f/u - envisioning book characters

[ijack]

The Dark Tower post has me wondering about this. Do you primarily use book descriptions to create the character in your head, or do you just imagine them like you'd prefer them to be? If you aren't using the descriptions in the book do you tend to imagine them as your own race more often than not?

[wawa]

I tend to go by the description in the book, unless somebody reminds me of a real person (actor or IRL) and then that face and details tend to override. I'm pretty pedantic that way (like cover art that gets basic details like hair color or eye color wrong piss me the fuck off)

I definitely default to my own race unless race or at least skin tone is explicitly called out.

[hopecounts]

I am strictly by the book description, I see them how they are described in the book.

[meshaliuknits]

As I said in the Dark Tower thread I jettison the book's description and make a composite in my head from other characters based off of personality traits they share. I do tend to maintain the race indicated unless there is really something about the character that makes me think the author was mistaken.

On the other hand you have my sister prefers books that have been made into movies so she can just picture the actor.

[MrsAxilla]

It depends on how well the characters are described, or if their appearance is important in some way. With Dark Tower, I always pictured Eddie like my friend Ray. In the last book, there are some illustrations, and one near the end shows all the characters standing together (I actually think it was the last time they were all together). Anyway, EDDIE LOOKED JUST LIKE RAY!!! I was giddy, until someone died a few pages later - lol.

[asdfjkl]

I don't really imagine a person.  I know that sounds strange.  But I was listening to an interview with the actors who are in Outlander the series and they were asked whether they picture themselves when they read the books (which is a fantastic question).  So, some said yes and and some said no, but Sam Heughen (laminated card) said he doesn't really picture a person, it's more of a voice.  This is the same for me (which is why Sam and I should get married immediately, because we have this one thing in common).  It's true, though.  I very rarely conjure up a physical person with specific features.  It's more like the inner workings of a person - kind of intangible - and not their outer appearance.

[cattledogkisses]

Dec 14, 2015 11:19:54 GMT -5 wawa said:

I tend to go by the description in the book, unless somebody reminds me of a real person (actor or IRL) and then that face and details tend to override. I'm pretty pedantic that way (like cover art that gets basic details like hair color or eye color wrong piss me the fuck off)

I definitely default to my own race unless race or at least skin tone is explicitly called out.

This drives me crazy too!

[asdfjkl]

Dec 14, 2015 12:34:53 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

Dec 14, 2015 11:19:54 GMT -5 wawa said:

I tend to go by the description in the book, unless somebody reminds me of a real person (actor or IRL) and then that face and details tend to override. I'm pretty pedantic that way (like cover art that gets basic details like hair color or eye color wrong piss me the fuck off)

I definitely default to my own race unless race or at least skin tone is explicitly called out.

This drives me crazy too!

Is this the part where I confess to being annoyed at movies where both of the parents have blue eyes and one of the kids has brown eyes?  I also thought Mystic River messed up the casting even though I love the actors in that movie.  And Winona Ryder was the worst Jo March ever.  EVER!  Also Robert Downy Jr. had the wrong eye color when he played Charlie Chaplin and it absolutely bothered me.  I might be a little too neurotic.

[StrawberryBlondie]

I think I use the book description. At least mostly. For some reason, in my head Rue in The Hunger Games was Latina. I'm also reading a book right now where the book is pretty explicit that the main character has long, curly brown hair, bit she reminds me of one of my high school bffs, so in my head, I always picture a blond.

[bernsteincat]

Dec 14, 2015 12:32:11 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

I don't really imagine a person.  I know that sounds strange.  But I was listening to an interview with the actors who are in Outlander the series and they were asked whether they picture themselves when they read the books (which is a fantastic question).  So, some said yes and and some said no, but Sam Heughen (laminated card) said he doesn't really picture a person, it's more of a voice.  This is the same for me (which is why Sam and I should get married immediately, because we have this one thing in common).  It's true, though.  I very rarely conjure up a physical person with specific features.  It's more like the inner workings of a person - kind of intangible - and not their outer appearance.

