When I read, I enter another world. Sometimes, I have trouble re-entering the real world. If there is a movie adaptation of the book, I most often won't see it so that I can avoid spoiling my own mental imagery. A good example of this is Harry Potter. I won't watch the movies because my own imagery is so vivid.
Overall, I agree with you about the power of books to stimulate one's imagination; however, if inspiration is another word for imagination, I'd add music, especially classical music as a nudge to my own writing inspiration...a recent house concert of of a pianist playing Beethoven and Schubert pieces 'took me away' and I found myself re-imagining the second half of a manuscript I'd been musing over unsuccessfully for a few weeks...I still relished the music being played but my mind discovered a new angle on a plot line...of course, any Beatles song is inspiring, too...
I completely agree, Stewart, and it’s classical music for me, too. Beethoven (Symphonies 6 and 7), Handel (Water Music), Respighi (Ancient Airs and Dances), Dvorak (Symphony #9 From the New World), Holst (The Planets) and many others. They transport me.
Totally agree! As a child, we used our imaginations but as adults not quite so much. However, when we read as adults, we can once again employ
our imaginations to visualize the characters, setting etc. And often seeing a movie after reading a book is disappointing as one has their own ideas about what the characters look like and the setting etc. Thanks for your insight into this topic….always enjoy reading your substack articles.
I love movies like The Sixth Sense, The Crying Game, and Arrival that pull the carpet out from under the viewer. It’s not just the surprise ending, it’s that everything you have seen needs to be reevaluated. These movies play with the viewers’ passivity.
Of course, books (especially mysteries) do that too.
Thank you for providing such an in-depth overview of how the arts stimulate our imaginations. i had never thought about how my imagination pairs with your writing skills to receive the full value of your writing skills in each one of your amazing books, Jan.
While I entirely agree with your comments about active and passive engagement, I'd be interested in your views about screenplays. In many respects, I read most books as a (sort of) a screenplay. And, just as a book can be adapted into a screenplay, which then allows the director to sketch in the key details, the mark of a good book is that it allows you to (effectively cut out the middle man and) immediately act as the director yourself. Just a thought.
I agree with what you're saying about reading, and I'm really interested in what and how a writer decides to describe something, from a setting to a character. How much detail is needed? And which facets need to be described with more than a word or two? I like books that assume I'm smart and can put a few things together. I love the way Mick Herron will spend quite a while describing the decrepit offices of the slow horses, but might just describe a stain on a tie to give you information about a character.
As for movies, as a big fan of Lord of the Rings books, I went to see the first Peter Jackson movie with some trepidation, because reading the books I had some very specific standards in my mind about how Middle Earth looked, how it felt. I was put at ease in the first half hour of watching; Peter Jackson had put on the screen a very faithful interpretation (allowing that telling a story in a book is not the same as telling it on a screen: different mediums, different paths to the emotions) of how the story and characters looked in my mind.
I think it started with the child’s game ‘let’s pretend’. Imagination and originality is a potion we all secretly carry inside our brains. It’s right up there with singing out loud and not caring if you are out of key . At least that is how I see when reading a book.
I love the transformation and the way it captures my imagination, especially when it is original .
If it’s a good book, I will turn on the bedside table light and finish it first.
I agree about reading, of course. But I have been amazed at my 'spoken word' experiences lately. I attend staged readings at a local theatre, and although the actors are mostly seated in front of the stand on which the script lies, I look back on the productions and I can see the set vividly. There are a couple of productions that make me question whether I have actually seen the fully staged play! Isn't it wonderful?
Oh. I SO needed to read this. I lost a manuscript I'd been working on - feels like forever - when I failed to save it in truly separate places(instead of a USB stick and the PC into which it was plugged). Since then, I can't seem to get back in the groove, despite having actual print copies of most of it! A few days ago I realized I no longer IMAGINED the story. Maybe because it was mostly told already, or I need a spark to boot it up again, or my life has started to imitate my art.
I think I need to read more of the stuff that stimulated my imagination; take more lonely walks so I can dream; and turn off the pablum on TV.
HI Terry: I love movies too but reading brings me even greater pleasure. When I read I'm whisked away like magic into another place and time with characters I might never meet in real life. Sometimes it feels like I'm experiencing a movie while at others I'm so immersed in the story, it's as if it's all happening to me - like I'm a character in the book.
Recently I wrote a couple of fun short poems about this experience for an art show where the exhibit was set up like a home. One of the areas was a book nook and this is what I wrote:
Ah, but what about audio books? Can we argue that they are also a more passive form of entertainment and enjoyment than the physical reading of the printed page?
Reading, movies, art in general -- I think they're all a form of spirituality. They help us connect with something bigger. Not only can you connect with the artist, you connect with the others who are enjoying the art as well through movie theatre experiences, book readings, gallery openings...
Most importantly, good art helps you connect with yourself, I think. Working out your imagination opens up new realizations about the world we live in, and in turn how we individually interact with that world. It also opens new possibilities... Maybe that is art's most important function...
Speaking of working out the imagination, I think you may have sparked another post for me, Terry! I was (am?) a chronic over-explainer in my fiction. I like to set the table right down to the lead crystal wine glass, beflowered "Secret Garden" Wedgwood plates, pink rose centrepieces, silver cutlery, and pearl-coloured napkins.
When I read, I enter another world. Sometimes, I have trouble re-entering the real world. If there is a movie adaptation of the book, I most often won't see it so that I can avoid spoiling my own mental imagery. A good example of this is Harry Potter. I won't watch the movies because my own imagery is so vivid.
Precisely! Thanks Melanie.
Overall, I agree with you about the power of books to stimulate one's imagination; however, if inspiration is another word for imagination, I'd add music, especially classical music as a nudge to my own writing inspiration...a recent house concert of of a pianist playing Beethoven and Schubert pieces 'took me away' and I found myself re-imagining the second half of a manuscript I'd been musing over unsuccessfully for a few weeks...I still relished the music being played but my mind discovered a new angle on a plot line...of course, any Beatles song is inspiring, too...
I completely agree, Stewart, and it’s classical music for me, too. Beethoven (Symphonies 6 and 7), Handel (Water Music), Respighi (Ancient Airs and Dances), Dvorak (Symphony #9 From the New World), Holst (The Planets) and many others. They transport me.
Totally agree! As a child, we used our imaginations but as adults not quite so much. However, when we read as adults, we can once again employ
our imaginations to visualize the characters, setting etc. And often seeing a movie after reading a book is disappointing as one has their own ideas about what the characters look like and the setting etc. Thanks for your insight into this topic….always enjoy reading your substack articles.
Many thanks, Darlyne. We are on the same page!
As for movies being passive, not always…
I love movies like The Sixth Sense, The Crying Game, and Arrival that pull the carpet out from under the viewer. It’s not just the surprise ending, it’s that everything you have seen needs to be reevaluated. These movies play with the viewers’ passivity.
Of course, books (especially mysteries) do that too.
I quite agree. There are definitely some films that do that to us., and plenty of books that don’t.
Thank you for providing such an in-depth overview of how the arts stimulate our imaginations. i had never thought about how my imagination pairs with your writing skills to receive the full value of your writing skills in each one of your amazing books, Jan.
Thanks, Jan!
While I entirely agree with your comments about active and passive engagement, I'd be interested in your views about screenplays. In many respects, I read most books as a (sort of) a screenplay. And, just as a book can be adapted into a screenplay, which then allows the director to sketch in the key details, the mark of a good book is that it allows you to (effectively cut out the middle man and) immediately act as the director yourself. Just a thought.
I agree with what you're saying about reading, and I'm really interested in what and how a writer decides to describe something, from a setting to a character. How much detail is needed? And which facets need to be described with more than a word or two? I like books that assume I'm smart and can put a few things together. I love the way Mick Herron will spend quite a while describing the decrepit offices of the slow horses, but might just describe a stain on a tie to give you information about a character.
As for movies, as a big fan of Lord of the Rings books, I went to see the first Peter Jackson movie with some trepidation, because reading the books I had some very specific standards in my mind about how Middle Earth looked, how it felt. I was put at ease in the first half hour of watching; Peter Jackson had put on the screen a very faithful interpretation (allowing that telling a story in a book is not the same as telling it on a screen: different mediums, different paths to the emotions) of how the story and characters looked in my mind.
I think it started with the child’s game ‘let’s pretend’. Imagination and originality is a potion we all secretly carry inside our brains. It’s right up there with singing out loud and not caring if you are out of key . At least that is how I see when reading a book.
I love the transformation and the way it captures my imagination, especially when it is original .
If it’s a good book, I will turn on the bedside table light and finish it first.
I agree about reading, of course. But I have been amazed at my 'spoken word' experiences lately. I attend staged readings at a local theatre, and although the actors are mostly seated in front of the stand on which the script lies, I look back on the productions and I can see the set vividly. There are a couple of productions that make me question whether I have actually seen the fully staged play! Isn't it wonderful?
Oh. I SO needed to read this. I lost a manuscript I'd been working on - feels like forever - when I failed to save it in truly separate places(instead of a USB stick and the PC into which it was plugged). Since then, I can't seem to get back in the groove, despite having actual print copies of most of it! A few days ago I realized I no longer IMAGINED the story. Maybe because it was mostly told already, or I need a spark to boot it up again, or my life has started to imitate my art.
I think I need to read more of the stuff that stimulated my imagination; take more lonely walks so I can dream; and turn off the pablum on TV.
HI Terry: I love movies too but reading brings me even greater pleasure. When I read I'm whisked away like magic into another place and time with characters I might never meet in real life. Sometimes it feels like I'm experiencing a movie while at others I'm so immersed in the story, it's as if it's all happening to me - like I'm a character in the book.
Recently I wrote a couple of fun short poems about this experience for an art show where the exhibit was set up like a home. One of the areas was a book nook and this is what I wrote:
MY BOOK NOOK
I have a little corner,
a space that’s just for me,
where I can go adventuring
with a book set on my knee.
I can be a hero,
take on a fearsome foe,
solve a murder mystery,
live a life I’d never know.
A book can whisk me anywhere.
to lands both near and far,
to explore the future and the past,
or even meet a star.
A vanilla, grassy, nutty scent
draws me to my cozy nook,
the pages calling out to me.
from my favourite, next, best book.
W. Donabie
Sweet! This reminds me somewhat of RL Stevenson's poem The Land of Counterpane. Or maybe it's The Little Land of Counterpane. ...
Ah, but what about audio books? Can we argue that they are also a more passive form of entertainment and enjoyment than the physical reading of the printed page?
Reading, movies, art in general -- I think they're all a form of spirituality. They help us connect with something bigger. Not only can you connect with the artist, you connect with the others who are enjoying the art as well through movie theatre experiences, book readings, gallery openings...
Most importantly, good art helps you connect with yourself, I think. Working out your imagination opens up new realizations about the world we live in, and in turn how we individually interact with that world. It also opens new possibilities... Maybe that is art's most important function...
Speaking of working out the imagination, I think you may have sparked another post for me, Terry! I was (am?) a chronic over-explainer in my fiction. I like to set the table right down to the lead crystal wine glass, beflowered "Secret Garden" Wedgwood plates, pink rose centrepieces, silver cutlery, and pearl-coloured napkins.
But I'm getting better.