The Return of Tom Swift

[Haggridd]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" 
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:
> June expatiated:

Beautiful!  Full marks for David for this brilliant riposte and en 
passant comment on language of attrubution. Kudos!


> When I read OOP aloud to my son I really noticed this habit.  On 
> many, many occasions I interpreted the speech, came to the adverb, 
> and had to go back and re-read in a different tone of voice.  I 
> didn't like it at the time.
> 
> I think it's an interesting question whether this adds to or 
> detracts from the story.  JKR kept overriding my interpretation, 
but 
> maybe there's a point to that.  I am not sufficiently good or 
> experienced a writer to know if she could have written the 
dialogue 
> slightly differently to ensure that the appropriate tone of voice 
> would come out of the printed words.

David, I find this extremely interesting.  You pose the crucial 
question: Is JKR deficient in her use of dialogue, or is your ear 
for her dialogue defective?  I would be extremely interested if you 
would cite a number of examples, either onlist or offlist.  I would 
like to see whether I interpret these exchanges differently from 
JKR, as demonstrated by her choice of adverb.  I think you have hit 
upon something new in discussion of the HP books here, and more 
substantive than trading Swifties, however entertaining they may 
be.  Let's pursue it, shall we?

Haggridd 
> 
> David