Of hair colour

[donnaimmaculata]

I have come to realise that there is hardly anything as offputting in fics as constant references to the people's hair colour. In the course of the last few days I hit the back buttons of on the whole rather enjoyable fics just because of the sandy-haired man (Remus), the redhead (Bill) and the blonde (Draco). I don't know why it grates on my nerves so much as I am generally willing to overlook much worse things. But the only hair-colour related description I can stand is "the dark head" (as in, "cradled the dark head to his chest"). The others make me cringe.

Weird.

Comments

[babycakesin.livejournal.com]

*nods slowly* I totally agree (said the blonde headed French chick). It would be like reminding us that they're wizards - hello! we don't need to be told every other second that Bill/Ron/whoever is redheaded for crying out loud lol

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

You know, the weird thing is that other annoying things just don't annoy me so much. One of my favourite (and very hot) fics has a lot of mistakes that could have been avoided by careful reading - but they don't put me off. "The redhead grinned at him" does.

[babycakesin.livejournal.com]

for me, it's the word 'manhood'/'womanhood' *cringes*. geez... call a cock a cock for crying out loud! *rolls eyes*

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Yeah, manhoods are a horrible, horrible thing, as well. But they usually only appear in purple-prosaish fics, which I can rarely be tempted to read [/understatement]. The sandy-haired wizards, on the other hand, can be found in otherwise good stories, which I am thus unable to enjoy.

manhood *shudders*

[babycakesin.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's a good thing that those 'manhood' fics tend to limit themselves to ffnet lol

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

HATE EPITHETS!!!!!11!!

Sorry. Touched a nerve there.

Swatkat

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I hate them too, but I hate haircolours more than others. They cause me physical discomfort. Which is a shame, cause there are good fics out there which I can't read because of the "blonds" and "redheads" populating them.

[fluffyllama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are some writers I really like otherwise who do this a lot, and it makes me grind my teeth every time. I don't mind so much if it's part of a specific description but in place of the name... just stop it, people.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

and it makes me grind my teeth every time.

Ditto. Which is a shame sometimes, if the fic is otherwise good. And, oh, I like it as a description. A lot. Especially when it refers to Bill, whose hair I dig. But "the redhead" makes me uncomfortable.

[fleshdress.livejournal.com]

I'm so with you on this, and I hate it when I do this. But somehow I just have this thing about repeating the names too often, and slash can lead to pronoun confusion.

The `redhead etc.` just sounds so... ucky.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I don't mind it when authors repeat the names. scribbulus_ink (I think) once led a similar discussion regarding the term "lover". She said she can't stand it and that it puts her off much more than repeating a name does. The same applies to me and haircolours.

slash can lead to pronoun confusion

Hm. I don't feel about pronoun confusion quite as strongly as some people. In most cases, even if the use of the pronoun could be misleading, the context clarifies it: "He trailed his mouth over his chest" makes it pretty clear that mouth and chest don't belong to one and the same person.

The `redhead etc.` just sounds so... ucky.

Yes! It so does. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's physically revolted.

[semielliptical]

I also don't care for identification-through-hair-color. I don't think of people that way - I don't have a "black-haired friend" or a "blonde friend" - I don't dwell on hair color (or height, or any number of physical features) unless they are very striking in a particular situation. So when these features are used as identifiers in fic, or just mentioned too often, they stand out and distract me from whatever is meant to be important in the sentence or paragraph.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

they stand out and distract me from whatever is meant to be important in the sentence or paragraph

Yes! Exactly. It pulls me out from the flow of the story.

You also make a good point about how one identifies people: I heartily dislike it when Remus is referred to as "the werewolf" if the fic is from Remus' or any of his friends' PoV. It's because I doubt that Remus thinks of himself as "werewolf". If, however, the fic is from Snape's or Umbridge's PoV, referring to Remus as "the werewolf" would be quite valid.

[trobadora]

Oh YES! I'm so with you on that. What is it with this weird avoidance of actual names?

(There's a lovely chapter in 'Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod' on the sports journalism equivalent of this, btw - referring to whatever obscure town or village someone came from instead of using a name or just a simple "she". Remember "die Brühlerin"?)

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

It's probably because teachers hammer it into pupils' heads to avoid repetition of names and to use attributes or whatnot.

I know exactly what you mean with the sports journalism equivalent! It's never struck me before, but you're right. I definitely need to read this book.

[rosina-alcona.livejournal.com]

yep. I find it completely drags my attention away from the plot and makes me think about their hair.

One person I beta'd for said that they used the hair colours because they didn't want to sound repetitive using the character's names over and over again. But the thing is, JKR uses the character's names over and over again, and you don't notice for a split second, because it's not distracting you from the story...

Descriptions are there to make you picture something, and if you constantly have to stop and picture hair-dos, you'll never get into the action!

I'm also with you on 'lover'. It just sounds so...sleazy! JUST USE THEIR NAMES!

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

makes me think about their hair

I don't mind thinking about their hair. I like hair. Mmh, hair... But epithets don't make me think about it in a good way.

JKR uses the character's names over and over again, and you don't notice for a split second, because it's not distracting you from the story...

Exactly. Names and pronouns don't distract the reader. Redheads and lovers do. Plus, I like their names.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I don't mind if they're used as descriptions, but it annoys me exceedingly if they're used instead of names. An additional problem is that Draco and Lucius are more often than not called "the blonde". Why? *cries*

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

I shall refer to myself from now on as 'the orange-haired woman'. (No I won't...)

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

'Oh dear,' sighed the seemingly-dirty-blonde-but-really-honey-golden-in-the-right-light woman.