Smell, descriptions and spells (WAS: OOP: The people in the promo pics...

[rane_ab]

No: HPFGUIDX 58427

> 
>  Morgan D. wrote:
<Snip>
> > 
> I wonder why. JKR seldom (never?) offers us much detailing in her
> character descriptions. She picks five or six adjectives to each
> character and keeps repeating them over and over. And somehow it 
seems
> so easy to "forget" those and make up characters in our minds that 
have
> little or nothing to do with how the author portrayed them in canon.
> Some of it can be blamed on movie contamination; some can be blamed 
on
> arguable "gospel" (Sirius being "dead sexy", for example); and 
some...
> cannot. 
> 
<snip>

I suppose JKR likes to leave it to us to let our imaginations work. I 
don't know about others, but I sometimes find it irritating when a 
person is described into great detail, and there's something about 
that person I don't like, while it is actually a "good" character. 
This way we can shape the character to be exactly what we like (as 
you said).

Something else I've been wondering about is the fact that there are 
very little references to smell in the books. Just off the top of my 
head, I think there might be two or three all in all (only when 
something really stinks (like the Polyjuice Potion, I think) or when 
the characters can only discern something through their sense of 
smell (like in CoS where Harry and Ron are led by the Great Hall upon 
their arrival and can smell the food). Well, maybe a bit more, but it 
won't be many. I doubt it has any meaning, but it just struck me as a 
little odd. Most people don't necessarily consciously pay much 
attention to smell, but we all use it, and it gives us many clues. 
I wonder what it smells like inside Hogwarts. Does it have an old, 
stuffy smell? Does it smell of the stones the castle is built in? 
Does is smell of cleaning products? One could postulate, of course, 
that a spell is used to make the halls inside of Hogwarts smellless, 
but I doubt this is the case. I think it would make Hogwarts lacking 
in personality if this were the case.
That is why it is bothering that there are little references to it. 
Surely it must smell differently in the Great Hall, in the Gryffindor 
commonroom, and in the dungeons? And in Potions class? 
And people usually have some kind of smell... Of course, I can't 
really imagine JKR letting Harry 'sniff out' all the other characters 
(come to think of it, rather not :-) ), but even during the Yule Ball 
there is not reference to perfume or some such, and I just can't 
imagine those weren't being used. When I step into a room at a party, 
that's usually one of the first things that hit me - the smell. And I 
don't even have a particularly good sense of smell.
And in a certain fraction of the fanfiction world at least, there is 
some discussion as to whether Snape's hair is really that greasy, and 
if so if that means he totally lacks in hygiene. JKR seems to make an 
attempt at making him as repulsive as possible (greasy hair, greasy 
temple (The Egg and Eye scene in GoF), and it is somewhere mentionned 
he has yellowish teeth); you'd think he'd smell, then, wouldn't you? 
And the smell of old sweat is a pretty offensive one, no something 
that would pass unnoticed. 
And Dumbledore? He's an old man - and old people usually have quite 
specific smells, but there is no mention of this in the books.
Of course, they could just all be using spells to suppress the smell 
of their bodies, but that doesn't make much sense. It has been asked 
before why Snape doesn't use a cleaning spell on his hair, but who 
says such exists? You could also ask yourself why Hermione spent 
hours working on her hair with magic gel (sorry, don't recall the 
name and I don't have the books with me) just before the Yule Ball 
when she might as well have used a quick spell. It's apparently not 
like there's a spell for everything. After all, if there were, why 
would wizards even bother getting out of bed or moving a limb?
So I don't think spells can explain the absence of smells. (It's 
possible, I just don't think it's likely.)
As I said, I don't think it means anything, it just bothers me a bit.
Well, just a little thought crossing my mind...

Rane,
Who actually *does* have something better to do, and is going to run 
off very quickly now...