Links, and Characterization Techniques
Jul. 3rd, 2008 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerThere was a fire at a fireworks store in Crawfordsville, Indiana. There's a video of it in the sidebar to the left of that article--the thing called BONUS-Crawfordsville Fireworks Fire. It gets pretty spectacular about two-thirds of the way through.
***
Normally I dislike characterization by physical trait. It’s lazy and it’s unrealistic. The jolly fat man, the ditzy blonde, ugly evil people, big-breasted sluts (that one goes beyond lazy to pernicious)—I’ve sworn to myself never to define a character that way.
However. I read a book earlier this year, Anne Cassidy’s Looking for JJ, in which a large part of the main character’s depiction revolves around the fact that she is a very small person. This is a physical fact: she’s so small that she can buy clothes in the children’s section.
But it’s psychologically telling as well. She lingers on her tiny size so much that it suggests she sees herself as entirely insignificant—an impression especially aided by the fact that she never comments on how small she is while in flashback. It also explains why her guilt wallows never really ring true—all the therapy aside, JJ sees herself as an essentially weak person controlled by circumstance, not an independent actor.
It’s subtle and really quite clever. I may have to lift my blanket prohibition.
***
Normally I dislike characterization by physical trait. It’s lazy and it’s unrealistic. The jolly fat man, the ditzy blonde, ugly evil people, big-breasted sluts (that one goes beyond lazy to pernicious)—I’ve sworn to myself never to define a character that way.
However. I read a book earlier this year, Anne Cassidy’s Looking for JJ, in which a large part of the main character’s depiction revolves around the fact that she is a very small person. This is a physical fact: she’s so small that she can buy clothes in the children’s section.
But it’s psychologically telling as well. She lingers on her tiny size so much that it suggests she sees herself as entirely insignificant—an impression especially aided by the fact that she never comments on how small she is while in flashback. It also explains why her guilt wallows never really ring true—all the therapy aside, JJ sees herself as an essentially weak person controlled by circumstance, not an independent actor.
It’s subtle and really quite clever. I may have to lift my blanket prohibition.
