Published on 12, July, 2020
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.
If the writer describes the characters well, then yes - obviously I can imagine what they look like.
But often I guess I don't bother e.g. 'Sparver' who is a 'hyperpig' in a book I'm reading at the moment... I don't associate an image with the name when it comes up - and I'm a highly visual thinker in normal circumstances.
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!
Another thing, it is REALLY HARD to answer questions about how often you don't understand other people. This test would require that after all social interactions I had the other part answer questions about what they actually meant, what I misunderstood, if they were actually bored with me, if I talked too much about something etc.