A brief thought. A month or so ago I was in a discussion with some friends and family about books and about what we see in our mind’s eye when we read novels. I admitted that I don’t see the the story as a movie in my mind. I know that others do. I wonder how common it is not to have much of a visual picture of the story.
I long ago knew that I wasn’t very good at imagining the geography of interior spaces described in stories. Back in grade school there were tests we took in which we read descriptions of interior spaces and then had to sketch floor plans. Surprisingly, mine were usually wrong.
I say surprisingly because reading comprehension was always my highest score on most tests. But comprehending substance and imagining space seem to be two different talents.
In my mind, the setting of stories are somewhat like old movie studio back lots and generic sets. Just enough to suggest that we are in a woods or on main street or in the drawing room of a mansion. Not the detail that today’s high definition productions require. I don’t put any imagination into creating the settings.
I’ve been wondering if that is one reason why I’ve never read much science fiction. It is a great effort for me to create the settings in my mind if they don’t fit into some generic classification.
I don't really do much visual rendering of any kind when I'm reading fiction* and I read lots of science fiction so if you ever decide to start reading SF, I don't think that's going to hurt.
ReplyDeleteI think in a novel I'm too caught up in the flow of words and arc of the story for my mind to be visually occupied. I do usually have some visual image of the main characters but not much more than that.
* I do when I'm reading poetry but I also do smell and touch and sound. Reading poetry for me is a very sensory experience -- in fact, I will usually read a poem I like aloud so that I get the full mouth and ear feel of it .
As you know I do visualize what i am reading and find myself very disappointed when I see a movie version of the book that doesn't match how I envisioned it to be. I loved the book Chocolat and also loved the movie partly because it translated almost identically to how I imagine it (although I admit I didn't imagine Johnny Depp when I was reading the book!)
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