Moving to a different post—I had no idea that aphantasia was so common?
I can easily visualize things “in my mind’s eye”. I don’t see it with my actual eyeballs, but I can clearly picture what things look like, either from memory or from a description of them. I can imagine vivid colors and shapes and scenery, and when I read or listen to an audiobook, it’s like a film reel is playing inside my head. If the description is confusing, sparse, or poorly written, the imagined images just aren’t as detailed.
If you have aphantasia, how does non-visual fiction compel you? If there is a description of how something looks, do you get anything out of that at all or is it just irritating word clutter?
Like, if you’re reading a book and you come across a passage like
The stranger stepped into the shelter of the cave and pulled off her sodden hood. Her brown face was lined but not yet old, the creases in her brow the result of a hard life rather than a long one. Her shorn hair was prematurely gray, but her eyes were sharp and yellow as an osprey’s.
Do you get something out of that, or do you just zone out, and would you rather read something straightforward and free of visual descriptors, like
The stranger was a middle-aged woman, weary beyond her years, but fierce and intelligent.
(via witchydarling)