When You Read A Story...

[Jabberwocky]

What do you see in your minds eye?

 

Does a movie of the happenings in the story pass in front of you? If it does, when you read a book that set in America, do you see the cars as right hand or left hand drives? How accurate are the images?

 

Or, do you simply see the words and read them, some books ARE meant to be read As a book, but lots are set out to try to form a movie in your imaginations.

 

And when the book is made into a movie, how close are the characters to your impression of them?

[SHsheff]

What do you see in your minds eye?

 

Does a movie of the happenings in the story pass in front of you? If it does, when you read a book that set in America, do you see the cars as right hand or left hand drives? How accurate are the images?

 

Or, do you simply see the words and read them, some books ARE meant to be read As a book, but lots are set out to try to form a movie in your imaginations.

 

And when the book is made into a movie, how close are the characters to your impression of them?

 

I NEVER read a book as a movie! It wouldn't occur to me to do so - that would be like suggesting that I might listen to a music track and imagine it as the backing sound to an advert.

 

I love reading books - sometimes they drag you in by the plot and well-drawn characterisation, other times they hold your attention by the evocative and tugging descriptive power. But, for me, it's all about words and the writer's use of them. A badly-written book will lose me after a few pages, no matter how 'exciting' or 'enticing' is the intention of the author - and, come to that, no matter the reputation of the book. I need to be able to immerse myself in the pages, and if that is happening then I completely accept whatever goes with the world in which I'm absorbed. Doesn't matter if it's sci-fi-type, or 'real'. If it's well-written and it grabs me, I'll stay with it 'til I've finished it!

 

And, as to books/movies or movies/books....nooooo! I'll watch or read, very rarely both. The first version I come across tends to be the 'only' interpretation.

 

But, that's just me.

[Jabberwocky]

I wonder then, if the habit of trying to visualise the story as a movie is a recent thing, brought on by the advent of TV and cinema...

[shoeshine]

I think this "visualisation" thing must be a new development in our culture.

 

It's source I could not personally identify. Maybe you're right Jabberwocky....the exposure to both the small and large screen interpretations of both fiction and non-fictional books from an early age may have developed in people younger than me over recent years.

 

Personally I have always immersed myself in the words I read, and have never even contemplated the possibility of "acting out" or being "part of" the works of each author in my mind.

 

It maybe that I am just too old to have been exposed to this way of thinking.

 

I can recall a recent thread on this subject appearing on SF. It seemed a strange concept to me at that time, and still does.

[Jabberwocky]

Im trying to remember if i did it when I was a kid.

You see I read Poes The pit and the pendulum when I was six, and when I was nine I saw the movie on tv.

When I was about fourteen I read the story again and I distinctly remember visualising it as I read. Im just trying to remember how I "Saw" the story when I was six...

[pattricia]

What do you see in your minds eye?

 

Does a movie of the happenings in the story pass in front of you? If it does, when you read a book that set in America, do you see the cars as right hand or left hand drives? How accurate are the images?

 

Or, do you simply see the words and read them, some books ARE meant to be read As a book, but lots are set out to try to form a movie in your imaginations.

 

And when the book is made into a movie, how close are the characters to your impression of them?

I never thought about that.Ive had to think what I do visualise,when reading a book.If its an autobiography I am very interested in that persons life,but if its fiction,I treat it more like "sitting round the radio" in the evening,before t.v. came about.Its imagination,cosy, and comfortable.Thats how it appears to me.

[Jabberwocky]

I never thought about that.Ive had to think what I do visualise,when reading a book.If its an autobiography I am very interested in that persons life,but if its fiction,I treat it more like "sitting round the radio" in the evening,before t.v. came about.Its imagination,cosy, and comfortable.Thats how it appears to me.

I just read a couple of chapters of a book and tried to read it in any way other than "Movie Form" and got no where. I suspect that Im so brainwashed by TV and cinema that itsd too late for me to adapt to anything else now.

I attempted to listen to a tape of The Hitchikers Guide to the galaxy and the same thing happened, I saw it in movie form.