James casting, good looks (was Lupin casting?)

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

Richard wrote:

> I buy Amanda (acciopotter)'s descriptions, with one small deviation:
> 
<snip>
> 
> I don't buy tall!James. I see him as being of below-average or at 
best 
> average height (I'm unwilling to put a numerical value to it), much 
like 
> Harry. I appreciate that Harry's limited height is more likely due 
to 
> underfeeding and spending his childhood in a cupboard, but even so 
I don't 
> see James as being particularly tall. Sleek and athletic, yes, but 
tall - no.

It is borne out by canon, though (PS/SS 12).  I know that's Harry's 
POV, but I don't see any reason to suppose that it just means "taller 
than Harry."  Harry is capable of distinguishing between tall men 
(Dumbledore, e.g.), and short ones (Fudge, Pettigrew, e.g.).

Sometimes people *are* short in childhood who shoot up to above-
average height in later years.  Also, Harry might look like his dad 
in lots of ways but not inherit his height.  James in the movie 
seemed about right to me--not unusually tall, but tall enough that 
one would describe him with that word.

Now, turning to one of my hobbyhorses--I know I've got some sugar 
lumps in one of these pockets--yes, here you go, boy--

Why, she muses sociologically, do so many of us imagine every 
character we like as handsome?  What percentage of people you meet in 
real life strike you as particularly handsome?  Aren't most of the 
nice people you know rather ordinary-looking--with faces that are 
very attractive to those who love them, but that wouldn't be judged 
handsome by our harsh, People-Magazine-trained, looks-obsessed 
society?  Why then do Lupin, James and Sirius all have to be good-
looking?  It's as if readers want to inhabit a fantasy world where 
all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the 
children are above average.  (I, of course, do not in any way inhabit 
a fantasy world.  I would never read fantasy novels obsessively or 
name myself after a fictional magical werewolf, for example.  :-P)

I like the fact that JKR saves this description for a very few 
people.  Lily is very pretty; Cho is very pretty; Cedric is extremely 
handsome; young Sirius is handsome; most other characters don't get 
labeled one way or another.

Amy Z