The Wider Picture

[Icecream]

Do you find it difficult to picture characters and places in books, or to hear different voices? I find it extremely difficult sometimes. For example, I pictured Hogwarts in my mind completely differently from how the books say, and also everything in the books is a lot smaller in my mind. After watching the films, then re-reading the books I saw how the descriptions were different to my views, but I still have a hard time picturing hogwarts. When this happens,If I concentrate to hard on the pictures, |I end up reading really slowly.

 

I sometimes start a book and then realise half way through that all the characters sound the same.

 

I'm not always like this, but am most of the time.

[LittleLijah]

I think it depends on the book. Sometimes the author is very descriptive and that helps and others don't go into a lot of detail, maybe they do that on purpose because they want you to imagine characters for yourself. I do find it quite difficult though.

[~Andrea~]

I think I tend to visualise things quite easily and only need a vague suggestion of what something looks like before I can see it in my mind. If there is lots of heavy description in a book it tends to put me off because I find I dont want a detailed instruction on how to visualise something that I would rather imagine in my own way.

[Janet]

I find it quite easy to give different voices to characters when I read, and I also quite quickly build up a picture of the surroundings.

 

I'm not sure 'my' Hogwarts looked the same as JKR's, but I didn't dwell on it. However, 'my' Harry, Hermione and Ron looked very different to the film version of HP!

[Echo]

For me, it depends on how many times I read the book. When I first read And the Band Played On, I had the faces and the voices of the actors from the movie in my head. But now when I read it, they're totally different people.

 

As for Harry Potter, I thought the scenery and characters from the first two films meshed very well with my imagination. But now that they've changed the landscape of the movie (like the big hill down to Hagrid's hut), I don't enjoy them as much, but the landscape of the books hasn't changed for me.

[wrathofkublakhan]

As far as the Harry Potter books go: my reading world was not nearly as dark as the movies.

 

I tend to want the level of description to just be enough to drive the story forward, I don't want to get bogged down too much with descriptions of a manor unless it's a really different manor. I can imagine a manor, hut, forest, horse, river without needing buckets of words.

I'll contradict myself by saying I love descriptions of food! I think those descriptions really serve to prove just how different some locale is from my own and how unique my hero's experience is in the story.

 

[Icecream]

The way I pictured the characters in Harry Potter was near enough exactly the same as the actors look. What I think the problem is, is that as soon as a place is mentioned I form a picture of it, but the scene is smaller than it should be. When further description of the place (or the social status of the characters) is given I realise my mistake, but find it hard to change my image of it. I also seem to use the same pictures for different places (such as the rooms mentioned in books set in 18th century homes like Jane Austen or Robert Neill scenes - maybe because they all sound the same in those books).

 

I know this shows a lack of imagination, but the thing is, i have a very vivid imagination. Sometimes I can picture things very well, and I have always been known for my ability to tell stories off the cuff. On the other hand I can't imagine other things, and I can't compose music very well. Maybe I have to be in the right mood and I haven't tuned into it properly enough to know how to use it, or maybe it is just that some authors write in line with the way my brain works and others don't..

[Maureen]

Do you find it difficult to picture characters and places in books, or to hear different voices? I find it extremely difficult sometimes. For example, I pictured Hogwarts in my mind completely differently from how the books say, and also everything in the books is a lot smaller in my mind. After watching the films, then re-reading the books I saw how the descriptions were different to my views, .

 

You reminded me of a conversation I had with my son a while ago, while we were watching The Jungle Book on DVD, after reading the book (more than once). He was so upset that the scenery looked (a bit) different than how it was pictured in the book.

[Oblomov]

I always picture the characters in my book - even the minor ones. Their faces are very clear in my mind, but voices are less definitive. When a book that I have liked is made into a film, I feel very disappoined if the actor playing a part does not look anything like the way I imagined that he or she would, even if they have acted well. Two examples are Edward Fox in the lead role in The Day of the Jackal, a part that was tailormade for Michael Caine and Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence fo the Lambs. Oscar nothwithstanding, I had pictured a more lithe and sleek Lecter and ironically Brian Cox in the 1986 film Manhunter suited the role far better IMO.

[pontalba]

I tend more to see shapes of people and things, ambiance -- not the actual thing or person, unless of course the author is quite specific about a certain characteristic. I do tend toward paintings that are impressionistic though, maybe that is why. [?]

[Kylie]

I pictured Hogwarts in my mind completely differently from how the books say, and also everything in the books is a lot smaller in my mind.

 

For some reason I always picture the Great Hall on their left as they walk into the castle, even though the description says they go to the right! I just can't change it in my mind once it's done. It just seems back-to-front if I picture them going right

 

I'm not sure 'my' Hogwarts looked the same as JKR's, but I didn't dwell on it. However, 'my' Harry, Hermione and Ron looked very different to the film version of HP!

 

My Harry, Ron and Hermione always looked identical to the film, probably because they had already started making the first film by the time I got around to reading the books for the first time. My Snape used to look a bit different though - maybe a bit younger and thinner in the face. However, the more I re-read them, the more he seems to have evolved into the 'movie' Snape.

