Descriptions; and what about the other four senses?

[frantyck at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 24854

Hi, all. This is a bit of a tangent, but:

Most authors expend substantial effort on description, describing 
scenes, events or characters so that readers will be able to 
visualise them. The best descriptions often offer no more than hints, 
keywords, a trained butler's unobtrusive opening of a particular 
door. The reader goes through that door himself or herself.

Rowling, apparently, is a master of this form of buttling. I noticed 
fairly early that her descriptions are slyly non-descriptive. She 
gives what she wants to describe a name, and leaves the rest up to 
the reader. The following examples are all from PS/SS.

Consider her description of Hagrid when he bursts into the Hut-on-the-
Rock. He's large, hairy, and has beetle-bright eyes. He has a large 
overcoat and a pink umbrella.

Now Draco Malfoy, in Madam Malkin's the first time: "a boy with a 
pale, pointed face."

Mr Ollivander: "An old man was standing before them, his wide pale 
eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop."

Ron Weasley, at King's Cross: "tall, thin and gangling, with 
freckles, big hands and feet and a long nose." Oh yes, and there was 
the little black smudge on his nose.

Hermione, on the Hogwarts Express: "She had a bossy sort of voice, 
lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth."

Professor McGonagall, meeting the first years at the castle 
door: "She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that 
this was not someone to cross."

Snape, at the first Hogwarts dinner: "a teacher with greasy black 
hair, a hooked nose and sallow skin."

In each case, this is *more or less* all that we ever hear about the 
appearance of these characters. What Rowling gives the reader is an 
assemblage of discrete physical characteristics; the reader fills in 
the gaps, literally. For example, the description of Hermione made me 
think instantly of a woman in _Asterix in Corsica_ (p.9, if you're 
interested! British, big teeth, bushy brown hair, and likes to cook 
in boiling water... I ask you). What Rowling's reader later finds out 
about the characters is based on what they say and how they behave.

Here's a revealing example: the goblin outside Gringott's. "'Yeah, 
that's a goblin,' said Hagrid quietly." Okay, swarthy face and pointy 
fingers are mentioned... but that one line of Hagrid's is sufficient -
- and oddly exciting.

Why does this work? Does this fragmented listing of a few 
topographical features of each character reflect the way we actually 
apprehend someone the first time we meet them? I'm not sure, but 
Rowling obviously makes it work.

There's more to be said, but...

Second-to-last point: the five senses, used as a tool in description. 
Rowling's world is unusually muffled in all except visual terms. For 
example, references to smell or odour are dead rare. What does 
Hagrid's hut smell like? What do pupils smell in the potions 
classroom? in Professor Sprout's greenhouses? Or, why doesn't Harry 
hear the sea or feel the sunlight or the stone under him when he 
wakes up the morning of his birthday in the Hut-on-the-Rock? In CoS, 
Harry's Polyjuice Potion tastes like "overcooked cabbage?"

That brings me to my last point: Rowling's unadventurous adjectives. 
Fat, brown, mouldy, huge, horrible, blank, cold, hot, etc. Rather 
bland fare. Conversely, her verbs and nouns are almost unbelievably 
apposite... Urging, squinting, swishing, flickering, scrambling, etc. 
They give the texts forward motion, the urgency of action.

Sometimes, adjective, verb and noun come together brilliantly: think 
of the ultra-spare "rush of fierce joy" that fully describes Harry's 
feelings the first time he flies. Many of you have found other such 
instances in the current "favourite moments" thread.

Summary (sort of): the scrambling, forward pace of the HP books, I 
think, owes as much to details of style and language as it does to 
plot. Or rather, the stern utilitarianism with which Rowling develops 
her plots applies equally to her choice of words.

Does this make any sense?