The arrival of Nuria Pérez in the cinema was exceedingly solid. The parents of the creator of the Cabinet of Curiosities podcast watch a movie every day. They did that when she was a kid. His childhood bedroom shared a wall with the living room, and he participated in this ritual from his bed. But only by what he heard. Often these late-night sessions were taken over by film noir. “They loved Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman… I imagined what was happening in the film and that’s how my creativity started to develop,” she said in mid-March. He remembers it from Podium Podcast – the Prisa Audio platform – with which he has just launched an audio extension of his book The monocle monster and other beasts (Jekyll & Jill), whose protagonists are cinema and society in the 1930s and 1930s forties are.
While writing, Pérez already had in mind the sounds that could compose the future sonic translation of his text. The ex-publicist-turned-author wanted to create a book series with him, a pioneering format in Spain. It is a book-centric podcast in which the author of the text narrates the published elements with his own voice and adds new elements to the written narration. The 23 sound pieces that make up the project that its author is presenting this Friday, March 3rd at the Fundación Telefónica in Madrid are now available.
The deliveries enforce different formats and are designed to be listened to in order. There are lengthy essays “similar in duration and style to the Wunderkammer-Kabinett that the listener will recognize,” Pérez continues. You can also find a sequel story and fictional monologues of its protagonists. The hardest part, says its creator, was finding voices reminiscent of the old dubbings of those American films it evokes in the book cast. “We needed a cast that didn’t sound modern. We found it in the world of dubbing and also in the theater. It was especially difficult with young characters. Andreu Quesada’s lack of ego [encargado del diseño sonoro del proyecto] It made us forget experiments and focus on recreating the vintage sound, which is much more basic than the current one,” comments Pérez.
The chapters also include a recreation of the book writing process, an extra not included in the original release. “We count from the initial fear of the blank page to the emotion and responsibility of bringing a character to life,” explains the author. This is done through the exchange of letters between the author, who she voices herself, and the editor, played by Miguel Rellán. The content is connected and augmented by a web page created specifically for this version of The Monocleed Monster & Other Beasts.
‘The Monocled Monster and Other Beasts’ (Jekyll and Jill), the book became ‘Bookcast’.
Not only does the project return to the lesser-known side of classic Hollywood, but it also salvages a little-known piece of history about women experiencing tremendous social change at the same time. They are the ones who gave up their supporting roles during WWII to take a welder and go to the factory while the men were fighting on the front lines. When the war was over, they ended up in invisibility again. In this new audio version, the memory of these women delves deeper into their feminist message, adds Pérez, aware that his platform is “readily received” by listeners from the cabinet of curiosities. The case of the prostitutes working at General Motors stands out: “They were taken out of one reality to be inserted into another, until suddenly it was all over. Many took their own lives,” he says.
The original idea, the book with the potential to be a solid story, is based on a set of real objects that Pérez found through one of his great hobbies: auctions. On the one hand, she found the dance cards that some women of the time wore on their wrists. “It was the symbol of a time when you always had to be beautiful to be able to get married,” explains Pérez. On the other hand, it was badges with name and photo that were obligatory for access to the factories and that were used by many of these women in those war years. “The intent of this format is that when you listen, you want the book on paper. Especially when the physical issue is made with love. It’s a recipe for success for writers,” he defends.
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