This is me, too. It's also why I don't necessarily mind seeing a movie before reading a book. I already assume there will be plot differences, and being able to read the book thinking of the character in the movie helps.

[2curlydogs]

I don't know.

Generally I have a rough outline based on the book description. Sometimes I'm like asdfjkl, where I don't picture a person or a face but more a voice (like with the narrator in The Goldfinch). And sometimes - generally when it's a book I've read and re-read (like Deryni or the Pern series) - I have very vivid pictures of what they look like.

Race is flexible for me unless the author makes it explicit (like Ursula Le Guin was very clear that Ged had red brown skin. Screw you, SciFi channel!) or we're talking about established historical characters. However, when I read the dust jacket on Divergent I pictured Tris as a tall black girl with locs, so I get really thrown off every time they mention her pale skin and pale blue eyes and pale blond hair. I like my Tris better.

[twohearted]

Dec 14, 2015 13:43:56 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

I think I use the book description. At least mostly. For some reason, in my head Rue in The Hunger Games was Latina. I'm also reading a book right now where the book is pretty explicit that the main character has long, curly brown hair, bit she reminds me of one of my high school bffs, so in my head, I always picture a blond.

I thought she was supposed to be Latina also, but I kept imagining her as an Asian girl with chin length hair and heavy bangs. Pretty sure that wasn't a description in the book, but obviously I wasn't really paying close attention to how they were described. I thought Katniss was Egyptian based on her description. Usually I imagine my own race and I use the books description of the characters as a guide.

[omgzombies]

Mostly by the book description, but there's always a few characters that I end up imagining differently. I tend to default to my own race most of the time too, though not always.

[ijack]

I'm going to start paying more attention to how I think of characters. I feel like I don't always picture them as an actual person, more like a kind of blurry entity. I think I tend to default to the author's race if I know it. I know for sure that I've always pictured Octavia Butler's characters as black, but I don't know if that's because she's super descriptive or if I just do (I read really fast and don't always pay close attention to stuff like that).

[gibbinator]

I often go by book description unless I saw a movie first, in which case I imagine the actual actors. Sometimes though I get a particular idea in my head that is at odd with the description.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Dec 14, 2015 15:31:30 GMT -5 2curlydogs said:

I don't know.

Generally I have a rough outline based on the book description. Sometimes I'm like asdfjkl, where I don't picture a person or a face but more a voice (like with the narrator in The Goldfinch). And sometimes - generally when it's a book I've read and re-read (like Deryni or the Pern series) - I have very vivid pictures of what they look like.

Race is flexible for me unless the author makes it explicit (like Ursula Le Guin was very clear that Ged had red brown skin. Screw you, SciFi channel!) or we're talking about established historical characters. However, when I read the dust jacket on Divergent I pictured Tris as a tall black girl with locs, so I get really thrown off every time they mention her pale skin and pale blue eyes and pale blond hair. I like my Tris better.

I pictured her way more Pollyanna. So still blond, etc. But way different than she looks in the movies.

Four was also way more muscular in my head. Zeke was Persian in my head.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

I picture them the way I want to because I find that the books I read don't usually give descriptions in the beginning. They're scattered throughout. So if I've imagined a character is a redhead for 200 pages, you can't tell me about her brown locks and expect me just to change the image in my head.

And yes, I default to my race unless told otherwise.

[pescalita]

I am really not observant of details, so often a description is pretty lost on me, unless it's one that they really knock you over the head with (ie Jamie from Outlander). I'm a hope-watcher of film adaptations though, so once I've seen an actor, I try to picture them when I'm reading. Plus it's easier for me, having very little imagination of my own.

[aurora]

Dec 14, 2015 15:39:09 GMT -5 twohearted said:

Dec 14, 2015 13:43:56 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

I think I use the book description. At least mostly. For some reason, in my head Rue in The Hunger Games was Latina. I'm also reading a book right now where the book is pretty explicit that the main character has long, curly brown hair, bit she reminds me of one of my high school bffs, so in my head, I always picture a blond.

