Episode #75: Patterns in Potter, Book 4 - Pride
Last week, we introduced pride as the theme of Book 4, with a focus on both personal and communal pride, and how nationalism, racism and other -isms can flow from pride. This week, we continue our discussion of Goblet of Fire and the theme of pride, listen to a few comments, and have an all-around good time.
We look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.
Shoutout to our listener, Robert Kingett, and his podcast: www.freewebs.com/4yoinformation.
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In the news:
- Nick Kids chose Potter again.
- Bloomsbury has a lot to thank Potter for.
- College kids love muggle Quidditch.
- JK Rowling’s work will be in a Birthday Book for Prince Charles.
- Transcript of JKR’s talk when she received the James Joyce Award.
You can listen to the podcast with the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.
Tags: cedric diggory, goblet of fire, Harry Potter, pride, triwizard tournament
April 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Hey guys, just listened to the Dumbledore impression and wanted to get this off my chest. First of all, I applaud Potters #1 fan for the impression of Jim Dale’s Dumbledore. But this is also a great example of exactly why I prefer Stephen Fry so much more. Jim Dale makes caricatures out of all the characters. As Travis Prinzi always puts it; Jim Dale makes cartoon characters out of every person, especially Dumbledore, Snape and Voldemort. When I listen to Jim Dale I’m annoyed the hell out of because of the slow-witted and weak way Jim Dale makes Dumbledore come across. Stephen Fry does a much better job of reading !
Just my two cents. Now back to the Patterns in Potter topic I guess (sorry
)
April 7th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Victoria- I am curious to hear Stephen Frye. Any chance you can send me an mp3 sample of his DD?
April 7th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Sure ! I have all audio books by Stephen Fry. Let me select a nice monologue by Dumbledore to send to you.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I’ve sent you Cedric Diggory’s eulogy to stay in the Goblet of Fire theme, please see e-mail.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Great show, Greg and Penny! I loved it, and I loved the comment about the tales of Beedle the Bard and the Patterns in Potter series.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Victoria- I am going to have to disagree with you here (based on the one snippet I listened to, thanks for sending it by the way). I am guessing that those of us that have a Jim Dale preference over Stephen Frye and vice versa feel the way we do because of what we are used to.
But I personally like the caricatures that Jim Dale makes. I think in isolation they may sound a bit goofy, but once you get used to them and listen in context of the whole book, they are extremely powerful. This isn’t to say that I like ALL of Dale’s voices (Jim, if you are reading this, I still love you and can’t wait to meet you at PORTUS!!!!, I am your number 1 fangirl!!!!). I don’t like his Draco or his ginny (she is VERY masculine sounding) but some others like Ron and (even though it is caricature-ish) and Dumbledore really work in my opinion.
Part of the reason I think I enjoy Jim Dales narration so much is my professional background. I am fascinated with the ability to change voices and dialect so easily in succession. I was always curious about how he did it, and he answered some of those questions in the mugglecast/Portus preview interview he did.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Penny - I guess I can just not get used to Jim’s readings because they are so theatrical. I have noticed that I have real problem getting used to other performers reading other audio books when they read very theatrically too. It is indeed fascinating to hear performers switching voices so immaculately, but Stephen does more natural voices very distinctly and it’s just more soothing to me.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Greg, pick the scene you want me to do. I’m having a hard time comming up with one.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
i also mostly listen mostly for gregs jokes
April 8th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
good show!
i’m glad you tied in the whole house-elf conflict to the theme of pride, because that was the one kind of holding me back from fully subscribing to that theme.
the only thing that i still think about is a quote from sirius (sorry i don’t have my books with me so i don’t know what page it’s from. i think it’s from the chapter called “padfoot returns”) where he says “judge a man by how he treats his inferiors, not his equals”. i think this is a pretty significant motif in the book. how do you think this ties into the theme of pride?
also, i sent some notes in earlier about book 5, should i resend them now or do you have more from book four?
April 9th, 2008 at 6:26 am
I love that quote from Sirius! It’s pretty ironic that Sirius says this though. If we judged Sirius by how he treats his equals, he would be a horrible person. Look at how he treats Kreacher!
April 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Great episode and three cheers for Penny! I am very glad you finally decided to take matters into your own hands and tell Greg to be quiet (of course it helped that he was sick) because it was getting pretty depressing listening to him run over you every week. I did have to laugh through the whole news segment picturing you making faces at Greg while he did his best to stop himself from interrupting. Hoping you keep up the effort in coming weeks!
I enjoyed the Dumbledore impression and thought Potter’s #1 fan did a good impersonation of Jim Dale. I have listened to the Stephen Fry and Jim Dale narrations and tend to like Jim Dale’s more dramatic separation of character better than Stephen’s straightforward reading. Besides, Jim Dale is the reason I knew that Dumbledore was going to be the character who died in Half Blood Prince. Jim Dale was interviewed on the Today Show right before the release of Half Blood Prince. When asked if he knew who died, he replied that of course he knew because he had read the book for the recording but he would never tell anyone before the book release. However, he said those words in Dumbledore’s distinctive voice! I always wanted to ask him if he did that unconsciously or if it was on purpose.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Thanks Janet. GIRL POWER!!!
I didn’t know that story about Jim Dale. Pretty funny. I can’t imagine he’d do it on purpose, because that would mean some serious confidentiality breeches (which ironically aren’t present in any other books besides Harry Potter). I’ll ask him when he becomes my new best friend at Portus….(yeah right).
April 9th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I’m glad I didn’t hear that interview. i would have spent the whole book waiting for him to die, and I wouldn’t really have liked his death as much.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I must say I was quite impressed with the talents of Potters #1 Fan. I have a decent library of audio books. I love to listen at work and love my audio as much as my hardback. Several books I have both. He should really investigate a career in narrating. Please pass it on.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:39 am
everyone tells me that I should do audio books.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I personally loved the House elf conflict and the comparisons with the tales of the beetle and the bard. I recently read the thing about htem on Amazon and I found them quite amazing. I would definitly like Jo to write more “tales”. As for the impression, I found it made Dumbledore sound like a dying old man but I can’t really compare it to anyone. I always imagined him having a chestier and bold voice..
Thanks again for the awesome Podcasts! They are great to listen to on the way to school.. And yes.. I applaud Penny for speaking up because Greg does cut in alot and It’s kind of irritating when you’re listening and you’re like okay.. can we prognosticate now…Anyways. I do think he makes good points. just less chitter chatter…
Keep on prognoaticating.. Eh!
August 1st, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I am so frsutrated because I can not find a sample of Stephen Fry’s reading of Harry Potter anywhere.
I do *love* Jim Dale’s readings. It was his audiobook of Prisoner of Azkaban that got me hooked on the Harry Potter books to begin with.
But, I am intrigued and would love to hear at least a sample of Stephen Fry’s reading.
Can anyone provide me with a link to a sample, or email me one?