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When Imagination Rejects Description, What Happens?

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  • When Imagination Rejects Description, What Happens?

    So I was thinking the other day about my favorite characters for whom I have my ownHowl's Moving Castle I have in my head is of a wizard with a longish white beard (it's quite nice-looking) with a youngish face. This is despite the fact that DWJ specifically said that Howl is a ginger. (And his hair briefly[Warning: Young Wizards Examples Ahead. ]

    what? there ain't no logic!). Even when I was really young, really old people were in their fifties and sixties and seventies. Once Tom started speaking, I thought he was probably much younger than that (late thirties/forties), but I still haven't managed to throw off the beard, or the white hair color, in my imagination. It probably doesn't help that he's the Californian, because that, combined with the beard image, immediately reminded me in mind of sandals, hippies and Santa Cruz. Although he could be from San Francisco. In other words, the combination wasn't unlikely enough to revise the image: in fact, it made it stronger.

    The people of Mars from C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy also look just like Pralaya to me. (The fanart DD posted today put me in mind of it.) I definitely read the Space Trilogy after the YW books, so.... I think they are both furry mammalian aliens, kind of a cross between an otter and a sea lion. With extra legs.

    [Examples over.]

    I am quite sure I am not alone in this experience of having my imagination gallop way ahead of description, making up something completely different from the scene that was probably intended. Maybe you don't tend to do this with characters, but with scenery; or not with X, but with Y... Also, as I've demonstrated, the pictures in my imagination tend to bleed through one work to another.

    So I am curious: what are your most spectacular and colorful experiences with this?
    10
    Main Characters: Kit, Nita, Dairine
    0.00%
    0
    Family: Harry, Betty, Kit's parents, Helen, Carmela, Ponch
    0.00%
    0
    Feline Wizards (Rhiow and co.) or the Cetacean Wizards (S'reee and co.)
    20.00%
    2
    Advisors/Seniors: Tom Swale or Carl Romeo
    10.00%
    1
    Friends: Ronan, Darryl
    20.00%
    2
    Irish Wizards and "Little People"
    10.00%
    1
    Exchange Wizards: Roshaun, Filif, Sker'ret, Quelt
    10.00%
    1
    The Powers, the Transcendent Pig / Chao, the Peridexis
    10.00%
    1
    Playroom Wizards (TWD) and Crossings Aliens: Pralaya, Kkirl, and others
    20.00%
    2
    "Inanimates": The Lotus, Ed the white hole, fridge lettuce, meteorites, rocks, plants, etc.
    0.00%
    0


  • #2
    Great thread!

    I also tend to equate people in books with people I've seen in real life. For example, a friend's dad's name is Tom. Tom's a little less than average height, average build, short, dark, curly hair, handsome, usually cleanshaven but sometimes has a beard, has a calm, gentle, soothing voice (perfect for an advisory/senior), and the same type of dry, sarcastic humor that Tom Swale does. Carl's harder for me to picture because I don't have anyone in real life to equate him to, except perhaps my friend who's 6'4", muscular, and Arian. However, the way he speaks and the way Carl speaks are different.

    Whenever I think of the Lone Power, I envision Father from the TV show Kids Next Door, especially in SYWTBAW, when they're in that dark, scary world, and even though the Lone One is described as a handsome young man, I still envision the flaming silhouette of Father. And when I read dialogue by the Lone One, I mentally read it with Father's voice (an example of it here at 10:05 for 5 minutes will give you a good idea, including his humility towards the end).
    Last edited by EricG1793; March 29, 2013, 12:23:26 PM.
    "...Some of growing up is the knitting together of our cognitive webs, and some things take time and experience to make sense...." - Taran

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    • #3
      Originally posted by dorotheia View Post
      For example, the image of book-version Howl from Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle I have in my head is of a wizard with a longish white beard (it's quite nice-looking) with a youngish face. This is despite the fact that DWJ specifically said that Howl is a ginger. (And his hair briefly
      A beard, really? I kind of like that image, to tell the truth! My Howl looks like the book, I think, but my Martha keeps coming out chubby and short when she's supposed to be just a little wider than the very slim Lettie. A very cute short and chubby, but still, Martha just seems like a bustly sort of name.

      And in DJW's Deep Secret, my Rupert Venebles is a lot older than his real age of 24- 40ish or thereabouts. I'm always surprised when I get to the bit where he tells the readers his age because he just seems so crusty, haha.

      Your Tom sounds just like mine, Eric! My Carl is short and swarthy- I can't remember if he is that way in the books? But I know I've never been happy with the way Nita looks on any of the covers except perhaps the AWAb green one where you can't see her face. (Who is the bald guy with his arm around her anyway? Is that supposed to be Ronan? *boggles*)

      Oh! I know my worst one! Poor Darryl. I skimmed AWAl when I first got it because I was so excited to read it and I somehow skipped the bit where it says he's African-American. So he came out vaguely Asian in my mind, since I have an Asian friend who resembles him somewhat in personality. And now no matter how much I try to force him to be the correct ethnicity in my head, I'm stuck with an Asian Darryl.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by SilveredBlue View Post
        (Who is the bald guy with his arm around her anyway? Is that supposed to be Ronan? *boggles*)
        I couldn't wrap my mind around that cover, either. Here's some discussion on it. The consensus was Ronan.

        http://www.youngwizards.com/forums/f...e-me-1144.html

        I also missed the fact that Darryl was African-American! Either it was mentioned on the forum or I caught it upon rereading... but I had to reimagine him after that.

        My original Darryl image was of a boy somewhat big for his age with medium-length straight blond hair. Sounds like a total contradiction of the truth! LOL
        Last edited by EricG1793; May 21, 2013, 09:47:48 PM.
        "...Some of growing up is the knitting together of our cognitive webs, and some things take time and experience to make sense...." - Taran

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