This comes from an article by Mimi Kramer in The New York Press ("Unstressed Syllables," February 21 p. 22). It's about Jim Dale's recording of the Harry Potter books, but I think it has some interesting implications for some of our threads.

"The recordings are revelatory--albeit in a small way, and mostly of things having to do with English and non-English values. Examples: Scars in the Potter books (even "psychic" ones) are essentially something to jest at; they're either useful or funny, but you might not be assured of this without hearing the stoic solemnity with which Dale introduces a description of some of the pains of a "wizarding" childhood [...] This is a fundamentally English attitude toward suffering.

ALso integral to the books but fundamentally un- English is the notion of self-determination, that who you are should be a function of what you do and say.