The Enduring Power of Voice
by Elizabeth Solar
Maya Angelou once said, "Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning."
Many novels have been propelled to greatness by virtue its main character. A story told in a strong, distinct, and original voice - Think Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield, Ishmael in Moby Dick, or Offred in A Handmaid’s Tale - captivate our attention, and imagination.
Voice serves two important functions in writing. There’s voice as the writer’s style, the je ne sais quoi that transcends story, and represents an indelible, enduring cultural milestone. This voice showcases personality, character, attitude.
Voice is also the type of speech a character uses, the way s/he thinks. Voice is our gateway into a protagonist's mind, their worldview. It invites us to know them more completely, to experience what they see, feel and sense. A window into their world heightens our own participation in their story.
Voice is a vital aspect, often the most important aspect, of any work of writing, and my most favorite part of constructing story. Imagining a voice compels me to construct a story around it. The birth of my novel started with that impulse, that snarky whisper in my ear to get to it.
Of course, I’m biased.
By day, I am a voice actor, and narrator. Using only our vocal cords, voice over artists convey different roles - committed doctor, impish animated barnyard critter, or a customer care agent, assuring your call will answered by your cable company - and do so convincingly. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but through pitch, tone, cadence, and genetics, those words take on endless expression. Whether we’re professional speakers, or not, the individual textures and colors we bring to speech is both beautiful and miraculous.
Our ability to employ speech to express human emotion is a gift. We are empowered to tell stories, make someone laugh, or buy something they didn’t even think they wanted. Unique as a fingerprint, the human voice - a wondrous result of individual physiology, environment and background - vibrates to the world who we are.
What if you are not blessed with such a gift? What if you were voiceless?
VocalID, a global voice bank based in greater Boston, needs voices of all kinds for the over ten million people who live without speech. Many have lost the ability to speak due to Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, or throat cancer. Others were born without a voice as a result of cerebral palsy, or other neurological disorders.
For decades, iconic, and electronic sounding text-to-speech devices, made famous by Stephen Hawking, have helped people to express themselves. Its one-voice-fits-all limitation doesn’t reflect the diversity of personalities, ages, gender and emotions and attitudes.
Crowdsourcing 14 thousand speakers from over 110 countries, VocalID uses their sound-blending technology ‘to create a unique vocal persona for any device that turns text into speech.’
All kinds of speakers are needed, and you don’t have to be a voice actor to record a few hours of phrases. Children and teen voices are a particular need, so if you know any young’uns’, round them up, and point them to a microphone.
For a more complete explanation of VocalID, check out this TED Talk by its founder, Rupal Patel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d38LKbYfWrs
VocaliD’s website, vocalic.co, offers several ways you can help. Let’s make the world sound a little more human, and change a life, one voice at a time.
