Seeing the StoryPicture a deep green valley. There are a few rolling hills and scattered trees, and the sun is shining overhead. Did it work? And did you see the same picture I saw?
This week I've been thinking a lot about visual literacy and visuality in general. It's fascinating to me that two people can read the same passage and picture different things. When I'm reading, I often wonder how my mental depictions compare to what the author intended them to be. To be honest, I’ve probably never met their same image while reading. I think human brains are just too different from each other to picture the exact same image through reading, no matter how specific the descriptions are. How does knowing this impact authors’ writing and the language that they use? Does JK Rowling know that not everyone saw the same Hogwarts castle that she did? This is probably one of the most beautiful aspects of reading. That each story is different for each person, and thus leaves a different impact. Depending on the reader’s imagination and personality, the story is somewhat tailored to them. This applies to other things besides visual writing as well. Each person who reads will take something different from a story- a different moral, a different message. This is exactly why some people like books that others detest- they were both focusing on different features of the piece. Going back to the visual though, it is nearly possible to see what author's wanted their character's to look like. Using word-for-word descriptions and a new law enforcement sketch program called FACES, New York artist Brian Davis was able to show what some famous fictional characters might look like. Take a peek https://www.rd.com/culture/book-characters-real-life/
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