Iâm 2 hours into the audiobook and we still havenât left Drearburh and I still havenât gotten used to this Harrow voice plucked straight out of a âyour English mistress scolds you for forgetting to polish the golden piss potâ asmr video. I really like Aiglamene (and finally finding out how to pronounce Aiglamene), and Gideonâs voice is pretty fitting, aggressive and enthusiastic, but Harrow is just so prissy and theatrical and high pitched! My Harrow voice is always gonna be raspy and monotonous, low and dour and portentous. If she canât be bothered to feel her own emotions, thereâs no way sheâs gonna go to the effort of projecting any into her voice. And above all else I think Harrow is just constantly mortified by every aspect of living, moving, existing in her body, and I think her voice would reflect that, I think itâd be subdued and reluctant, like sheâs mad at you for coaxing it out of her
OP, youâre so right.
How prissy and disdainful the Harrow voice is in the audiobook deeply shaped how I think of the character because I read it on audio first.
Harrowâs voice says âhow dare you talk to me and make me speak to you, you shitâ and that has deeply influenced how I see the character.
Her voice is part of her mask. Sheâs not putting any of her own emotions into her daily speech but sheâs damn sure gonna make sure everyone knows theyâre talking to the Reverend Daughter and she does it by ladling on the haughty disdain.
Itâs interesting how much the medium can influence an interpretation. I wouldnât have used the words monotonous or dour for Harrow and I wonder if I would have interpreted it differently without the audiobook.
That really is so cool! Having read both books before trying the audio I’d developed my own voice biases without even noticing, and only now that I’m confronted with a competing interpretation I can kinda put my finger on em. I definitely agree that pretense and misdirection is like Harrow’s main defense mechanism, but the way I always imagined her, she didn’t care to put on a show for you. She’s not gonna even go to the effort of acting superior when she just is superior. She can be plenty disdainful with actions and words without needing to modulate her sad half used little excuse for a voice. This Harrow is very much a well defined character, but she’s totally different from my Harrow, through voice work alone, and that’s pretty damn cool