When you imagine characters in a story you read

In the Autism Quotient questionnaire, there is this statement:

"When I'm reading a story, I can easily imagine what the characters might look like"

What if I always use faces that I know, for example actors from shows I've seen a lot? Sometimes I pick an actor to be a character after the first description of the character, then later they might say something about their looks that doesn't fit with the actor, and I'll kinda ignore it because I already decided who is playing that character.

To agree with the statement, should one be able to "build a face" in ones mind based on the information given?

Sometimes these things are so hard to answer when you don't know how other people work.

Parents
  • If I read a book sometimes I find it so interesting when it gets adapted to a film. Sometimes they get it bang on, other times it falls way short of the mark. I will often envision actors myself as characters, sort of armchair casting.

    Waiting for Denis Villeneuve's version of Frank Herbert's Dune. The casting looks good so far! 

Reply
  • If I read a book sometimes I find it so interesting when it gets adapted to a film. Sometimes they get it bang on, other times it falls way short of the mark. I will often envision actors myself as characters, sort of armchair casting.

    Waiting for Denis Villeneuve's version of Frank Herbert's Dune. The casting looks good so far! 

Children
  • A fan of Dune and the 1984 film. The casting looks ok so far I agree. I do like David Lynch though and imagine 20,000 years in the future would be a little 'weird', so I hope Villeneuve doesn't mainstream it too much (I'm not a fan of Villeneuve so far). I saw the film first back in 84 and then read all Frank's books.