This morning, I realized for the first time that my partner of 11 years has aphantasia–difficulty picturing things in his mind’s eye. I, on the other hand, have a very vivid mental camera.
I started thinking about our different reading preferences and wondering to what degree our mind’s eyes affect them. I read a lot of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror in paperback and audio. My partner is a voracious reader of comics, graphic novels, and manga.
We also have different writing styles. I like to focus on the environment in my writing, and my partner often focuses on mechanics.
So I’m wondering: do you have aphantasia or not, or something in between? What do you like to read, and how does your inner perception affect the way you engage with the books?
i don’t have any pictures or anything else that is a distraction in my head. no internal monologue. nothing but the words i’m reading. i read mostly classics. older horror/scifi/fantasy too. i’ve been reading a lot of current genre fiction recently. my all time favorite author is nathaniel hawthorne and he wrote the heck out of some excessively long sentences. love dostoevsky and steinbeck as well. i don’t like anything gross cuz despite not seeing it in my head i will get sick feeling. like some of grady hendrix’s books have disgusting crap in them and i’d love to just shake him and tell him to calm himself. i love ghost stories and other things that are more atmospheric or psychological.