tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18257728.post2447100915649440576..comments2017-06-07T15:07:41.330-05:00Comments on Shanna's Journal: Calling All Four-Eyes!Shanna Swendsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07558317020951521656noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18257728.post-67952096096507145562008-03-26T19:21:00.000-05:002008-03-26T19:21:00.000-05:00I think the green eyes thing has been relatively r...I think the green eyes thing has been relatively recent, especially with non-evil characters -- speaking as a green-eyed person who used to feel very non-represented among the good guys.<BR/><BR/>But there are logistical issues to deal with when you have a character using lenses of any type, and that may come into play when writing main characters. It's one thing for the person in the library the hero goes to for info, but when he's running around and stuff, keeping track of glasses could be a pain.Shanna Swendsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07558317020951521656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18257728.post-14234130149593947452008-03-25T20:15:00.000-05:002008-03-25T20:15:00.000-05:00*grins* As a twenty-year-old chick who wears glas...*grins* As a twenty-year-old chick who wears glasses (along with most of her friends), I really appreciate that tirade. I even have a bit of astigmatism, and I am, for the record, really, <EM>really</EM> blind without my glasses. (I can see clearly for about 3 inches. Six inches on a good day.)<BR/><BR/>Reminds me of the entire overrepresentation of blondes and redheads in fiction. Oh, and green eyes. And "alabaster" skin.<BR/><BR/>(Of course, I've recently noticed that I'm starting to lean towards my characters having a wise blonde friend, so I'm fixing that. —The tendency of them all to be blondes, not the blondes being smart.)<BR/><BR/>The fiction misrepresentation probably stems from the fact that it's presumably a glamorization of life, and most people who wear glasses don't want them, so those writers won't include them.<BR/><BR/>And people who don't wear glasses likely avoid them as characters because there's so many details to keep track of (like glasses fogging up, peripheral vision, what <EM>does</EM> the world look like to a glasses-wearer when you remove the glasses?). Someone who doesn't wear glasses wouldn't know what to do.<BR/><BR/>The one realistic case I can think of, when a book character lost her glasses, was in Frank Peretti's <EM>This Present Darkness</EM>. I think her name was Bernie, and she had to drive home without her glasses. And from how Peretti described it, I think her vision was supposed to be comparable to mine.<BR/><BR/>I have toyed with glasses-bound characters in some of my "junk pile" stories. I can't see them appearing in my current fantasy novel I'm trying to finish, though your post has made me realize that I <EM>do</EM> need to figure out what people in that world do for vision problems.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for (admittedly inadvertently) pointing out that logic issue!Carradeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05431561739001270522noreply@blogger.com