I stumbled across this tweet and learned a new word today I had never heard of??
World of Engineering
@engineers_feed
Book readers, when you read a book do you see what you are reading in your mind?
??Nope. I am one of the 1-2% with aphantasia?
??I've never heard about aphantasia before! According to Wikipedia 1-3% have this condition, perhaps even more because people lack awareness of it.?
Aphantasia is the inability to voluntarily create a mental picture in your head. People with aphantasia are unable to picture a scene, person, or object, even if it's very familiar.
Reading would be no fun for someone with this condition. Makes an avid reader feel bad. ????ÿ
I can't imagine reading without being able to "see" what's happening in my head.
As an aside, does anyone else picture actors they are familiar with in the characters of the book? For example I read "Jurassic Park" long before the movie came out, I didn't picture any particular actor as Dr. Grant, more like a rugged guy with a beard (kinda like Richard Jordan, the guy that played Dirk Pitt in "Raise the Titanic"), but I did see characters similar to Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum and Wayne Knight. I hadn't read "Hunt for Red October" until after seeing the movie, so couldn't help but hear Sean Connery as Marco Ramius.
I'm assuming that was an engineer who made that reply. How in the world can you be an engineer without seeing things in your mind?
As an aside, does anyone else picture actors they are familiar with in the characters of the book?
All the time, sometimes actors, but most from my own imagination depending on the Author's description of the character's. To me reading is a mental orgasim especially John Grisham and many, many others.
Anyone have good read suggestions? ?????ÿ
@flga-2-2?ÿ
For the longest time I was reading what I referred to as the three C's - Clancy, Crichton and Cussler. I had read the entire Jack Ryan series even into where he spun off John Clark and Jack Ryan Jr, but started losing interest. Enjoyed just about all of Crichton's work until the second Jurassic Park seemed like it was written with being made into a movie and Cussler was always a fun read where he would make a fictional history from an actual event, I don't know why but I, for some reason, found it annoying when he would inject himself into the story, just to give the characters some little tidbit of helpful knowledge.
Reading and imagining people and scenes in my mind's eye is one of my greatest pleasures.?ÿ I cannot imagine (no pun intended) what if would be like if I weren't able to picture things in my head.
I rarely 'create' characters from actors in the written word.?ÿ I can say I probably have never imagined a character looking like someone I even know.?ÿ I leave it all up my imagination.
But then this begs a question.?ÿ Can I really picture someone that is truly random that I have never ever seen??ÿ Or are my characters bits and pieces of the millions of people I have encountered in my life??ÿ Can the human brain really generate truly random images, or is it all based on subconscious memories??ÿ
I don't know the answer.?ÿ?ÿ
The only thing thing I dislike associated with reading for pleasure is the displeasure of realizing how uneducated I really am. ?????ÿ
The only thing thing I dislike associated with reading for pleasure is the displeasure of realizing how uneducated I really am. ?????ÿ
Me too!
Our family, with one exception, was gifted with the ability to visualize.?ÿ My sister, apparently, did not get that asset.?ÿ When she was young and in 4-H, my mother discovered this inability.?ÿ It didn't matter if it was something to do with woodworking or sewing?ÿ or photography or any kind of art project.?ÿ Sister simply could not conform to the expected result even if a picture or model was available.?ÿ Her children can visualize quite well.
Aphantasia is the inability to voluntarily create a mental picture in your head. People with aphantasia are unable to picture a scene, person, or object, even if it's very familiar.
I would have flunked out of geology school if I had that condition.
I cannot imagine being unable to visualize, objects, ideas, and concepts. I build something like a cad file in my head. Except there are organic parts that behave like plants, animals, and water. Nearly all of it is in some sort of motion or activity. Cad has rods, (in my mind) that move around like pixie sticks. One end stationary, the other moving. I'm the opposite of this disorder.?ÿ
N
Also, remember left handed persons solve problems in a less linear fashion, but that can get the to the end result faster. Lefties have been "doing things different" for many years.
N
Can the human brain really generate truly random images, or is it all based on subconscious memories??ÿ
Cripes Unc, I hope it's random because I seem to have a vivid perception of Hell for some reason?!?! ?????ÿ
@paden-cash You're right that the brain probably is pulling bits from your memory to construct faces. Related: when I get enough sleep and have a dream near when I wake up, I can often remember parts of it. Usually, there aren't people I know in the dream--not even oh-that-person-I-saw-at-the-store-last-week.
