Go! Tell it on the mountain!

[zvi]

fandomfan asks what's so great about podfic?. I'm not sure that it's particularly useful to have that discussion with someone for whom the mere concept hits her embarrassment squick, but, in the more general case, why do you like podfic? Why do you like listening to it, why do you like making it, why do you like manipulating it (if you make covers or podbooks or work on one of the archives), why do you like teaching other people to do it, why do you like discussing it here?

And, even more so, what do you say when someone who doesn't already get it asks these questions?

Comments

[phoebe_zeitgeist]

Once you've figured out you *don't* like something, what does it matter why someone else does?

Well, because it's an inherently interesting question, or it can be. If I don't like something other people like, odds are decent that there's something about it that I'm not seeing, or not even equipped to see, that the right audience is seeing and responding to. So when someone can explain what they're seeing in a way I can wrap my head around, if only for that moment, it can be an amazing experience, and a tremendous gift. We never can see through each others' eyes, but when someone is able to communicate any part of the meaning of something you just don't get for yourself, there's at least a glimpse of how the world looks to others, and just how wide a world it is outside your own head.

I'd go around asking people why they love things I'm indifferent to all the time, if I didn't know how wearing it can be on everyone in virtual earshot. Hell, it's why I'm here reading this post and these comments: people might tell me interesting things, and hey, I didn't even have to be the one to raise the question!