So now, on top of everything else, the Queen has Covid 19, possibly - probably - given to her by Charles. Another annus horribilus (or hornbills as Google spell-check calls it). I had the unworthy thought that it would be one way for him to finally get on the throne, but I am sure that was not the intention. It just goes to show how infectious this new strain is - she used to shake his hand by way of greeting when he was a child, and the rooms in those palaces are twice the size of most people's houses.
Anyway, I didn't come here to have yet another discussion about the Royal Family. What did I come here for? I can't remember. I will just have to make something up.
I have been listening to amateurs reading from the Harry Potter books for the last couple of nights. I never read the books myself but I have watched all the films more than once, so I am not kept awake anticipating what is going to happen next.
Also I am not kept awake by becoming irritated by perfect readings given by professional actors who are in love with their own voices. The people who read them on You Tube make continuous mistakes and mispronunciations, or repeat one phrase several times until they get it right. There are no read-throughs and there is no editing. Just so long as the reader has a tolerable English accent, that is all I care about.
Book one is written for children who are the same age as the characters, and the style of writing matures at the same rate as the children do, but it is never patronising. I don't know if J.K. Rowing naturally developed as a writer as the books went on, but whatever the reason it worked well for her.
In general I much prefer children's stories to adult fiction, maybe because I am lazy, or - as a BBC executive said recently - children used to find radio had much better scenery than TV, but there is not much on offer to keep them listening and plenty of other shiny distractions which shorten their attention span.
The BBC axed children's radio a long time ago now, as they believed that they were fighting a losing battle. Now they are trying to attract younger listeners, but they have to begin all over again. They lost a generation in one generation and they couldn't keep up with developments in the world outside Broadcasting House.
I don't think that they can compete with all those coloured images, CGI, and everything else which saves children the bother of using their own imagination.
today's children will be lucky if the BBC survives the current efforts to demolish it.
ReplyDeleteNever watched any H. Potter nor read the books. Anyway, JK nicked much of the basics from Ursula K. Leguin, or so I read recently.
I don't any ideas are ever totally original. Most musicians admit to inadvertently plagiarising other's melodies.
DeleteSo many have said There is nothing new under the sun. Shakespeare. Darwin. Probably even the bible.
DeleteI once knew a man whose ambition was to radically change the design of the knife and fork. I asked him why he felt the need.
DeleteI love children's stories, especially the spooky ones. The Dark i/Is Rising in my Audible library. The actors who read is something I haven't thought of before, mostly on Audible you can choose between two and sample the way they deliver. Think the BBC have lost the children to their phones anyway.
ReplyDeleteThere is a really crap series on BBC radio at the moment called, 'Children of the Stones'. It is utter shite. A product of cost-cutting by employing 2nd rate writers.
DeleteI prefer children's literature because a lot of it is much better written than adult literature - and I think it's because when you're writing to a child's level, you have to pay so much more attention to what you are doing. It's not just using so-called simpler words. I've had to do it when I was working as a nature education, and it is not easy. Doesn't help that kids are the most merciless critics on the face of the planet. Rowling's letting her writing "grow up" with Harry Potter was no accident, and she had to work hard at it.
ReplyDeleteA good children's book can also be read and enjoyed by adults - I'm thinking Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh and - obviously - Harry Potter. Forget C.S. Lewis though. Awful Christian moralist.
DeleteTolkien started by writing a "childrens' book (for his own kids) called "The Hobbit", which was read by adults giving them an enthusiasm to read his seminal "Lord of the Rings". That was how I came to approach him and enjoy all his works.
ReplyDeleteEarlier on up there, someone talked about Rowling getting all her ideas from Ursula Le Guin. So what, I think. Tolkien got all his ideas from Anglo Saxon writers a thousand years after all but academics had forgotten about them.
DeleteIronic, given the huge swell of podcasts, which are really just radio on demand. I loved to listen as a child; we had a Sunday request session on the radio, no doubt to give parents a chance for a sleep in, and I could recite most of the stories. And we had LP records of films, not just the music but the dialogue, and wonderful audio versions of incredible production quality of fairy tales starring famous actors with original music. So good.
ReplyDelete