I’m currently reading Terry Goodkind’s Stone of Tears. It’s the second book in the Sword of Truth series, and I enjoy them very much. As I finished a chapter, I set the book down to take a little break and think about it. The unexpected thoughts came when I looked at the book cover and looked at the artist’s representation of the characters. I looked at it and thought, “Hmm.. I didn’t think that person had a beard…” and started wondering what I did think about him.
Many times people have asked me about certain characters, and how they are displayed vs what I see in my head reading the book. A good example is Strider from Lord of the Rings. I always end up avoiding the subject since I never really had an image.. but I never really thought about it before.
I decided that I don’t really have an image of him. I would recognize him if I saw him in context, but I couldn’t describe him per se. When I read the book, I don’t see the scene played before my eyes like some put it. I see it play out, but as for the people speaking, I know them by their being.. their conciousness, I guess. I don’t have a better way of explaining it than that. It’s just interesting for me to think about it, though. I guess life would be a nicer place if we could see other people like that. Not what they are, but who they are. Maybe that’s what life will be like after death. I guess I’ll know that answer someday, but for now I think I perfer reading my books.

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Filed under: Uncategorized - @ December 3, 2003 2:27 am