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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Autumnal" data-source="post: 9671837" data-attributes="member: 6671663">Basilides by M. David Litwa. This is going to be the most schizoid set of comments I’ve reading about an audiobook. The Reading: “This title uses virtual voice narration. Virtual voice is computer-generated narration for audiobooks. I’m impressed at how this works for general text, with a pleasant male voice and a fair amount of variation in tone. It’s come a long way but it’s completely inadequate for a book about people with Greek names. Is it “BA-si-LYD-es” or “ba-SIL-a-des”? Virtual Voice doesn’t know, and uses both, and some other pronunciations, apparently at random. Given a citation like “Ref. 7.26.8”, referring to a passage in The Refutation Of All Heresies, it says “Ref dot 26th of July dot 8”…usually, but quite always. It doesn’t know that “Matt.” is short for Matthew, or that “1 Peter” is First Peter, not “One Peter”. And on and on. I finished the book out of morbid curiosity, but can only say that this is not technology ready for use in this fashion. Maybe with extensive review and re-recording. Maybe not. But not like this. The Book: Another fascinating book from Dr. Litwa, this one focusing on one of the earliest Christian philosophers, who flourished in the middle of the 2nd century AD. Less than two dozen passages of his work survive, all in books by people criticizing his doctrines. Litwa provides new translations of them, and a great deal of context to see what they add up to and suggest. Part of his outlook is similar to later thinkers often described as Gnostic, other parts pretty like what became mainstream doctrine. Some show a reliance on texts that aren’t quite from the New Testament as we have it - perhaps drawing on earlier versions from before their contents stabilized. If you’re interested in the Christian world before there was an orthodoxy, this is really worth your time. Just…get it in print or as an ebook.</blockquote>

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