Sixth Post!

[hoisinsauce]

"The thing about illegally breeding fire-breathing possums is that you gotta keep a bucket of water handy."

*Those fools! Fire-breathing possums are greasy; water will only feed the flames! Oh, if only I could tell them of my empire...*

(Context: https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/1839.html?thread=2678831#cmt2678831)

Talk fandom! Making things! Reading, writing, drawing, whatever! Miscellaneous life chatter! Meme's happy to see you again!

(start a comment thread by replying to this post)

Comments

Re: Interesting Things

[(Anonymous)]

(non)aphantasia thread: https://twitter.com/hatpinwoman/status/1595856686803472384

I know intellectually that there are people who don't have aphantasia but I still lowkey think it's fucking insane that people can do this.

Re: Interesting Things

[(Anonymous)]

Wait so you can't picture objects? What about faces?

Re: Interesting Things

[(Anonymous)]

It's hard to describe; I didn't realise it was different for me until I saw descriptions like hers. I can *recognise* things, but I can't really picture them. I have a sort of sense of what they look like, but it's kind of like the image has been retrieved but I don't have conscious access to it. So I get something like a flash, and the memory of having seen an image, without being able to see it, if that makes any sense. I remember colours and whereabout things are in 3d space, and I remember visual details I consciously make a note of when I'm looking at things, though I can't recreate them directly in my mind. So if I've consciously processed an object with propositional knowledge ("this leaf starts narrow then flares wide, with a serrated edge"), I could draw it. But if I'd just seen it and hadn't made a special note of the properties, I couldn't, because I can't call up the image. It's not like absolutely 0 visual data, but it's very different from what she describes, more like a bunch of associations floating around. Unfortunately, the way to describe it is kinda maddening, because you go "I can't picture an apple, just the idea of an apple", and that makes people go "*what*?" :P

Re: Interesting Things

[(Anonymous)]

So I can't picture my mother's face, but I can tell you "she has a big nose" or her hairstyle/colour. But if you asked me to draw her, there are a lot of features I wouldn't know the shape of, and even if I did, I wouldn't know how they were proportioned against each other. Whereas if you put her picture in front of me, I could copy it well enough that I'd make a likeness others would recognise.

Re: Interesting Things

[(Anonymous)]

And I DO picture colors, and sounds, and smells (faintly). Which is part of how I know a big chunk of my visual stuff is missing. I live in an impressionist blur lol.

Re: Interesting Things

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

I second the other anon saying they can picture things but it's vague and more details take more effort. I wonder if there's much of a spectrum to this.

Re: Interesting Things

[(Anonymous)]

That's really interesting. I get what you mean, because I do recall things as a collection of disparate impressions and verbal definitions and I wouldn't be able to draw an accurate rendition of my mother's face even if I tried.

But I can definitely picture an apple in my head and then put it in a bowl. It's vague, though. The bowl doesn't have a color unless I consciously think about it, for example. I think I probably just have a poor visual memory, which matches with what I've noticed about my preferred learning style.