are you saying that those usages are wrong?

I'm not. She is. At age 86, she says the human eye is not a magic receptacle or a carnival mirror, and doesn't show anything without at least some portion of the facial muscles kicking in.

How does she explain pupil dilation?

(Y'all have no idea how excited I am that there might actually be a market for my book. I'm dancing, here. Dancing quietly, since Annabel is napping, but dancing all the same.)

I have no idea why I'm interrogating you, Deb, like you're Ruth, or share the POV. You've been clear.

Go get 'em, Susan!

How does she explain pupil dilation?

Huh? Pupils generally dilate in response to loss of light, don't they? Or from some other physical stimulus?

I have my characters' pupils dilating and contracting in opposition to the normal stimuli, as a manifestation of the supernatural; it's one of the ways Ringan knows Penny has something ghosty going on. She has no trouble with it.

What I doubt she could deal with without molar grinding is "her pupils dilated with the force of her love for him."

I have no idea why I'm interrogating you, Deb, like you're Ruth, or share the POV

I'm good with it. Hell, I'd love to see you and Ruth talk about this stuff. She calls herself a completely rational pragmatist. It's amazing she likes my books, but she does.

Huh? Pupils generally dilate in response to loss of light, don't they? Or from some other physical stimulus?

Nope. They also dilate from arousal and interest in general. One of the ways they do behavioral experiments on babies is by measuring pupil dilation when showing them different pictures.

Eyes really do grow darker when you're looking at a sexy being; the pupil dilates.

Pupils dilate with interest and arousal, and constrict with the loss of same. Sclera reddens with exhaustion or drug abuse. Eye contact is also very communicative. I don't see the grounds for absolute resistance.

They also dilate from arousal and interest in general. One of the ways they do behavioral experiments on babies is by measuring pupil dilation when showing them different pictures.

Kewl! (memo to self, to tell Ruth if she objects to a "look in the eye" thing) But even there, how would you know what was causing it? I mean as a writer or a reader?

To clarify: Lola is staring at Larry. We, the reader, are told "Lola stared at Larry, love in her eye." How is that happening? How does the author know it's love, if all she has to go on is dilated pupils?

I think that's one of the basics Ruth objects to: assumptions, we're being told not shown.

Eyes really do grow darker when you're looking at a sexy being; the pupil dilates.

On me, the comment has always been that the iris grows lighter, not that the pupil expands. I may be a freak...

I don't see the grounds for absolute resistance.

Me neither. I can see how eye expressions could be a crutch, and lazy writing (I think they're one of my bad habits), but sometimes they're perfectly useful shorthand, and all you need.