One to Ponder

[gwendolyngrace]

Okay, so here's something to think about.

The other night, Joel and I were talking about living alone and the high (IMO) density of people who talk to themselves when they live alone or spend a lot of time alone. In the Gweniverse, I'm never completely alone, though, because character-muses constantly provide the opposing voice in my internal dialogue. Like Tom Hanks' character in Cast Away anthropomorphizes "Wilson," I think we as humans need someone to bounce off of, even when that someone is a figment of imagination.

So we're talking about this, and I was saying that it's often characters from books, or TV or movies, and I mentioned how driving is a huge opportunity for this process, and how often these days Will Laurence or Temeraire are my co-pilots (Temeraire because he's a very fun conversationalist and Laurence because he occupies that lovely "straight man" capacity), and that when Granby's in the back seat it's even worse.

And Joel, who's just read His Majesty's Dragon, said he didn't know who Granby was - because, as he put it, he'd "never heard the word pronounced." I said that he'd read the book - he should recognize the name.

And then he said that he never internalizes the pronunciation of proper nouns and names while he's reading things.

I find that fascinating and impossible. I asked about maps: Does he "hear" the pronunciation of streets and such when reading the map? No. He "sees" them as glyphs and then looks for the glyph that matches the picture in his memory.

Bzuh?

So... what we want to know is how anomalous that is, or whether I'm the one who's odd in always figuring out how to say people and place-names when I'm reading. I've known for a long, long time that I prefer to "hear" the words spoken in my head as I read - it's one of the reasons I'm a slow reader - but is that "normal" or is it more normal to take in the word without an attempt to "speak" it and then simply recognize it on repetition? Is it a difference in thought? Teaching? Or actual brain process?

Discuss.

Comments

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

And then he said that he never internalizes the pronunciation of proper nouns and names while he's reading things.

He's not an aural processor (probably visual or possibly kinesthetic). You, on the other hand, are almost certainly an aural processor.

It's simply a matter of what sense is dominate. People vary, with most being visual or aural to one degree or another -- primary kinesthetics are not quite as common, but still normal. It's probably intrinsic to each individual brain, though I'm sure teaching can push one to expand a non-dominant sense.

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

I was going to say--I hear everything from a book in my head and really NEED to know how to say things. When I find out I'm wrong (or the author seems to have it wrong, LOL) it's somewhat annoying to me. I'm definitely an aural processor, although I think I do a lot of visual processing, too. (Hazard, I suppose, of being both a visual artist and a singer/composer/musician).

I can't imagine someone like Chris actually not knowing who Granby might be if we both read the book; I've had instances when I've pronounced something differently than Chris when we've read the same thing (he made a real hash from "Scrimgeour") but once I've said it he says something like, "Oh, is that how it's pronounced?" He doesn't actually have to know while he's reading or just decides on something without caring whether it's the way others would say it, but he knew who I was talking about when I said the name.

This kind of reminds me of people with synthesia expecting everyone else to think of the number eight as "blue" or Tuesday as "orange"; they do it automatically, it's a natural response, and the idea that everyone else doesn't perceive the world that way is very strange to them. Those with synthesia are rarer than aural processors but it sounds like Joel might be an anti-aural processor (most people do it at least a little), so no wonder you were baffled by this, Gwen, since I would expect you to be a really strong aural processor.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

I do visually process things now and then - I have extremely good recall skills, and for example in my art appreciation classes in school I could memorize the looks of various artists MUCH more quickly than my classmates (and to this day can tell a Rothko or a Miro or a Vasarely by a very quick visual). I also recognize faces extremely well and can frequently remember the context in which I know a person, say a 2nd- or 3rd-tier actor in a show, I can recognize them from a different movie or television program and half the time tell you who they played.

I also write my lines longhand when I'm memorizing them, but I also listen to them and gain a HUGE amount of sense memory once blocking is added.

But yeah, I'm with you on the reading thing. And I certainly wouldn't have expected someone to not even recognize a major character on *hearing* the name, even if he hadn't bothered to figure out how to pronounce it beforehand.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I prefer to think he's a freak. :)

Nah, I get that some people are more visual than others, but what threw me was not supplying a pronunciation for someone's NAME, and more to the point, not even being able to register that name when heard. I mean... Iskierka - I can almost understand that one. But Granby? pretty simple.

(Then again I remember A doing sometime similar a couple years ago because I mentioned Darfour and she gets her news primarily from websites, so had never heard it pronounced and didn't realize that's how it was pronounced. It's still weird!)

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

*I* am primarily kinesthetic and secondarily visual and thus don't bother figuring out how novel-to-me names are pronounced if I'm merely reading them. 'Granby' wouldn't throw me, but reading a biography of Genghis Khan, I didn't spend energy on figuring out how to say most of the names -- I knew the shape of them, which is the point for reading about them.

Frankly, I think people who are primarily aural are 'weird', but I've never called my friends who are so 'freaks'.