Meaning and Technique

I spent part of this afternoon with my family at the Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA. It's a children's bookstore which comes as close to fitting the description of a 'magical place' as much as a contemporary establishment of commerce can. It is an island unto itself. They have a small but well selected big-person-book section (I wouldn't call it 'Adult Fiction' since that sounds naughty) which could keep the avid reader nicely well-read for some time. I picked up Colin McGinn's Shakespeare's Philosophy: Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays because frankly, it's so well written that it's an easy read. It has that Orwellian quality: you will breeze through it and actually learn more than you would from erudite stodge. In his examination of how The Tempest is occupied with the magical influences of language and silence, he brings up the important point which I've seen written many times yet always rings true: the meaning behind the sounds/words we speak are more important than their technical quality.

In voiceover, or any type of performance, being preoccupied with how one appears to others may be the worst thing one can do. Prepare and train physically and mentally so that you avoid bad technique, but after that preoccupations should be firmly affixed to the meaning, even if that meaning is "Come to our store this Labor Day and buy our stuff".