I was in the library reading LOTR (Just finished the Fellowship, my god would I recommend it!), and at the beginning of the session, I was reading the book and the descriptions and prose were so magnificent that I willed myself to try imagining what everything looked like in my mind’s eye. So this raises a question. Do you see the picture while reading? If so, how vividly? And is it automatic?
Just to clear up confusion, I’m not just talking about understanding the text. Or retroactively creating an image. I’m talking about while reading the text, you imagine what’s happening visually. And when something changes in the text, say the grass becoming dimmer, do you imagine that process happening?
Sometimes I make an effort versus whatever pops in my head! If I notice my visualizations are underwhelming compared to the description then I put in an effort. If I’ve seen a movie adaptation of the book I also put effort into NOT simply imagining the movie lol.
I make a project of doing it on rereads. This’ll sound corny but, for an example, when I reread Harry Potter I put energy into imagining it as an animation of the Mary Grandpre illustrations. It’s so charming.