Imagination while reading?

[Druid_Elf]

With technical books it's hard to visualize, so no for them.
However I love fantasy novels and I always visualize how the characters would like , the towns they visit, ...
I think that is one of the greatest joys in reading, the fact that you are swept away by the story and that you litteraly feel part of the world that was created by the author

[GeoffC]

even if ones vision of that world may differ somewhat from the author's intention .....

[Redfox]

With novels, yes - it's just like a movie playing in my head. Maybe not as visually rich, but if the writer is good, you get other senses coming into play as well, which you don't get on screen. Despite Jasper Fforde's jesting, not all authors ignore the sense of smell (and I'm not just talking about Perfume). Not that I exactly smell anything, but then I don't hallucinate the visuals either

[bjones6416]

I usually get completely immersed in a book that I'm enjoying and yes, I definitely visualize the settings and the people. I don't watch a lot of movies, but I do remember feeling great joy when the miniseries of Lonesome Dove began. The ranch was EXACTLY as I had pictured it, and the characters were right on the money too. I named my (now elderly) cats after people in that book -- Augustus and Lorena, or Gus and Lori when they are behaving!

[Druid_Elf]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

even if ones vision of that world may differ somewhat from the author's intention .....

True, but if you see a movie which was based on a book you see the version that the director imagines how it would be.
The fun is that to each person the world he/she visualizes is unique for that person

[mikij]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

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

Right.
It was proven. Just look at Buzan's books about speed reading - people don't know HOW to read. A lot of eye movements, trying to pronounce what is seen, etc. And they cannot remember but a fraction of what was read.

Besides, yes, when I read a novel, I always imagine heroes, places, etc. The level of imagination depends also on how well was the hero/action/place described. If it was poorly done, I lack details and cannot go beyond the information provided.

Oh, yes, the technical books don't go into this category. No imagination whatsoever - but I think it is normal.

[suecsi]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

I can't imagine not imagining. Characters have voices, scenery has texture. Those worlds become real.

ever since I was a kid. I always was an avid reader though.

I also get the feeling, mentioned by other posters, that when a book is made into a movie you are looking at the movie and thinking that isn't what a character should be like.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

though as the years have continued to pass me by I find I can visualise less and less

Curious. I'm having the opposite effect.

[CyberSmoke53]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

I can't imagine not imagining. Characters have voices, scenery has texture. Those worlds become real.

Ditto!

I think there are several types of reading.. When I read for pleasure I can't image not imagining the story. If I can immerse myself in the story I can race through the book, but iIf I can't imagine in the story - then that's a book I'll either not finish because its too boring to me or I'll take forever to finish. My fav pleasure reading is fantasy, sci-fi and romance.

Reading for information such as technical manuals and articles is different. I try to visualize some or the information but its like this type of reading happens in a different part of the brain or something and its more like storing facts and information and lacks the "emotional-feelings" component.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Curious. I'm having the opposite effect.

it's you who's affecting me !!!!!

[silverraven]

My daughter is not a visualizer, but my son is. My daughter also started reading using phonics, which I have always thought messed her up. She literally reads syllable by syllable, sounding out all words. It's painful to watch.

Hmmmm, I learned to read by phonics, and I am a visualizer, and an excellent reader. I have two sons, 7 months age difference. They are both 22 now. S learned to read by phonics, he is also a visualizer, and an excellent reader. T learned by the 'whole word method' and never visualizes, is a poor reader, and has always hated it because it has always been such a struggle.
The main thing I noticed when the kids were reading is that the child that learned by phonics could sound out the word if he didn't know it and stood a chance at figuring out what it was. The child that learned the 'whole word method', if it wasn't in his list of memorized words, he was lost. He would just guess at the word, and if he couldn't guess right would give up and quit. He was never given the tools to even try to teach himself new words.
Just my opinion, and we all know what opinions are like.
S

[beppe]

What a wonderful thread. I read all of it, partially visualizing (avatars help), partly imagining, and partly just "sensing" it. Practically all posts could be commented. I choose two major themes and two small (one funny).
Observation

Spoiler:

But before working on it (this is the first thread that is requiring written notes) I want just to submit an observation to the generous host (by the avatar), hostess by her own admission.
The title of the thread is imagination, while the subject is about images. The correspondence between the two is not unequivocal. One can exercise imagination on abstract concepts without recurring to images (even if, ... I will take this up along).

I start with a small theme, foreign languages' positive (negative) influence

Spoiler:

Adoby does not enjoy reading fiction in Swedish, his native language, as much as in English. For me it is exactly the same but with Italian. A part from the offer one finds. I have an explanation for myself. I studied English for 8 years at school, but I really got into it when I started to read fiction. There, to fill the vocabulary gaps without resorting to a dictionary or to make pencil notes for further study, like some do, I had to imagine more and to rely on the imagination to give continuity to the narration. I was not yet trained in abstract thinking as I am now (although I had 8 years of Latin, that with Greek is the most common gateway to abstract thinking), so more images were used. The use develops the organ.

Lo Zeno has just the opposite experience.

Immersion

Spoiler:

It takes an Author, Vintage Season, to call into play the magic word, immersion. I get totally immersed in the spiel with many authors. I choose two at the opposite range of style. Joyce in Ulysses is generous and accurate and evocative as Leonardo when he painted every leaf of the trees. Hemingway reduced it to the most essential core, (take any of the stories as example) often leaving the description in our mind. Both had huge influences. Both allow me to get hyperdimensianally immersed in their narration.

Visual, "sensed", abstract

Spoiler:

At least 5 posters make it clear that they not make recurse to images. mental crutches, hindrances to their speed in reading, declared or implied. General surprise. Not at all. Myself I can control it. I can switch from highly detailed visual to wherever rarefied I can reach. I have been trained in abstract thinking, by myself mostly, as an advanced professional tool, in mathematics at first, but then to practically everything, even with sentiments and feelings. Before making my statement on the actual theme, let me make two short and contrasting considerations. Geometry was developed in ancient Greece, to a level that was not fully understood until recently (time scale centuries), without making use of drawings. Purely abstract concepts. The single thing that I learned that was most useful to me in all my professional life was said to me, decades ago, by a highly influential and successful professor of a renown American University: If you can draw it you have it. Which does not mean that to have it you have to draw it. This one liner has been worth to me at least half of my total earnings since. Visualizing is very useful for checking. To make connections between concepts it is often better a higher abstract level, maybe in "sensing" mode, almost visual but not with forms.
It is just a matter of focus. Even the highest and more abstract concept of the most abstract of the theoretical mathematics have to be imagined before being highly polished and stream lined down to their final formulation. On a piece of paper in symbolic form or in the mind.
Visual imagined? Not necessarily, but why not.

A small funny theme

Spoiler:

delphidb96I not only visualize, I tend to create listening soundtracks. If I just add a littl grain of surreality, I can imagine him reading in the train "The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan. I can do a fair sordina trumpet, even the vibrato.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

it's you who's affecting me !!!!!

Oh-kay. I walked into that one!

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by beppe

The single thing that I learned that was most useful to me in all my professional life was said to me, decades ago, by a highly influential and successful professor of a renown American University: If you can draw it you have it.

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.

[Solicitous]

I use my imagination when reading, I love to get myself right down and feel the scene and characters. 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.