Imagination while reading?

[fishface]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

Some poor readers just do it poorly because they weren't taught properly and spend too much time on mechanics.

Oh I understand now, you mean a "poor reader" = someone with poor reading skills (which can be improved with training). I thought "poor reader" = someone of normal intelligence who is just terminally "bad at reading".

I agree that part of the training should be to internalize the mechanics to the point where the interface (words and letters) become transparent and the concepts flow directly from the page to the brain. I wouldn't call this visualization though: as you said many people are not visual thinkers.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

...However if I happen to watch a movie and then read the book after (something I try and avoid) I find myself not imagining the story in my own mind, I tend to reflect on scenes from the movie. Unfortunately I don't tend to enjoy the book as much.

For me, it depends on the book and/or the movie. A really good movie that does a reasonably good job of following the book (which rarely happens anymore) will enhance how I visualize the book. A bad movie gets forgotten and replaced by my own visualization if the book is better. Many books I feel I enjoyed better having seen the movie first. Some will have a slow beginning I might have been reluctant to wade through had I not had a "preview" of what was to come. Others, the movie was just a spoiler. With some books, such as Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club," the movie enhances understanding and visualization of the book and the book enhances the movie. One scene, for example, in the movie flashes back to on of the aunts who drowned her baby in an anger and hatred driven psychotic episode. In the movie, I was able to see why she did so (her husband treated her horribly and she her husband in the baby) but was horrified by it and felt no compassion for the aunt. Once I read the book, I more fully understood the reason why (it delves more into the cultural backgrouund, etc. than movie could)and, even though it was a horrible act, I was more understanding and compassionate towards the aunt. At the same time, having seen it on screen, I was able to more vividly visualize (both visually and emotionally) what was happening. My appreciation for the book and the movie were vastly enhanced by experiencing both (it's the kind of story--actually a collection of stories loosely connected--one experiences rather merely views or reads).

Of course, the first Harry Potter movies heavily influenced how I visulaized the books that came out after the movie.

[goinveg]

A big part of my learning, not just reading learning, involved immersing myself in the subject matter. My childhood took place as entertainment evolved from books and records to radio shows to TV shows and movies. My Dad and grandparents (his parents) would read to us, not just mechanical reading, but with voice and facial expression. I could picture those stories while they were read to me. I transferred that to my own reading. But my reading is more like a dream than a movie.

The book to radio to TV transition was a series of abrupt changes in imagination for me. One example was The Lone Ranger. Having created the characters in my mind from reading, I found it difficult to properly listen to the radio show because the characters didn't sound right. Then when I saw them on TV, they didn't look right.

Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull was different, though. My Dad read it to us in his inimical fashion so it came alive. Then the movie came out with Neil Diamond's score. I was able to enjoy the reading, viewing and listening (to the soundtrack recording) because the different versions were so close in time.

Then there is how a work is written. Trying to read a Victor Hugo novel with the long and laborious character descriptions instead of character development in the story made required reading in English and French classes challenging. I couldn't immerse myself in them because that isn't the way I experience the world.

Le Petit Prince, on the other hand, was an easy read, not just because it was a children's book, but because it depended on - and described - a young boy's use of imagination. It worked even with its transitions between first, second and third person narrative.

Learning music had this same use of imagination to it. My first memory of learning music is Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. It involves first a narrator describing each instrument, then the character portrayed by that instrument and finally the melody associated with that character. Knowing these these things helped immensely in my music appreciation but my sheet music reading and instrument playing are purely mechanical to this day. Many friends can hear the music by reading the score on paper even if they have never heard the composition before. But learning Peter and the Wolf did help me in hearing individual instruments while listening to a piece.

[L.J. Sellers]

I not only visualize when I'm reading, but when I'm writing novels too. And when I'm walking around, and biking, and sitting in a hot tub. I imagine entire scenarios just from hearing an odd conversation or watching a big truck back out into the street or seeing adolescent boys huddled together. How can you not visualize a story you're reading?
L.J.

[beppe]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

And I actually read all of your post. I only visualized in parts of it, though.

I do love the part you quoted above. Oh, so true for me. Also true for driving, by the way. I can go somewhere as a passenger in the car a dozen times and not be able to find my way back, but once I drive it myself, I've got it.

I am so glad. If you drive there you come back. Drive carefully though.

[Ea]

I don't really visualise much when reading. Certainly not in the sense of seeing film. If anything it's like glances that are only vaguely "sensed", rather than "seen". If the author makes a certain point related to a character, size in relation to others for example, then I have to stop and deliberately imagine it. I can do it, but I don't do it automatically. On the other hand, I would still consider myself a visually oriented person - and my teachers has always considered me a strong reader. I am not sure I see any correlations, at least for myself.

Modern authors rarely put much description of characters in their stories - I imagine that for those who do "see a film" while reading, their brain must supply the additional details. I find that I don't do that automatically.

[banjobama]

I sometimes see a movie in my head, but not all the time. Like other people said, I "absorb" the story as I read it more than I see every little detail played out. I read the words and get flashes in my mind. Once in a while, a scene will really saturate my mind and I'll see everything, but that is time consuming.

I consider myself an excellent reader, and it doesn't mean that I see the book, cover to cover, as I read it.

[Redfox]

Once again, this thread reminds me of the BookWorld in Jasper Fforde's novels, where the only things that exist are the ones described by the author. Forests consist of the same few trees repeated over and over like a wallpaper pattern, books on bookshelves are blank inside when you open them, and no-one eats breakfast or goes to the toilet!

[mediax]

Personally, I don't visualise when I'm reading but I do when I'm writing.

Hmm, now if only I could figure out which one I'm doing wrong

[Rich_D]

If I can't lose myself and start visualizing the scenes in a book by the end of a chapter or two, I stop reading it. If I just wanted to read words, I'd read the dictionary!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Rich_D

If I can't lose myself and start visualizing the scenes in a book by the end of a chapter or two, I stop reading it. If I just wanted to read words, I'd read the dictionary!

[Lyndl]

Originally Posted by Rich_D

If I can't lose myself and start visualizing the scenes in a book by the end of a chapter or two, I stop reading it. If I just wanted to read words, I'd read the dictionary!

Reading for me is like being transported somewhere else and I become part of that reality. There have been times when I've put down a book , then found myself using the words or accent of people in the book. Sometmes, I'll be reading a book and I have imagined the characters so thoroughly that I am shocked when the author casually mentions (for example) the blonde hair that I've seen is brown.

I read a quote somewhere , perhaps on Amazon ) "Books are movies for the mind"

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by Rich_D

If I can't lose myself and start visualizing the scenes in a book by the end of a chapter or two, I stop reading it. If I just wanted to read words, I'd read the dictionary!

This.

[LDBoblo]

Assisted daydreaming for people with creative handicaps.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Rich_D

If I can't lose myself and start visualizing the scenes in a book by the end of a chapter or two, I stop reading it. If I just wanted to read words, I'd read the dictionary!

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

Assisted daydreaming for people with creative handicaps.

Perhaps that's why I'm becoming more and more sensitive to the quality of the prose because I actually notice the writing as well as the story. I think you guys who want to lose yourself in visualising, you're missing out. I, one the other hand, can just put a film in my DVD player