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 have aphantasia and I have no internal dialogue (unless I force it, so like I can read in my head). You could argue this effects the writing style/genres I enjoy.
My writing style preference is similar to /u/Plant-Nearby . Descriptions using all the senses creating atmosphere and vibes is way more important then just visual description. At times when authors harp on visual description heavily, like going on for paragraphs, I end up quickly skimming it before I even realize what I am doing.
I have found that I like books that are set/have a basis in the real world in some fashion. This means that high fantasy is just not my thing but I do love magical realism, sci-fi (to an extent), speculative and historical fiction. My hesitance toward high fantasy is mostly based in feeling overwhelmed or lost rather then entertained. It feels like I missed some pages as I don’t have the context of the real world. Regarding comics/manga I do like those but they are definitely not the main source of my reading.
Though, I am not sure if this is just my preference or if it has to do with how my brain works. I personally loves these kind of discussions, but I just like talking about my weird brain which is the definition of “empty”.