Unsuspected influences

[Barry Arrowsmith]

Browsing through the Sunday supplements, usual arty-farty claptrap,  
on to the programme listings in the vain hope of finding some  
justification for owning a television set (doomed to fail yet again),  
when the details of a radio prog caught my eye.

Christmas Eve, 5pm BBC Radio 4, 'Living with Harry Potter.'
A two-hander - Jo and Stephen Fry.

Fair enough, says I, but why don't they broadcast the audio version  
of an entire book, as they did at Christmas a few years back? Then I  
read on.

"Rowling describes her fortune-making blend of fiction and folklore  
while Fry admits he has to listen to past recordings to remind him of  
the voices he's used for various characters in the past"
Ho hum.
But then comes the stunner:
"And it transpires that Fry's readings have actually affected the way  
Rowling has written subsequent instalments."

Oops.
Can it really be that Fry's vocal interpretations have slanted how  
those characters have developed later? So that if Fry decides to  
give, say, Lupin, a Uriah Heep-type whine or a noble, bearing-up-in- 
adversity strength (a la Sidney Carton) that had an influence on how  
Jo developed the character?
What a bummer.
Or have I  totally misunderstood what they're on about?

I've commented before that I don't like the films much, that the  
director's view tends to replace the image of the character that had  
developed in my mind as I read the books - now maybe here's an  
indication that such effects are more wide-spread than any of us ever  
dreamed.

I've only heard one of the audio tapes (that radio broadcast of PS/ 
SS), others will have a greater familiarity with them. So - is there  
any evidence of Fry pre-empting the author?


Another snippet culled from the supplements.
A list of book prizes won during the past year, among which:

The Samuel Johnson Award for non--fiction -
Jonathan Coe 'Like a Fiery Elephant': The Story  of B.S.Johnson.

As ane fule kno, B.S.Johnson is 'Bloody Stupid' Johnson, the failed   
landscape designer, architect and inventor whose cock-ups litter the  
environs of Ankh-Morpork. (An ornamental lake, hundreds of yards long  
but only an inch wide, so the fish can't turn round, is one example.)

Is this Coe person trying to transfer the blame for the monstrosities  
that blight our urban landscape onto a fictional character?
For shame!
Name names, sir!
Expose the real culprits!

Kneasy