MetaChat - ooh, ooh! How do you read vividly?

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

29 January 2009

ooh, ooh! How do you read vividly? Tell me about this. I'm fascinated with this topic. →[More:]

I didn't respond to the question, because I have no idea how to massage this ... um ... skill? I never really thought about this, in terms of how others read (as with so many things, I guess I just sort of assumed that other people read pretty much like I do), but I read very vividly, seeing settings and characters with quite a lot of detail, almost like a little movie in my head.

I could actually create stage/film settings from the pictures in my head; I see the colors of the walls, whether the floor is wood, tile, carpet, what the curtains look like, the quality of the light, how high the ceilings are. And I never use real people or places (except, of course, when it's an actual real place), with only one odd exception - I kept seeing John Lithgow as the main character in John Crowley's "Aegypt". That was unsettling, and I didn't like it.

I almost always feel strange seeing films from novels I love because it's different than my own visualization... though it's rather amazing when the images almost exactly match up.

One of the reasons I love to read is this visual aspect, and if a book doesn't evoke that, it's not a good book for me. And now that I'm thinking about it, it's a lot like dreaming - I, the inner illustrator, go along evolving these scenes and characters visually as the story unfolds, when... oops! - here comes a new, unexpected detail that must be incorporated or morphed into the existing picture as seamlessly as possible, in a way that I, the observer/reader, won't be startled by.

Thinking about it, I definitely have this split personality thing happening as I read. Does that ring any kind of bell for anyone?

post by: taz at: 23:43 | 5 comments

As a kid I would read these epic sf and sometimes fantasy tomes, like Asimov's Foundation series, or Lord of the Rings, or stuff by Niven and Pournelle. With the enormous cast of characters, I'd sometimes have to force myself to visualize each one with a certain look, often based on an actor or someone I knew.

But then I have always had a little bit of face blindness. I can recognize familiar faces, but connecting them to a name is sometimes a conscious task. (Same goes for actors. I just tested myself, and I could only remember about half of the Fellowship of the Ring's actors, even though I know I know the names and will probably think of them by tomorrow.) I've wondered if that's connected.

Back to reading. Some authors are very visual or as they say "cinematic". I remember even reading Beowulf for college and some guy opened discussion by blurting out, "This would make a great movie!" I also experimented with narrative poetic forms that mixed philosophy with visuals (although I was singularly bad at incorporating emotion, unfortunately). I think as a reader and a writer I tended to become too focused on minutiae such as props rather than things with actual narrative importance.

posted by stilicho 30 January | 00:30

I start with the cover. If the main characters are on the cover, I keep them in mind while I'm reading. I'll definitely refer to the cover for setting, time period, and aesthetics. I imagine Patricia McKillip's stories are very lush, because the covers of her books are lush. (for example) I imagined that The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem was absurd but cute, because I have this copy. I imagine the rest from movies, art, book illustrations, design, and photography. I love illuminated manuscripts, coffee table books, all that.

I think I'm a bit more visual than average. My dreams are vivid and sometimes they're about places or scenes I might have passed in a car years before. And when I see new sights that match a memory, I link them in my mind. I have a good sense of direction... I think they're all related.

posted by halonine 30 January | 11:34

I read with kind of a hazy visualization, most of the time. Faces are a little blurred, more like in a dream when you know who a person is even if it doesn't look like how they are in real life.

Settings I usually picture in more detail, but still with kind of amorphous boundaries. I like what taz said about it being dreamlike in that you can incorporate new details almost seamlessly -- it's like that for me, too, but more in that I never picture the boundaries of a room, for example, just maybe one or two walls so that if new details come up, the room in infinitely expandable and changeable.

Except for children's picture books, I hate hate hate illustrations, including overly detailed cover illustrations. They tie down specifics for me in a way that makes it hard for me to get into the story. Following someone else's images makes it seem like the story's finished and being told to me "out there" rather than developing minute-by-minute in my head. That's ok for movies, but I want my books to be more of an inner-world thing.

posted by occhiblu 30 January | 11:54

I read a lot like taz does; I can "see" scenes quite clearly. But I do have a problem with faces. They're usually just blurry ovals, but sometimes an actor's face will pop into place if the description is particularly vivid.

posted by deborah 30 January | 13:52

I hate hate this topic! I read like I read. Now I'm sorta thinking I read wrong, but that's not true!

posted by rainbaby 30 January | 22:02

← Remember "weretable & the undead chairs"? || Her Morning Elegance →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN