll have company on my ipod. Little ficlets which aren't a useful amount of time get lost and I either stumble across them too often, or never.

But I've downloaded anthologies which I've disliked. Sometimes they feel jarring, because although there was a theme from the reader's pov, there wasn't a theme for me as a listener, because I listen to the text with a different emotional or intellectual inflection than the reader does. But I've listened to The Portable Minim Calibre probably five or six times, because I get a few moments of fandoms and pairings I don't usually read, even though the progression of stories isn't really *logical* to me.

But the type of anthology I keep planning is what usually annoys me. I'm thematically linking things, but that creates/colours part of the experience. I haven't listened to Three Desperate Acts yet because it's thematically linked. I haven't felt in the mood for desperate acts, because I've been warned that is what I'm getting. (Read by Deltacephei, but not archived under that anthology name. Archived as Mercy, by Astolat; Assent, by Kylie Lee; In Decision, by Torch. But I downloaded it from the LJ post as an anthology. Weird. But it sort of implies something about how people download or don't if it's an anthology.) And, honestly, if I titled mine John Sheppard/Blowjobs = OTP it would be pretty misleading, as for all that I've been reading pwps, I'm interested in them because of the non-flippant military/DADT contexts.

Comments

[zvi]

Personally, I think anthologies would be awesome. I think that packaging shorter works together so people are more interested in listening to them would be great. (Like you, I don't listen to anything short, although my lower limit is closer to 45 minutes than 15, since I'm mostly listening during my hour long commute.)

I think themed anthologies are probably better than random anthologies, because you can say to yourself, "I'm in the mood for blowjobs," more easily thant, "I'm in the mood for rancom mix 37."

Well, I mean, I can say that to myself more easily, perhaps other people are different.

[blueyeti]

(It's a 15 minute walk to the supermarket for me. To each their own specifically timed lifestyle habits. And I can do the itsy ones of my favourite authors because then I'll just play by author.)

Yeah, random anthologies can really annoy me. The mood of the story which follows can break the mood of the one beforehand, and I can't really remember them well. Like the amplificathon collections, which, yeah *awesome*, but hard to listen to.

I'm much more shy about putting on a playlist which says 'recced pr0n here' than you are, I think.

[sophinisba]

Yeah, I think anthologies are neat, especially if the thread tying them together is really strong. If they're by different authors it just adds to the "collaboration between lots of fans" thing that is already one of the things I really like about podfic.

[blueyeti]

The trick for that is finding authors who write the same version of a character in different situations; or write the same plot/idea with completely different results because of a different interpretations.

You're completely right about collaboration feel, though.

[jesse_the_k]

I adore anthologies.

If it's happening in the fandom, I think originals + subsequent remixes (or inspired-by) is a great organizational thread.

One could be coy in announcing John's fellation-a-thon: "Several Oral Stories the Narrator Found Compelling"

[blueyeti]

Glad there is some love for them. *nodnod*

Original + remixes is obvious. So obvious, in fact, that when I see remixed stories where one is compelling and the other is not, I feel like wanting to record both for the sake of completeness. Inspired by would be really interesting, though, because I love looking at the same idea as it grows through the fandom hive mind.

Heehee, I *love* the idea of calling it Several Oral Stories, if only because my immediate thought on reading that would be 'oooh, anthropological stories from Pegasus natives', and that would be so, so very wrong.

[anatsuno]

anthologies! I give them a thumbs up. :D *useless commenter, but enthusiastic!*

[pandarus]

I think anthologies are a cool idea; I think the only one I have is 'The Portable Minim Calibre', though. (Which has the double whammy of combining the words of one person I love to pieces with the voice of another person I love to pieces! Aww, I remember Templemarker when she was too young to buy alcohol in her benighted country, and I was all clueless about why she was being shifty about the beers we were drinking - and NOW she's got a degree and a post grad under her belt, bless her. And Min is a fabulous snog.)

...wow, sorry, tangential. Where was I? Right! Anthologies = Intriguing notion. Go for it, m'dear!