Descriptions; and what about the other four senses?

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 24870

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., frantyck at y... wrote:

<snip> 

> 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?"

Oh, I dunno...

"The inside [of the hut on the rock] was horrible; it smelled 
strongly of seaweed..." (SS3)
"Then they visted the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to 
make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted 
cabbages..." (SS5)
"[Filche's office] was dingy and windowless, lit by a single oil lamp 
dangling from the low ceiling. A faint smell of fried fish lingered 
about the place." (CS8)
"Harry caught a whiff of damp earth and fertilizer mingling with the 
heavy perfume of some giant, umbrella-sized flowers dangling from the 
ceiling [of Greenhouse Three]." (CS6)
"The coach smelled faintly of mold and straw..." (PA5)

There are more examples. I think she includes descriptions of smells 
when they're particularly striking. Not as much as we'd like, 
perhaps, but she does include some.

Wonderful post, by the way.

Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon