Recently found out Andy Weir has Aphantasia. AKA the mental inability to visualise images.Anybody read his books like Project Hail Mary or the Martian?Intrrested how an author who literally cannot imagine how something looks writes stories. Is the description heavily different?
>>25292541He does describe things in obsessive detail, but I thought that was because he's an autistic science nerd. But if he can't imagine it, then it makes sense for him to describe things like he's reading from a technical manual. I'll admit that at some point I just gave up trying to visualize what he was describing myself because it was just too complicated for me.
>>25292541>Andy Weir is an NPC Redditor.color me shocked.
>>25292866H.G.Wells (pbuh) tried to warn us. STEMlet faggots are proto morlocks.
Wait, you people actually imagine the book scenes in your mind?Why? Sounds like an inefficient detour.
>>25292904you sound like a waste of space.
>>25292905wow, that was uncalled for
>>25292928much like every single book Andy Weir had published.
>>25292904No? It's easiest to write that way. You just describe the movie in your head.>>25292930Fuckin LOL
>>25292933i have ideas in my head, not movieslike, how would you even do it. If you think about marxism, do you have a picture of karl marx in your head? Of 19th century worker uprising?I have the idea of class warfare in my head. Of dialectic materialism
>>25292946You are not special shut the fuck up we are talking about books
>>25292957i am sorry if my reply offended you, friend
>>25292541I have aphantasia and we can still imagine things, just not really in the same way, I guess. It's hard to describe, but I still dream so I know how other people visualize things. We just visualize it more in thoughts and ideas than in actual pictures I suppose. When I read I just keep in my mind for example, the beach: sand, windy, wood hut, hot, sweat, walking, etc. not in words but in thoughts I picked up from the text. Sort of visualizing it in words & ideas, which I already said
>>25292946Personally I do sort of imagine semirelated stuff when I read more conceptual work. If I'm reading about metaphysics or political things, I'll think of basic symbols or charts, or scenes where the thing at hand is prevalent.
>>25292541I refuse to believe anybody with an IQ above 65 cannot visualize and rotate an apple by age 25.
>>25292541>Has aphantasiaYou mean you found out he's a retard?
>>25293020>>25293026I have Aphantasia and my IQ is 126
>>25292971>>25292541Isn't it normal and context dependent ? I mean sometimes it's just better to think in concepts and sometimes it's better to visualise no ?
>>25292971stop self-diagnosing with made up undiagnosable diseases. It's impossible to know what anyone sees in their mind, everyone flexing the apples in their heads are actually comparing what they expect to be seen. You were duped into thinking you should see rotating vapor wave 3d objects like an unreal engine demo in your head.If this shit is real then I don't actually see colors I see written text in all objects saying the name of the colors. You can't say I don't teehee.>inb4 >t. aphantasia haverFUCK YOU
>>25293031So, I guess that makes it very hard to accept that you are a retard.
>>25293044the definition of retardation is an iq below 75, right? So I can't be retarded
>>25293048But you can still be a retard. Your inability to understand this makes me think you should repeat the test.
>>25293041Anon this is a topic in neurology that has been studied plenty. Most people can see things in their heads like picrel that's just how it is. It's not a problem of perception because I dream so I know how visualization looks to other people. t. aphantasia haver
>>25293054>But you can still be a retard.how?
>>25292946do you dream?
>>25293068yeah, though I don't remember my dreams most of the time.
>>25293056what if I can only visualize in pieces?
>>25292541That explains a lot. I only read PHM but I found his description of the ship both highly technical and hard to parse, which would make sense if he knew the material details of how each part of the ship functioned together but lacked the ability to sum it all up in a way that is easy for the reader to grab onto. At a certain point I just took the spout of science and equipment at face value and didn't really think about what it was all meant to look like
>>25293079What does that mean? Like you have to focus on just one bit at a time, like just a keyboard in a room rather than the whole room?
>>25293058You know.
>>25293100Like an apple for example. I can imagine the shape, the size, the colour, the texture, the leaf, but they're all unconnected. Sometimes I can add two aspects together, on occasion even three, but if I try to put it all together, it just all falls apart. I find this very upsetting.
>>25293100>>25293113I also have to do it over and over again. I can't keep the images in my head more than a second or two.
>>25293070are your dreams visual or more conceptual?
>>25293113Pretty interesting. I have no idea lol. It's to be expected that not everyone visualizes things the same way, so there's nothing wrong with you. But I always imagined everyone sees images/videos in their heads about the same way, so there has to be a lot of people that visualize things in so many different ways. I wonder how much this kind of thing has been studied? I never imagined visualization to have the same variety as zebra stripes or finger prints, everyone having their own way
>>25293131"images/videos" sounds like visual input, i mean imagining static things and moving things from the words you read obv
>>25293113>>25293115purely a matter of practice, think of it like a muscle you're working out. it may also help to do more basic exercises like simply imagining a square or a triangle, and then progressively adding elements
>>25293130I am not sure. It feels like stuff happens and in the moment I can't differentiate the dreams from real life, but I don't have like a vivid image in front of my eyes.Perhaps it is a bit like reading a book?
>>25293147interesting. when reading dialogue, do you give the characters different voices?
>>25293151no, and frankly i find it distracting when audiobooks use different voice actors.I think, in my head, I focus more on different characters having different internal world model, different personalities and different informations available to them.
>>25292902/thread
>>25293113>>25293115post your hands now you protoniggers
>>25293115similar for me. the way I would describe it is that I have to keep "touching" the shapes in my mind. like a sort of echo location that I need to constantly update
whole lot of failed writers ITT envious he's making money and you're cleaning tables in a San Mateo IHOP
>>25296383be sure to remember this when some lib white women gets ultra famous for anti-white rhetoric
No wonder literary porn has become so niche. When I read something my imagination involves all five senses. I couldn't imagine reading a novel and not seeing it in my mind's eye as basically a super realistic and immersive movie, with sight, sounds, tactile feel of things in the scene, scents and smells, taste if it involves food, etc.
>>25296364Yes! That's a great analogy.
>>25292964You ain't my friend.
>>25292541I don't believe this. Asimov I could believe had aphantasia because he writes like he does, very rarely describes how things look in any detail, very honed in on ideas.Andy Weir describes how things look at exactly the rate you would expect of any normal writer, not just in a functional, technical sense necessary to understand what's happening, but to an extent that only serves mental imagery. He goes out of his way to describe what the alien looks like.
>>25292946You're kinda confusing the discussion. You might imagine imagery reading more abstract non fiction or you might not, but what's mainly being talked about here is reading fiction, where characters are in specific places doing specific things. Do you not see how that could benefit from picturing it?
