Accents / Audiobooks

[Amy]

No: HPFGUIDX 10624

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Simon" <simon.branford at h...> wrote:

> If we do 
want an
> audio play the surely it would be better to be done with many actors 
doing
> the different parts, rather than one man, no matter how good he is, 
doing
> all the parts.

One might think so, but IMHO Jim Dale does a superlative job taking on 
all those voices.  As soon as someone starts talking I know who it is 
just from the voice.

My one problem with audio plays is that they take out many of the "he 
saids" and "she saids" because it becomes rather stilted if the 
narrator says them all.  As you may have noticed, I'm just a bit of a 
purist, and I like to hear every word just the way the author wrote 
it.  In His Dark Materials there was one point where they took out not 
just a "said" but a "muttered" and it really irked me.  The actor 
playing the part (Will) did a terrific job throughout and he did 
mutter the line, so you could say it was okay, but words are powerful 
in their written form and I want to know what they are.

So my other peeve about the Jim Dale version is they use the U.S. 
books.

What is interesting is that despite hearing the books from a 
British actor before reading them, I still hear the voices in my head 
the way I always do--as American voices, i.e. my own, as they would 
sound if I were reading them aloud.

Amy Z

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"But won't they notice if you shut your ears in the oven door?"
"Dobby doubts it, sir."
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