The Return of Tom Swift

[melclaros]

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


Mel has a quesion--
I'm curious, David, are you a Brit? I'm wondering only because I've 
heard this before from people I know and I'm wondering if it's simply 
that many Americans (I AM American so don't anyone start waving the 
flag at me because this is an observation only.) in particular have 
problems grasping some of the subtleties of British--shall we say--
delivery.
Living in a "bi-lingual" home all my life it never really crossed my 
mind and I usually 'got it right' (according to JKR's chosen adverb) 
as to what the character was trying to convey.  American speech, 
however is far more, well ok, honest. It's easier, I think, for 
Americans to read something and take it at face value. This is why so 
many Americans envy the British ability to twist a simple sentence 
into something quite different--usually  a horrible insult to you 
that it takes a week to understand.



Mel, fully expecting David will answer that he is, in fact, one of 
those ascerbic Brits himself and thereby blow this idea out of the 
water.