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.

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  • 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! 

  • 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.

  • I think it will be a pretty difficult concept to make mainstream. I like Lynch's version too, I'm a massive Lynch fan. Lynch's version did stray from the books in some very fundamental ways. The death of Jamis was omitted, and that gave Paul's character his first encounter and moral dilemmas as to taking a life. Also the Bene Gesserit being psychic wasn't part of the book. The Weirding Way was altered also. I can't understand why they made it rain at the end of the film! Sandworms die by exposure to water, Spice is created by sandworms, and that renders most of the meat of the story useless. Aesthetically it looks amazing, (apart from the worms and some effects) but that is a pretty bad plothole! Lynch made the film very much his. I like it but it is very much Lynch's vision, and not so much Herbert's. I just hope Villenevue stays as faithful to the book as possible.

    If the Dune films are a success, what happens when they make God Emperor? I think that's unfilmable by nature. So much inner monologing, most of the story takes place in Leto's ethereal sense of consciousness. I think that Children of Dune is as far as it can go.

    Have you seen the documentary about Alejandro Jodorowsky's version, or saw the artwork? Now that would have been very weird! Looked like it wouldn't have been very faithful either!

  • Ooh, that's a tough one. I like them all; Holy Mountain I'd say. I really really do like Dance of Reality/Endless Poetry though. 

    Yup, that's right, how much influence it had on SF films.

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