Re: Tolkien Trust vs New Line

Sea Wasp wrote:
Dr. Rufo wrote:
Peter Bruells wrote:

Hah, sometimes I'm really, really glad that I don't do visuals when I
read a novel or listen an an audio drama.

If I understand you correctly, you're saying that when you read a
book or hear an audio tape (of a book?) you DON'T visualize what's being
described in your mind. Is that correct?

If so, would you, please, tell me just what it is you DO?

Follow the action as a described set of events, I presume.

AFAICT I don't visualize at all. If I close my eyes I see the inside
of my eyelids. Ask my what my mother or wife or one of my sisters
looks like and I can try to give a description, but that's partly
because I have looked at all of them before and deliberately tried to
memorize a description lest I have the embarasing moment of telling
someone that Mary looks like Mary. What else should she look like. I
know her when I see her. (My father is easy to describe. He looks like
me only about 30 years older and a bit thiner.) But there is NO
picture of any of these people in my head. If I want a picture I use a
camera. If I need a map I draw one. I don't "see" it till after I've
drawn it.

I gather this is more or less true for about 15% of the population
although I think I may be an extreme case.

Despite this I can draw maps or pictures, write stories, read stories,
GM games, and got a Ph.D. in a field that most people claim to do by
visualization.

I sometimes wonder how the rest of you manage ANYTHING when
appearently your brains are wasting most of their processing power
converting your thoughts into images which you then think about.
Making up a "visualization" can't actually add information to the
basic symbolic manipulation task, it can only blow cycles on the
display while the real work goes on in the background; sort of like a
GUI in your head. The images sure sound like an unneccessary
intermediate step and I've seen no evidence that they work better.

DougL
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Tolkien Trust vs New Line
    ... read a novel or listen an an audio drama. ... I *can* visualize just fine, when I want to, mind you. ... the stories. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: OT: One-question survey about how your brain works
    ... saying "Picture this: ... ... visualize. ... I teach shamanic journeying -- for the sake of this discussion, ... And they're certainly not going to report their experience in full visual ...
    (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated)
  • Re: OT: One-question survey about how your brain works
    ... saying "Picture this: ... ... you close your eyes and establish a picture in your head? ... I'm guessing that we all have to some extent the ability to ... visualize. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated)
  • Re: OT: One-question survey about how your brain works
    ... saying "Picture this: ... ... I can see both, but when first looking at it, I saw clockwise. ... Couldn't manage to get her to switch directions even by ... I can also visualize somewhat. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated)
  • Re: How to visualize limits in category theory
    ... You're thinking in terms of venn diagrams ... > When I visualize products, I often visualize them as boxes. ... I tend to keep a picture in mind of the diagram used to ...
    (sci.math)