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How you picture the world


JonArryn

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I have a question to all you avid readers out there. How do you imagine the world and more importantly, the people in it when you read? Do you see everything knifesharp and can make out the eye-color when you imagine or does it come more like a blurry face and you have a finger feeling on what they look like. Do you see everything they do or notice more after a while? And do the characters change when you read or is the picture of them always the same? Do the environment change or are they similar?

I'm wondering since I sometimes see them clear and sometimes blurry. And with the castles it is hard. I imagine pretty similar castles in most cases. Some faces are clearer than other.

So, how do you see these books?

Ollieowl

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For me, some people I see really clearly and some people I see blurry. As I keep reading my perception of them changes and even though the basic idea is the same, the details get more and more filled in. One reason I don't like to watch the tv show is because my mental picture of some characters is at risk of changing. For some characters there is a specific detail about them I always picture. With Jorah Mormont, for example, I always imagine him having hairy arms like a bear. When I saw the tv show I was like Woah! Not how I pictured his face (he's way better looking in the tv show) but no matter what, his arms are what stand out to me.

Other characters I see clearly because they remind me of someone else, like Melisandre is the Queen of the desert from Fire Emblem. http://fireemblemwiki.org/images/9/9f/FESS_Ismaire.png With a ruby at her throat, I just can't picture her any other way.

There are only a few characters I have formed my own mental images of from just my in-book impressions, and Jon Snow is one. I wish I could draw and show everyone my vision of Snow! But I know I wouldn't get it right.

Right now I'm re-reading Game of Thrones and I'm startled by how much better I can picture Winterfell. I'm sure this will be true of the other castles and settings. My first time around it was more like, "Winterfell=Snow Castle. Riverrun, by a river. Eyrie in the mountains. Got it." I didn't pay much attention to the details. Now I'm realizing how huge these castles are. Winterfell has like a three acre Godswood in the courtyard? And all the Godswood are different, and show the personalities of the castles that house them.

I find reading way more satisfying as it exercises the imagination, and the more I do it the stronger the visions become.

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I picture it kind of like Martin describes it, especially people. I don't imagine locations with the same detail as people, though. Some characters I imagined just as they look like in the show, like Melisandre or Tyrion, but others I imagined very differently, like Davos ( who I imagined as slightly younger, with more and less grizzled hair and with less beard) and Jon ( I pictured him without beard and with shoulder lenght dark brown hair).

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For me, some people I see really clearly and some people I see blurry. As I keep reading my perception of them changes and even though the basic idea is the same, the details get more and more filled in. One reason I don't like to watch the tv show is because my mental picture of some characters is at risk of changing. For some characters there is a specific detail about them I always picture. With Jorah Mormont, for example, I always imagine him having hairy arms like a bear. When I saw the tv show I was like Woah! Not how I pictured his face (he's way better looking in the tv show) but no matter what, his arms are what stand out to me.

Other characters I see clearly because they remind me of someone else, like Melisandre is the Queen of the desert from Fire Emblem. http://fireemblemwik...ESS_Ismaire.png With a ruby at her throat, I just can't picture her any other way.

There are only a few characters I have formed my own mental images of from just my in-book impressions, and Jon Snow is one. I wish I could draw and show everyone my vision of Snow! But I know I wouldn't get it right.

Right now I'm re-reading Game of Thrones and I'm startled by how much better I can picture Winterfell. I'm sure this will be true of the other castles and settings. My first time around it was more like, "Winterfell=Snow Castle. Riverrun, by a river. Eyrie in the mountains. Got it." I didn't pay much attention to the details. Now I'm realizing how huge these castles are. Winterfell has like a three acre Godswood in the courtyard? And all the Godswood are different, and show the personalities of the castles that house them.

I find reading way more satisfying as it exercises the imagination, and the more I do it the stronger the visions become.

You have a good point there. the more you read the better you imagine, and that is basically what is my experience. The more I read the better i get at imagining different settings, and that's kind of the charm. When i first read A Clash of Kings i just read it quickly and had the characters from the show. But now when I am in A Feast for Crows i take my time and imagine different things, and that makes the book better. So I can certainly see how the second read will open up the world and vision even more. But a good thing is of course to take people you have seen that resemble or fit the character and then bend them a little.

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I picture it kind of like Martin describes it, especially people. I don't imagine locations with the same detail as people, though. Some characters I imagined just as they look like in the show, like Melisandre or Tyrion, but others I imagined very differently, like Davos ( who I imagined as slightly younger, with more and less grizzled hair and with less beard) and Jon ( I pictured him without beard and with shoulder lenght dark brown hair).

That is what makes the books better. You can create your own images, but the series have everything staked out beforehand. But I agree with you on Davos. The guy is a great actor, but i thought of him a little smaller and less intimidating. A bit like Gary Oldman. Another character that was very different was Margaery Tyrell. The girl in the series look like she's elder than Loras. In the fourth book his protecting of her is a big thing, so they have ruined that a bit.

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Well i saw the T.V. Show First So a lot of the characters are forced for me to see the actors playing them instead of what is described in the books, but yes the character's are still hazy for me until a few chapters of personality are shown.but i enjoy the "facelessness" sometimes i'd rather keep em faceless until like i said More personality is shown.

OllieOwl said it best "That is what makes the books better. You can create your own images"

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Well, yes even I formed my opinions on my own. But yes the TV series does affect a lot of it. Mostly my image of Tyrion was affected. But yeah also I have a lot of blurry faces especially of minor characters. Bran's is quite vivid image as of Jojen and Meera. Ygritte was quite vivid as were many wildlings especially because they were very well described in the books, so yeah they're mixed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have my own opinions on some I suppose but with the show now I can't really help but picture them as they actors they portray for the most part.

With something real to reference such as the show it makes it so easy to picture scenes in your head though. Obviously being far ahead of the series I have to come up with some people on my own which is always fun too.

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  • 5 weeks later...

God I wish I'd never seen the show before I started reading the books.

It is extremely difficult, now, to get the actors faces out of my head and I even hear their voices when I read conversations in the book. A curse, I say, a curse. A pox on that show! I mean I like the show but IMO it in no way compares to the books. Even the ugly characters from the books are attractive in the show. Brienne? Really? And you know they aren't going to show Tyrion with 1/2 his nose cut off in future episodes.

Martin describes people as the majority really are: most average or ugly and a smaller percent attractive. However, I have to say most, not all, of the power players are attractive in the book. There are also alot of maimed characters who received their scars from the realities of life: battles, jousts, thieves & muggers, illness etc.

I agree that some characters are much more hazy than others. I think that's owing to how detailed GRRM's desription is or whether the character has one oustanding feature - Tywin's green eyes w/gold flecks, Dany's lavendar eyes & silver hair, Tyrion's different colored eyes & of course short stature, Euron's eye patch and blue lips and on and on.

The castles have sort of blended together for me as well. Trying to envision the 30 hearths in the great hall of Harenhall is challenging, the sheer size of Winterfell or the Wall is awe inspiring.

In my thirst to move ahead with the story, I have let so many of these details fall to the wayside.

I definitely plan a re-read or 2 or 3. Only then do I feel I'll be able to enjoy the richness of the world GRRM creates. To read & re-read ASoIF is like adding layer after layer of color to a masterpiece.

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To be honest, most of the characters I imagine look like their actor counterparts. I actually think most of them fit perfectly, and I think Jon is better off with black hair rather than dark brown. I actually imagine Tyrion as more grotesque than he appears in the series, though, especially after his rather unsympathetic character turn in book three for some reason. As for places, I mostly just use what I'm given as for details about castles and towns, and just create a visual setting in my mind that works.

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