Dan in Details magazine

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Geoff:
> > Sorry for not being too clear, Alla. I wasn't referring to American 
> accents. 
> > If I had read the article without knowing its origins, I would have 
> pegged 
> > it as American. It's very difficult to define, but there is 
> something about 
> > the linguistic style of the article and the way in which material 
> is chosen 
> > and assembled which screams "American" at me.
> >
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Oh, I understood that point, I mean maybe I am confused about what 
> you meant about the accents, but I understood that article in general 
> seemed americanized to you.
 
> It also seemed to me that this was one of your points of contention 
> with the article was exactly that - that it was americanized.
 
> I mean, of course you either like or dislike the article just as any 
> written work, but if you dislike the article because it was 
> americanized and not for any other reason, it just strange to me.
 
> I mean, the writer is american, why it should not be americanized?

Geoff:
I think it may be a personal reaction to the article but I would not 
have expected a piece written in that  form in a UK magazine.

I fond it strange that there was an emphasis on Daniel having to 
learn to speak with a American accent for two reasons. Actors 
often have to adopt different accents - I believe he had to use 
an Australian accent in "December Boys". So, to an extent, there's 
no big deal in practising an American accent. But it was the fact that 
he was using bad language and that was repeated twice using 
language which I doubt would be printed in full in a decent 
UK magazine. There is a personal angle here because I never 
swear in public. I was famous for declaring my classroom a 
non-swearing zone - and the kids accepted it. I'm not above 
an occasional "bugger" if something goes wrong when I'm on 
my own but the f-word and the derivative used in the article 
absolutely infuriate me and I didn't see the relevance to Dan 
using an American accent. Similarly, as I said before, why is he 
practising when, in "Equus", he is an English youth in a play 
set in England and written by a Brit?

HP hasn't been dubbed in American has it?

There was also what I felt was a  intrusion on his privacy in the 
comments about his 16th birthday which, to me, seemed to be 
slanted to sound lewd.

I just felt that there was an underlying tone of wanting to get a 
snigger from the readers. Hey, guys, DR drinks, swears and 
has sex. So do a lot of people, but it doesn't define a person.

As I said, the best interview I've seen was in the Observer 18 
months ago just before "Equus" opened in the West End. It was 
titled "Dirty Harry" but in fact gave a far more rounded picture 
than the rather slanted one I felt "Details" gave.

If I have trodden on any toes, please allow me to apologise for 
my big feet. I don't often get on my soapbox but I really wasn't 
blown away by the article as some folk seem to have been.

Right. Hot chocolate, a soothing bath and some Hummel to 
calm me down. It's probably all  because the fifth One Day 
International Cricket match against South Africa was washed 
out by rain and ruined our chance of whitewashing them 5-0 
for the first time ever. I wonder how Andy Murray's doing in 
the US Open?

OK. where's the hot chocolate?