 

I always picture the characters in my book - even the minor ones. Their faces are very clear in my mind, but voices are less definitive.

 

On the subject of Harry Potter again, I've always been a bit disappointed in the 'movie' Dumbledore. I always hear his voice much stronger and more commanding in my head. I think he sounds too weak in the movies. And even though I keep reading Voldemort's voice described as 'high', I keep hearing it as being very deep.

 

More on the subject of picturing characters and places - this causes me quite a few problems when I'm reading. If I'm not 100% focused on the words I'm reading, I have to go back to the start of the sentence/paragraph and re-read. It's really frustrating, and most of the time, it's pointless because when I re-read the text, I realise that I probably did take it in first time round. Does that make any sense? I want to train myself to just keep reading but I'm worried I'll miss something; it's very frustrating and time-consuming

[Oblomov]

More on the subject of picturing characters and places - this causes me quite a few problems when I'm reading. If I'm not 100% focused on the words I'm reading, I have to go back to the start of the sentence/paragraph and re-read. It's really frustrating, and most of the time, it's pointless because when I re-read the text, I realise that I probably did take it in first time round. Does that make any sense? I want to train myself to just keep reading but I'm worried I'll miss something; it's very frustrating and time-consuming

 

That makes perfect sense because it happens to me a lot. That's why I prefer to read in a quiet place where there are no distractions. I simply have to picture the whole scenario in my mind for proper continuity. There is always the worry that I missed something significant.

[Icecream]

I tend more to see shapes of people and things, ambiance . [?]

 

I do that sometimes.

 

For some reason I always picture the Great Hall on their left as they walk into the castle, even though the description says they go to the right! I just can't change it in my mind once it's done. It just seems back-to-front if I picture them going right

 

Wow! I do that too! Strange.. Although I have started to picture that properly now I'm re-reading. I still can't get the entrance hall right though.

 

 

More on the subject of picturing characters and places - this causes me quite a few problems when I'm reading. If I'm not 100% focused on the words I'm reading, I have to go back to the start of the sentence/paragraph and re-read. It's really frustrating, and most of the time, it's pointless because when I re-read the text, I realise that I probably did take it in first time round. Does that make any sense? I want to train myself to just keep reading but I'm worried I'll miss something; it's very frustrating and time-consuming

 

. There is always the worry that I missed something significant.

 

That is me to a tea. I have to concentrate properly, which I have trained myself to do, but I sometimes have to be in the right mood, which doesn't fit with the fact that I have to read when i can due to having a baby who inevitably demands my attention when I want to read.

[samgrosser]

I tend more to see shapes of people and things, ambiance -- not the actual thing or person, unless of course the author is quite specific about a certain characteristic. [?]

 

That's one of the reasons I always worry about seeing the film of a book I like, because once the film image is in my mind, it tends to replace the much more impressionistic picture I had from the book.

 

The other thing I do which is weird, (and irritating), is I don't imagine things necessarily consistently. For example, I might see a house as looking a particular way in one scene, and then different in another.

[Fay]

I can always see and hear the voices of the characters in the books that I am reading, as well as the scenery.

 

But that is the beauty of reading is it not, that you decide for yourself, with a little help from the author of course, about the characteristics of a person/place, and it doesnt matter if you get it right or wrong, its your interpritation that matters!!

 

Thats why films are never as good as the books, Hollywood generally puts upon us their interpritations.

[Oblomov]

That's one of the reasons I always worry about seeing the film of a book I like, because once the film image is in my mind, it tends to replace the much more impressionistic picture I had from the book.

 

Same here, and although the 'overlap' impression can occasionally be good, it is quite annoying in most instances. Once again quoting Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs, I always pictured Clarice Starling as a tall, lissome and imposing figure, something like the part-time actress Ann Turkel in her younger days. To see a squeaky character like Jodie Foster play the part upset my impression somewhat, even though she acted brilliantly. I guess it is the mindset.

[Icecream]

I can always see and hear the voices of the characters in the books that I am reading, as well as the scenery.

 

But that is the beauty of reading is it not, that you decide for yourself, with a little help from the author of course, about the characteristics of a person/place, and it doesnt matter if you get it right or wrong, its your interpritation that matters!!

 

Thats why films are never as good as the books, Hollywood generally puts upon us their interpritations.

 

True, but when I get a bad impression of a scene it is really bad (i.e far to small and dark and even too plain). The thing is that when I realise my mistake the image is stuck in my head and I can't change it.

[Hazeltree]

The other thing I do which is weird, (and irritating), is I don't imagine things necessarily consistently. For example, I might see a house as looking a particular way in one scene, and then different in another.

 

I'm glad other people do that! I thought it was just me!

 

I tend to get vague images of the scenery etc - I'm not a very visual person. What really irritates me is that I can't get accents right unless I read really slowly and concentrate on hearing the accent in my head. I always want to get on with the story though, so I tend to ignore any accents and have everybody sounding like me in my head!