Fat Slytherins? - Ugly Slytherins? - glasses - Pretty stereotypes

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20747

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Neil Ward" <neilward at d...> wrote 
regarding the probability of Draco being good-looking:

> 
> Assuming Harry's POV, I'm fairly sure that a boy of 10 or 11 would 
not describe another boy as "remarkably good looking," even inside 
his own head, and is much more likely to make a cursory assessment of 
looks.  At that age, children are inclined to pick out a notable 
characteristic -  whether that be a pale face, a pug nose or a pair 
of glasses bound up with tape - and define their friends and enemies 
in that way.  
<snip>
> 
> Since our impressions of the other characters are, to a large 
extent, formed from the impressions made on Harry before he hit 
puberty, I think we hold to these stereotypes and caricatures until 
>we are told something to alter that view.  

I grant you that in real life children's impression of others is 
stereotypical. If Harry was actually the author of the Harry Potter 
books, then of course the descriptions of the various characters 
would indeed be the descriptions given by a child, and therefore 
limited and caricature-like. The books, however, are not written by 
Harry. They are written by an adult, who is using a literary 
techinque (Harry's POV) in crafting the story.
I challenge anyone on this list (and your friends and relatives) to 
find ONE example where a character is described in one way at first, 
and later is revealed to be different (I'm referring here strictly to 
physical appearance). Counter examples, OTOH, abound:
Snape: The perfect candidate for stereotypical, caricature like 
depiction due to the antagonism between him and Harry. But since 
Quirrel described him as an overgrown bat and Sirius referred to him 
as an oily haired kid, it seems that Snape looks exactly the way he's 
described from the beginning.
Hagrid: A long time ago somebody pointed to Hagrid being described as 
twice as the height of a normal man as evidence to the Harry POV 
influence. Since then we've found that Hagrid is in fact a half 
giant. Nothing more likely than him being twice as tall and several 
times wide as a normal man (and, BTW, he's also described like that 
in the first chapter of PS, which is certainly not told from Harry's 
POV). 
Dudley: There's been a lot of talk here about Dudley's obesity and 
some said that he's described so grotesquely that it must be the 
effect of the Harry POV. Well, at the beginning of GoF we are told 
(FACTUALLY) that "the school outfitters didn't stock knickerbockers 
big enough for him any more." So, Dudley is as obese as he has been 
described from the get go.

Fleur really is extradinarily beautiful (quarter Veela), Cedric 
really is remarkably good-looking (many people other than Harry refer 
to that), Cho really is pretty (she's very popular - and how many 
popular girsl are not pretty?, and she landed a date with the 
remarkably handsome, team-captain and Triwizard champion, Cedric 
Diggory)... 


Neil:

>Personally, I doubt that the Slytherins as a group are any 
uglier than the Gryffindors; it's just that the Gryffindors are on 
Harry's side and the Slytherins are 'the enemy'.  It's no surprise 
that he applies a different vocabulary to each.  I think the same 
applies to the Dursleys and to the Hogwarts' staff.  As a child, 
Harry notices singular things about the people around him, and it is 
only later, as a young teenager, that he starts to see them in a more 
>realistic light.
> 

Again - what charcter is described one way in PS and another in GoF? 
AFAIR, the descriptions are remarkably stable. The characters start 
in PS as being pale -pointy-faced-silver-haired or 
huge-wild-hair-and-beard or obese-piggy-blond or 
tall-silver-beard-twinkly-eyes. And they remain exactly the same for 
the next three books. 

Sorry for the rant. But the Harry POV argument really pushes my 
button (if that's the expression). It's so easily assumed, it 
explains AWAY so much, and there is so little evidence to support it.


Naama