Life – a user's manual Part II - Boksidan

2. In the eye’s of the described
It happends that authors describes someone by letting him/her see themselves, perhaps when he or she looks
in the mirror, as in this example:
"When Connie came up to her room, she did as she had not done for a very long time, she took off all her
clothes and stood naked in front of the large floor mirror. She did not know what she was looking for or at,
but she moved the lamp so that she stood in full light.
And she thought, as so many times before .... what a naked human body seems brittle, easily hurt, a little
touching, somehow not quite finished, unfinished.
She had been considered to have a beautiful figure, but now she was out of fashion. A little too voluptuous,
not enough boy slim. She was not very tall, a bit Scottish and sat, but there was a certain beauty in her long
sloping curves and lines. Her hull had a slight brown shimmer, it was something bright on her arms and legs,
her body should have been plump, bulging, but there was something missing. Instead of mature her firm,
sloping curves had started become flat and a bit harsh."
From "Lady Chatterley's lover" by DH Lawrence.
3. From the outside
Objectively
This description is rather wordy, but then it is a key person who is introduced in the story.
"The man in the attic was wearing beige lumberjack jacket and black ski pants, a machine knitted black polo
shirt and brown boots. The mustache was long but well-groomed and a shade lighter than the smooth sloping
pinned hair. His face was narrow with clean profiles and contours finely cut and behind the frozen mask of
accusatory dissatisfaction and adamant insistence were almost childish traits, weak and perplexed and
appealing and yet a little bit calculating. The look in those bright blue eyes were steady but empty. He
looked like a boy who has suddenly become very old."
From "The Man on the Roof" by May Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.
Anecdote form
In the first quote describes a group of individuals with very short anecdotes about their merits. The quote is
taken from a novel that takes place in one location, at a time when it might have been not so much focus on
clothes and appearance, but more on the person abilities. In the second quotation although a person's
clothing is described, but only with a few words.
"Neither on the Ön or in Ecksträsk there were some so dexterous children like Skrattars. The girls could milk
cows at the age five, the boys digged ditched and cutted trees at twelve. They worked for the sake of peace,
laughing, chattering all the time."
"His name was Robert, and was the eldest son of Nordmark. He had a pair of sailor pants that sat low on the
hips and fluttered cavalieric down at his ankles. He was said to be a communist."
From "Hjortronlandet" by Sara Lidman.
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