Random late-night poll

[lotesse]

brought to you by my tendency to plunge back into obscure childhood fandoms when faced with schoolwork. I've been reading in The Dark is Rising, and I keep finding fic that labels Bran as an albino, either in narration or in dialogue. And it keeps hitting me as incorrect, somehow - though I've no idea why. So I'm putting it to you all.

Poll #2314

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

View Respondents

Hey kids, would you call Bran Davies an albino?

View Answers

yes
5 (50.0%)

no
4 (40.0%)

maybe?
1 (10.0%)

something that I will expound upon in the comments
0 (0.0%)

And if he is/is not, how on earth does that intersect with the Evil Albino trend that's been running these last couple of years?

Comments

[sistermagpie]

It never occurred to me he was supposed to be anything else. I just figured his particular albino situation led to him having eyes that would be considered golden. The still seem to be going for the same idea, being light-sensitive etc. I think I always figured his eyes would have been brown if he had more pigment?

[lotesse]

That's interesting - it never occurred to me that he would be! And I see your point about light sensitivity, but I think it's interesting that you perceive his eyes as being somehow lessened in pigment - I always saw them as intensely colored, and I think that's part of the reason why albinism didn't come up for me. In my mind, he's without color except for his eyes.

What do you make of the fact that Cooper doesn't use that term to apply to him?

[sistermagpie]

Funny I never even thought about her using the word. I don't know! I mean, I think when I thought about it it was more to think about why she made him lacking in color in the first place, you know? Re: the eyes, I guess I saw them more lacking in a darker shade than lacking in color. Like, some true albinos have eyes that are pink or violet. Or even red--which is a striking color, it's just not from the pigments in the eyes. Bran, though, does have color in his eyes.

Maybe she didn't want Bran "diagnosed" in the text? So she just described what he looked like without labelling him an albino? IT seems like even if he really wasn't albino other people would have assumed he was given his coloring--people in his world, I mean.

[ashkitty]

(Okay, I know this is MONTHS AND MONTHS late, but I'm now hunting for fic and noticed and just wanted to make the teensy, teensy comment that Cooper does use the word, and so does Bran. It's right after the encounter with Caradog Pritchard--my copy of TGK has it on page 34:

'You will find out,' Bran said, 'that people like him are a bit afraid of me, deep down. It is because I am albino, you see. The white hair, and funny eyes, and not much pigment in the skin-a bit of a freak, you might say.'

I remember because at the time I'd only ever heard the word used for horses. ;) But that's a bit of subvertng the Evil Albino thing right there, really--clearly he isn't, but knows about it well enough.

Anyway, sorry for poking in late. ;)

[sistermagpie]

No apologies needed--thanks! I really did wonder whether the word was ever used in the text. It probably is good that Bran uses the word, actually, because really that's all he is. It's not really a magical thing so I can see him wanting to just say yeah, I have a condition from birth that makes me lack pigment.