I thought she was supposed to be Latina also, but I kept imagining her as an Asian girl with chin length hair and heavy bangs. Pretty sure that wasn't a description in the book, but obviously I wasn't really paying close attention to how they were described. I thought Katniss was Egyptian based on her description. Usually I imagine my own race and I use the books description of the characters as a guide.

I didn't pay attention the first time I read the books, but the second time I noticed the clear description of Rue being dark skinned and black haired.

[secretlyevil]

Book description

[wawa]

Dec 15, 2015 0:59:01 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Dec 14, 2015 11:31:37 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

I imagine them how I want them to be.

Yes, and I didn't want or imagine,  weak assed Toby Maguire as  Nick Carraway! 
I'm not bitter years later or anything. 

Nobody imagines Toby Maguire as ANY OF THE ROLES HE'S PLAYED BECAUSE HE'S AWFUL.

I've said this a million times - but I'll say it again - I seriously watched Cider House Rules in complete and utter confusion about the storyline because I thought his character was supposed to have a developmental delay.  Which makes the entire story very very different. 

It wasn't until I read the book that I realized that he's actually supposed to be very intelligent.

[AJL]

Dec 14, 2015 13:04:59 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Dec 14, 2015 12:34:53 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

This drives me crazy too!

Is this the part where I confess to being annoyed at movies where both of the parents have blue eyes and one of the kids has brown eyes?  I also thought Mystic River messed up the casting even though I love the actors in that movie.  And Winona Ryder was the worst Jo March ever.  EVER!  Also Robert Downy Jr. had the wrong eye color when he played Charlie Chaplin and it absolutely bothered me.  I might be a little too neurotic.

This does happen genetically, though. Two blue-eyed parents can produce a brown-eyed child. But that's beside the point.

I don't like when film or television adaptations get crucial physical details wrong (I'm looking at you Outlander!) Claire's eyes were described so many times as being amber colored or whiskey colored and Catriona Balfe is a blue eyed lass. It's irksome.

[asdfjkl]

Dec 15, 2015 8:54:05 GMT -5 AJL said:

Dec 14, 2015 13:04:59 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Is this the part where I confess to being annoyed at movies where both of the parents have blue eyes and one of the kids has brown eyes?  I also thought Mystic River messed up the casting even though I love the actors in that movie.  And Winona Ryder was the worst Jo March ever.  EVER!  Also Robert Downy Jr. had the wrong eye color when he played Charlie Chaplin and it absolutely bothered me.  I might be a little too neurotic.

This does happen genetically, though. Two blue-eyed parents can produce a brown-eyed child. But that's beside the point.

I don't like when film or television adaptations get crucial physical details wrong (I'm looking at you Outlander!) Claire's eyes were described so many times as being amber colored or whiskey colored and Catriona Balfe is a blue eyed lass. It's irksome.

I mean, it really, really is.

[AJL]

Dec 15, 2015 9:14:01 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Dec 15, 2015 8:54:05 GMT -5 AJL said:

This does happen genetically, though. Two blue-eyed parents can produce a brown-eyed child. But that's beside the point.

I don't like when film or television adaptations get crucial physical details wrong (I'm looking at you Outlander!) Claire's eyes were described so many times as being amber colored or whiskey colored and Catriona Balfe is a blue eyed lass. It's irksome.

I mean, it really, really is.

OK. Whatever, sbp.

[wawa]

I've been thinking about this while reading and realized that depending on the book I really don't picture people clearly - I get a voice clear as day, but not so much a full featured body and face. Except with certain things where the person is described really clearly or I've read it 124o434665254609 times.

So...just like everybody else apparently.

there is the occasional exception. Like the stories my sister writes where occasionally a new character will appear and based on nothing more than a single sentence description I'll know EXACTLY what that person looks like because it's somebody I know IRL. Like the time a character's nose made me immediately text her and ask if it was supposed to look like me or if I was crazy.

I also assign mental voices to people here btw. They're never right. In fact they're usually REALLY REALLY wrong. It's always kind of a hoot to find out what people actually sound like.