What do you picture?

[ladymacbeth]

My husband and I frequently get into discussions about what I picture when I am reading. I should probably first mention that he rarely reads and is more of a film buff. Everytime I tell him about a book I am reading, he asks who I picture in the different rolls. He becomes even more interested if a movie has been made of the book ( I just reread Pride and Prejudice so he wanted to know if I thought of Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Darcy). When he does read, he spends a bit of time trying to find the perfect actor or actress for the part (as if he were casting the movie). I usually do not picture a specific person, sometimes I just see more of a silhouette or a body with hair--rarely a face. I also do not usually picture the movie leads as the book characters unless he or she was especially perfect--I do not picture Keira as Elizabeth, but I do picture Gwenyth Paltrow as Estella (I know the movie version of Great Expectations was horrible, but she really captured Estella for me). I guess I just picture the scene more than the characters.

In Stephen King's Preface to The Stand he says, "The glory of a good tale is that it is limitless and fluid; a good tale belongs to each reader in its own particular way."

So what do you picture?

[Nossa]

I don't picture anyone or anything either..lol
I usually just imagine the characters, how they talk, move, smile, laugh or whatever. I don't normaly care about facial features. However, if I watched a certain movie, and then read the book it was based on, I usualy tend to, you know, wonder if that actor or that actress was good for the role..lol
I've done that many times, one of them was with one of the books I recently read, "The Client" by John Grisham, which was made a movie starring Suzan Sarendon (or however they write her name..lol) and i came to the conclusion that I didn't like her being the heroine..Julia Roberts would have done a better job..lol

[Rolandokun]

If im reading and i see the characters do what people i know do ill make them out to be like the person i know.

[Stieg]

Details about a character lend certain consistant traits in my mind either vividly or nebulous overall. Or I have even adopted a famous person's visage or something similar to a famous person's visage.

[papayahed]

I don't really picture anything. Maybe some vague generalizations. However, and I've complained about this many times, it really bugs me when the movie characters don't exactly fit my perception. While I didn't have a definate vision Robert Mitchum as Pug Henry in Wings of War was totally and completely odd and wrong. Blech.

[SleepyWitch]

hey you guys, I'm glad most of you don't picture anything :) i thought i was a weirdo :)
i think i read too fast to picture much, except when a passage is exceptionally well written/ originally phrased and forces me to read more slowly

[Niamh]

I must be a weirdo than! Insteac of picturing famous people, i always see people i know playing the parts, like i'm living the story as i'm reading it.

[Nightshade]

I must be a weirdo than! Insteac of picturing famous people, i always see people i know playing the parts, like i'm living the story as i'm reading it.

Not so wierd, mine are cartoons but then again one of the book clubs I go to do this, cast people and well the main object is to get Johnny Depp in the film so while Im reading thier book Im think wheres Johnny?
But I dont really picture people I can barly rember what the people I know look like no I 'see' people as colours even my family so I dont.
But when ve fiished a book I can look back and say this person should be that or that actor would be great as ...


:D

[Bebbin]

The pictures I see are almost always hazy, but they don't bother me much. Like ladymacbeth, I usually picture a silhouette or something of the like. So long as I could envision the general traits about a character, like the hair, body type, etc, then that pretty much does it for me.

But then again, if there are people I know who fit the descriptions to a tee, or at least very similarly, then that sometimes makes it easier. :D

[liesl]

bit off topic but as i was reading Moby Dick i pictured captain Ahab to look like herman melville.

usually i don't picture any particular actor whilst i am reading but am frequently irritated by actors chosen for television or film adaptations of texts. For example i was extremely annoyed by the choice of Anna Maxwell Martin to play Esther Summerson in the BBC's version of Bleak House.

[Niamh]

Not so wierd, mine are cartoons but then again one of the book clubs I go to do this, cast people and well the main object is to get Johnny Depp in the film so while Im reading thier book Im think wheres Johnny?
But I dont really picture people I can barly rember what the people I know look like no I 'see' people as colours even my family so I dont.
But when ve fiished a book I can look back and say this person should be that or that actor would be great as ...


:D

Haha... I suppose that if i did see famous people when reading, Johnny Depp would be everywhere! Oh and Joseph Fiennes of Course!:D

[Stieg]

And if I actually focus on the image of the characters I am experiencing like a reel in the mind's eye, that really screws things up and their image becomes even more clouded than before.

I just keep reading so the reel doesn't stop. Some characters may have great clarity others are envisioned like an object caught peripherally.

This thread is an interesting topic now I know I am not lacking in the ability to absorb sharp details and suck at visualizing.

[cuppajoe_9]

I usually don't have a picture of anyone in particular, but I usually have a fairly clear picture of what the character looks like. Sometimes I can't enjoy a film made from the book, because I disagree with the director about what a character looks like. Ocasionally, I disagree with the author about what a particular character looks like.

[katykeats]

Yes i do that! I always cast my friends for certain roles. However i do think that Brad Pitt and Angelina would make a good mr & mrs Macbeth, simply because they are in love nad capable of sharing the same delusions.

[JBI]

Whenever I read about an attractive woman, I picture my Beatrice.

[symphony]

:alien: and noone of u pictures urSELF as the main character? i mean, its not so much as picturing actually, its more like living the story....

[SleepyWitch]

:alien: and noone of u pictures urSELF as the main character? i mean, its not so much as picturing actually, its more like living the story....

yep, i definitely do that if the story is well-written and i can identify with the character.

[symphony]

hehe good then, i thought i was the only weirdo in here to do that!
;)

[Niamh]

i think i already said i did that! you are not alone!

[Nossa]

:alien: and noone of u pictures urSELF as the main character? i mean, its not so much as picturing actually, its more like living the story....

I don't picture myself, not persay, but I normaly just think, what would I have done if I was in that situation...or another...you know!