Eye colour

[bunn]

Someone or other - ladyofastolat possibly?  I think posted a rantlet a while ago about how in fiction people are constantly noticing each other's eye colours, when most eyes are undistinctive.  And I said, I think, that I did tend to notice people's eyes, but ever since then I've felt slightly insecure about it, as if maybe I didn't notice people's eyes really, but somehow think I do.



However, I am now reassured.  I saw a chap this evening, only for a moment as I drove past. Tall man, good looking, extravagant facial hair, strawberry blond.  And he had golden-brown eyes.  I noticed them most particularly, even though I was only driving past, because you would not expect eyes that colour with that hair colouring.  I am writing a thing just now with a bloke in it with exactly that size and hair colouring, and I had assumed that he would have blue eyes, because stereotypically, Angles have blond hair and blue eyes.  But now, clearly, he must have golden eyes, and it is perfectly allowable because I saw them.

I am quite proud that I did not drive into a tree when I saw this huge golden Angle unfold himself out of a Volkswagen Golf.   I suppose it's an appropriately Germanic car, but it lacks the epic quality somewhat.


In other news, Footie cat has conjunctivitis and needs eye drops.  I really don't think I'm going to be able to do them singlehanded.  I did them once by surprising him, but he's wise to me now. :-/

Comments

[ideserveyou.livejournal.com]

I do like to look at people's eye colours... there's a lot more variation than you might think! I guess in fiction they're a useful 'handle' for a character sometimes... and maybe in the writing of romance it's legitimate to have people gaze into each other's eyes a tad more than they actually do in real life?

I like the sound of your huge golden-eyed Angle too, and am looking forward to his appearance in your story! (In another universe I am a bit of a fan of a big blond Saxon with brown eyes...)

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Marmite, I am told, stopped avoiding eye drops when he realised only he had them, and not Poppy. He has since then been known to hold his head up towards Gna, and screw his eyes up at her meaningfully.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I wish Footie was that way inclined! He's more the kind of cat who likes to disappear himself into the middle distance...

[mcmurphy79.livejournal.com]

I look at eye colour too. I particularly notice dark hair and blue eyes because I love that combination. Gorgeous. My friend is part egyptian and her and her dad have this gorgeous olive skin with green eyes. Stunning.

Good luck with the cat. I think that could be frightening.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

I love it when something like that happens -- an experience that stays with you.

As for eye colour, I think it's often quite noticeable on film & TV (which is what most fan ficcers are writing about), whether because the people chosen for stardom tend to have distinctive eye colour (?), or because of the lighting, the giant close ups, etc... Anyway, I feel justified if I mention Legolas' startling blue eyes, because he has them! And Orlando has pretty startling brow eyes!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

It's probably unforgivably rude to draw attention to the accidental typo of someone you don't know, but I just wanted to say that the image of Orlando Bloom's "startling brow eyes" made me fall off my chair laughing, and then laugh out loud on and off throughout my shower. :-D

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

LOL! It's because I have a new iPad, and I'm finding it really hard to type on the glass keyboard. (But I'm normally better at checking). Poor Orlando! I didn't mean to make him a laughing stock :-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I may never be able to look at his eyebrows in quite the same light again. :-D

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

Enough now!

LOL!

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

I notice blue eyes, probably because they're pale, dark eyes with blond or red hair because that's slightly unusual, and eyes of people I am close enough to that I might have long eye-contact-involving conversations. I don't tend to consciously notice brown eyes if they go with darker coloring, but I do notice if people I'd expect to have brown eyes don't.

I can tell you that one of my supervisors has blue eyes and my first crush had hazel eyes, but I couldn't say what color my brunette supervisors eyes sure, huh.

I have one very fair, very blue-eyed friend whose eyes I notice on a regular basis, even though I've known her for a year and you'd think I'd be used to her eyes.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

That chap's eyes sound awesome. Am glad you did not crash into the tree though, I suppose they weren't worth wrecking one's car over.

I'm really near-sighted so I rarely notice eye color til up close. Brown is my favorite because it's usually a more complex eye color than it appears at first glance, hiding various strains of gold or hazel or shades I can't define.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That sounds like me, yes. I'm not sure if it even qualified as a rantlet, though. It amuses me, really, when in a fanfic Character A first glimpses Character B at 200 paces across a crowded room, but instantly knows their eye colour. I imagine twin beams of coloured light, sweeping across the room like search lights. Also, Fanfic Eyes are often capable of accurately conveying an enormous range of very complex emotions. (Maybe Fanfic Eyelashes have mastered semaphore?)

Your huge golden Angel (gah! Angle! Curse you, St Gregory, patron saint of Angle-related typos) is clearly a book character himself. The image of this epic god-like figure unfolding himself from a small car sounds vaguely Diana Wynne Jones to me.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Maybe it should have been a musing, or a minor mockery.

Because I am not naturally inclined to order, I am not sure how these things go, but I am visualisng you with a whole hierarchy of these things, all sorted carefully like piles of dice, from fullblown rant all the way down to bland observation.

The full blown rants probably need to be stored in extra strong Really Useful Boxes.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's why Really Useful Boxes come in so many different sizes and colours? Though I think all these things need to go in a different type of container: A Mug of Minor Mockery, a Vat of Vitriol or a Pot of Pique, all stored within a Zone of Repugnance, because I rediscovered that phrase today, and like it very much.