Dictating a Masterpiece

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caio · 4518 days ago

But earlier writers, such as Milton, Dostoevsky and Henry James used the first form of voice recognition software—women.

Before stenography and then typing provided an entry into the workplace for thousands of women, handwritten transcription was an intimate exchange and was often unpaid work done by an author’s female family members.

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thenewgreen · 4518 days ago · link ·

What a great read and a fantastic thing to ponder. Most artists will tell you that they are at their best when they are able to suspend conscience thought and work from a "zen" like place. Having someone else in the room, sneezing, coughing, crying.. reacting would be a challenge. They would inevitably have an impact on the process. They are essentially collaborators, whether on a subconscious level or in Dostoevsky's case literally.

I can see how Dostoevsky would end up marrying her. It would be a pretty intimate thing to collaborate like that.

Here's one of the Romney paintings of Milton dictating to his daughters. They don't look like they're having too much fun, do they?

I use the "voice memo" app on my iPhone all the time to capture lyrics or melodies that are floating around in my head. I also use it to capture sounds that I find interesting when I'm out and about. I'll often use these sounds in music recordings. That's the extent of my dictation.

cW, I think you should read this. It occurs to me that the project you are working on is more like dictation of a letter than it is a voice memo.

Great find caio.