You know how it seems like almost every YA book features a romance involving two (sometimes three) stunning characters? Ever read a book and thought, why do these people not look normal? Why can't they be ugly!Well, I read a book I enjoyed. After rating the book on Goodreads and writing my review, I looked around to see others' reactions to the book. One person said something very interesting: why can't that guy the main character likes be ugly? Why does he have to be hot?
That made sense in a way. I mean, the world is not filled with stunningly attractive people. At the same time though, and I may not know too much about this, but don't you have to be attracted to the person you love? Don't you have to think they're beautiful? Can you be in a real relationship with someone whom you consider ugly?
I'm not being superficial here. I'm saying that some people, you look at them and think "Damn, that's hot." But others, maybe you'll notice they have great eyes or hair. There will be initial attraction. From there, don't people in love usually notice all the great things about their partner after they got to know their personality? So of course, in a story that is told in the biased perspective of one fallen-in-love character, there are beautiful people.Would you call your (good) friends ugly? I wouldn't. So maybe that's why there aren't so many real "ugly" characters in books. It's hard to imagine an ugly character, and unless it's some kind of enemy. The main character usually perceives their loved ones as beautiful. That doesn't mean they are the drop dead gorgeous model some people imagine in their heads- it just means that they are beautiful to the characters, and from there the reader gives them a look based on their own definition of beauty.
*all images were pertained from the awesome website, http://www.sxc.hu/
Great insights! Like you, we definitely see the beauty in our friends and family more than in random strangers -- it's like all the wonderful things we know and love about them MAKE them more attractive, right? That's so true and real, and we agree that sometimes that's how YA characters feel about the people around them.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there are definitely times in YA literature that the characters are meant to look drop-dead gorgeous, to an unbelievable degree. PNR in particular seems to abuse this -- which is a shame, b/c that's a genre that is all about being unconventional.
Still, we're glad that you're bringing up this great point about how people view their close friends and family, because it's not really talked about, and it DOES color a character's perspective. :)
Thanks :) I agree, there are some books where people are described as stunningly gorgeous. I always found it unrealistic but it does happen in paranormal and it's normally linked with the "magic" stuff.
DeleteGood point. I've always thought that the characters in YA books are so attractive because you, the reader, put yourself in the action of the book. When the story is written in 1st person it's to make it easier to dissapear into the story and feel like a part of it, to put yourself into the main character. The characters are attractive because that's how the reader wants to feel. The love interest is attractive because who doesn't want to fall in love with some hot guy? When you are reading a book and putting yourself into the story, you don't want to feel ugly or unattractive (like you might if the narrator does) and you don't want to fall for some ugly person.
ReplyDeleteMyself, I get really tired of this. I also hate when unattractive physical traits are used to express the character's evil or sinister nature. It just feels like lazy writing to me.
I totally agree with that too. Unless you're writing a story about self confidence and rising above it, people usually don't write or read about ugly people. I do think the reader makes the characters more attractive than they really are.
DeleteGreat post and thanks for visiting :)