[HPforGrownups] Re: MOVIE: Harry's haircolor

[ender_w]

No: HPFGUIDX 21798

I am not worthy! I am not worthy!
Very impressive, Amy.  You are even LOONier than I am.  I stand corrected.  Harry's hair is, indeed, according to Rowling, jet black.  However, I still hold firmly to my belief that true-black hair is very rare and I, who once dyed my hair true jet black, am glad that they did not dye Dan's hair totally black (though making it a bit darker wouldn't have hurt), because it looks incredibly unnatural!  There have been complaints that although Draco's hair is the requisite pale blond, that it looks unnaturally dyed (yes, i know we're still debating whether or not it was actually dyed).  Well, i hypothesize that if Dan's hair had been dyed black, it would definitely look unnatural.
And the eye thing...I am also one of those people whose eyes are often described as black.  In fact, my brother even told me that they're so black one can't see any difference between pupil and iris...yet, in sunlight, my eyes are light brown, even orange.  It's all in one's perception.  

ender
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Amy Z 
  To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 9:38 AM
  Subject: [HPforGrownups] Re: MOVIE: Harry's haircolor


  Ender asked the reasonable question:

  >   Where in the books is Harry's hair described as "jet-black" (as 
  opposed to just "black")?  

  Oh, wow, a nitpick question that no one has answered yet!  My inner 
  LOON rejoices.

  Three of the four first-time-we-see-him descriptions of Harry include 
  this phrase.

  PS/SS 1 (baby Harry described) "Under a tuft of jet-black hair over 
  his forehead they could see a curiously-shaped cut . . ."

  PS/SS 2 (10 y.o. Harry described) just says "black hair." 

  The description of James in PS/SS 12 just says "black-haired."

  CoS 1 says "jet black hair that was always untidy."

  PoA 1 says "jet-black hair"

  GoF 2 says "untidy black hair."

  All of that said, it's true that even "jet-black" Caucasian hair isn't 
  really as black as jet, viewed up close.  I don't know if human hair 
  comes in true black at all, regardless of race.  What I get from JKR's 
  descriptions is actually in keeping with this fact:  namely, Harry's 
  hair is unusually dark.  Then, too, it might be that she is falling 
  into cliche, that writerly tendency that makes one automatically write 
  "jet-black" for "black," "white-faced" for "pale," etc.

  It is actually all right with me that Daniel Radcliffe's hair isn't 
  as black as hair can go, partly because the more scenes I see, the 
  more it looks like what I might at first glance call "black" 
  (close-ups undermine this view), but also because I am a mature 
  grownup who does not obsess about the hair color of fictional 
  children.  And because they got his eyes right <g>.

  (I don't know if I've ever seen a Caucasion with truly black eyes, 
  either, but Snape and Hagrid both have them.)

  Amy Z


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