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

[Kelly Grosskreutz]

No: HPFGUIDX 58428


Rane 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.
(snip)

I never even noticed this until you said anything.  Maybe JKR is like me and
has no sense of smell, and that's why she doesn't think to write about it
much.  Probably not the case, but it's the first thing I thought of.  When I
write fic, I rarely utilize this sense either, and that's because, since I
can't smell anything unless it gives off an extremely strong odor, I don't
tend to think about it.  I think about the world in terms of what I can see,
hear, taste, and touch, so that is what I normally tend to write about.  If
I do mention something as giving off an odor, it's mainly because I happen
to be thinking it would be appropriate to mention something as having an
odor (like knowing someone should be able to smell perfume when kissing
because I've read enough books to see that happen, or making more use of a
sense of smell when writing from an animal's point of view).  Again, I'm not
saying that JKR has the same problem, but maybe her sense of smell isn't the
greatest, so she doesn't think it's as important to mention smells as she
does how someone looks, for instance.

Kelly Grosskreutz
http://www.idcnet.com/~ivanova