I've heard of several people that don't picture when they read. Even an author! She says she has to spend a lot of time figuring out if she's giving enough detail for readers who do picture the story. There's a fav author who seems to think like I do. I can easily picture her stories and follow her action sequences (Martha Wells). An online acquaintance (who writes some truly funny reviews) also loves her books, but can't picture the action sequences so basically skips over them. That info had come out when I mentioned really falling in love (not literally!) with a particular character after a crowning-moment-of-awesome action sequence.?ÿ
Note: the link goes to that topic at TV Tropes, an amazing crowdsourced website with topics about all the tropes you can find in books, anime, movies, tv shows, etc.?ÿ
vivid perception of Hell
The Catholic school influence?
Seems like it's a little warmer; prolly why everyone is nekked...
The Catholic school influence?
I'm gonna write a book someday (if Paden will help me) about life from 7 to 14 in Parochial School (aka: Catholic Prison) including why they threw my ass out at age 14 for questioning a biology teacher/warden about a questionable process that miraculously caused impregnation. My mother was an ER trauma nurse and we had Greys Anatomy in the library, it describes human reproduction after insemination, thus the question which I thought was reasonable. That, and my blasphemous response after being boxed in the ears by a frustrated Latin teacher nun whom apparently joined the Convent to avoid a prison sentence. What a trip life is/was as a youngster. ?????ÿ
Whether I liked it or not really isn't the point, I was fortunate I was sent there. Behavior aside, I learned more there scholastically than in college.
I learned more there scholastically than in college.
A friend of mine spend 3 years in a good catholic school around here. He echoed your response.
Whether I liked it or not really isn't the point, I was fortunate I was sent there
Funny, how things work out, sometimes...
@flga-2-2 attended catholic school from pre-school (springhill, al) through high school in mobile with the onetime drunk you quote.?ÿ The Jesuits were always there to guide and encourage us to question the nuns which still gets me in trouble today.?ÿ College was freedom.?ÿ Friends who were raised/schooled by Jesuits and most all have good things to say.?ÿ My 8th grade teacher still asked about me when she was 108 yo as I was not a 'get along' kind of student.?ÿ I received a good education and thank my parents for the opportunity.
@flga-2-2?ÿ
The Cash enclave where I was raised was nestled in an area that was close to a Catholic church and school.?ÿ Although I attended public school and Congregational church, all my friends in the 'hood went to the parochial school.?ÿ Some kids grew up telling ghost stories around a campfire.?ÿ All I remember was horror stories about the nuns at school.
I do remember an incident when the public school I attended had a day out for teacher's meetings or something.?ÿ But my running buddies still had to go to school at the Catholic school.?ÿ Long about time for school to be out I went and hung out near the playground to wait for my friends.?ÿ I was sitting in swing on the far side of the playground.?ÿ?ÿ
Suddenly I was snatched up by an angry nun that actually materialized from nowhere.?ÿ She started dragging me back toward the school building and trying to shake teeth out of my head.?ÿ I finally got her hooks off of me at the door.?ÿ I said something like, "Let go of me you old bag.."?ÿ?ÿand she slapped my face.?ÿ I kicked her shin and ran...right into the arms of some guy in a black outfit.?ÿ They both wanted to know why I was "sneaking around".?ÿ At first I think they thought I was a student...or inmate as we called it back then.
I tried my best to explain that sitting in a swing on an empty playground was pretty far from 'sneaking around' in my book.?ÿ All the nun was interested in was letting me know how foul a mouth I had.?ÿ Little did she know I had a vocabulary that might have rendered her unconscious...but I was being reserved.
I was detained and forced to call home.?ÿ It really didn't do any good because Momma Cash didn't drive.?ÿ She eventually sent my oldest brother Cole to fetch me.?ÿ As I was being released I told Cole the old bag had slapped me.?ÿ Cole told her if she ever slapped me again he'd slap her "into next week".?ÿ She huffed off.?ÿ Cole told me to stay away from nuns because they were all crazy.?ÿ I believed him.
But among my friends I was elevated in social-status because me kicking the nun in the shin was visible from their classroom.?ÿ That was something they apparently fantasized about but would probably never get the chance.
I kept my distance from their playground from then on.?ÿ I figure if I had gone to a Catholic school I would have been in the penitentiary by age ten.?ÿ
?ÿ
