My racist imagination, when book characters change colour.

[splayfoot1]

Hello and welcome to my first thread here at the escapist. I have a thought/question/topic for discussion, and while it makes sense in my mind, I'm struggling to put it into words, so please bear with me. or skip the the TLR question at the end

Some background info.
I'm white (very), I don't consider myself racist, or maybe just a little.

The situation.
I recently started reading a new book series (the aldabreshin compass, its awesome, read it), what makes this book series unique to other books I've read is that every character so far has been dark skinned, be it black, brown or any variation.

The conflict.
Part way through I came to the realization that when I picture them in my head, most characters are a much paler version than described. For example the lead male character is dark skinned with brown wirey hair, and a female "northern barbarian" who appears later in the series is described as having golden brown skin and golden hair. and yet unless I really focus, I picture him as mediterranean, and her as a stereotypical scandinavian ski bunny.

The shocking twist.
Since I realized this I have tried to picture them all as they are described, ending up with an african tribesman look for him, and dark latino look for her. This seems to have given them more life, instead of being my generic fantasy characters, they have become much more real, and I have become more attached to them as characters, so I guess that means the author knew what they were doing.


TLR, the question at hand.
When you read a book, do you mentally picture the characters as they are described, or do they end up looking more like you, or a generic template? If you were to change how you picture them, would it change how you feel about them as a character?

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

That's Juliet McKenna's Southern Fire, Northern Storm, Western Shore, and Eastern Tide, right?

As for the topic proper: Until I got to anything like actual descriptions, my mental picture of most of the characters in the Earthsea Trilogy was pretty much "ambiguously brown." And the only reason it was even that definite was because of the implication (in the first chapter of the first book) that they were distinct from the big blond Viking-counterparts.

Also, I made the mistake of reading the second book in another trilogy first. One character was described as (and I paraphrase) "small, wiry, and ivory-skinned." Until I got my hands on the first book (and found out that he was supposed to be Japanese-American), I really had no clear picture of him at all.

 

[bobmus]

I tend to imagine very boring and generic looks in my head, only loosely based around what the book describes.

 

[Ciryher]

This is certainly something that happens with me all the time when I'm reading novels, and I think that it's actually one of the great things about the medium; for the most part you can imagine the characters as who you want them to be without the problems of casting actors etc.

I have to admit that occasionally this will cause a shock to me when there are events that only make sense if a character looks a particular way, but then after that I've redefined the character in my mind, and they're more developed because of that.

If I had to give a reason to this it would be because I live in a predominantly white culture, the majority of people I know look a few ways and I have an easier time relating to them. (I hope this doesn't sound racist, but it's far more an immersion thing). Also to an extent I find that unless it impacts the story (like explaining characters reactions to each other), I don't really care what the characters look like and I prefer to have my own cast.

To answer the original question, no it usually won't change how I feel about a character, and I can't think of a situation where it has, though I can't say it won't ever happen.

 

[splayfoot1]

That's Juliet McKenna's Southern Fire, Northern Storm, Western Shore, and Eastern Tide, right?

yep, brilliant books, initially I didn't think they were really my style, but I got completely absorbed, I'm near the end of book 3 and I want the series to go on forever

If I had to give a reason to this it would be because I live in a predominantly white culture, the majority of people I know look a few ways and I have an easier time relating to them. (I hope this doesn't sound racist, but it's far more an immersion thing).

I think this is similar to my situation, It just happens to be that my brains default mental image is light skin, which normally works fine, but with this book it started to seem a little odd, the person in the book and the person in my head just didn't quite sync up.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I do this all the time, Its easy to forget things about the description of a character when the author doesnt keep reminding you.

Ive imagined characters the wrong hair colour and the wrong skin colour plenty.

Ive been imagining this female assasin recently from A Dance Of Blades as blond and the author just put up some cover art on facebook where she has black hair...

I mixed her up with one of the other two women who were part of a small group called 'the faceless'. Those two ended up dead while Zusa went on to be an important character and I guess I mixed up the woman Zusa with one of them.

 

[geK0]

I came into this thread half expecting it to be complaining about Hunger Game characters : \

OT:

I usually imagine everyone as cartoon characters; don't know why, I just do.

 

[xshadowscreamx]

the morgan freeman character in shawshank redemption was white in the book

 

[splayfoot1]

I came into this thread half expecting it to be complaining about Hunger Game characters : \

I did hear about people raging about that, and did think about adding something in there, but as I haven't read or seen the hunger games, I thought it might just completely derail what I was trying to talk about.

 

[tippy2k2]

When I'm reading a book, characters tend to become famous actors/actresses/video game characters. I don't really know why I gravitate this way but it helps me to ground them in my own mind. The only time this doesn't happen is if their characteristic is a key part of what's going on (for example, in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series, a character is missing her legs from the knees down).

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I am indifferent about races, but I always have to imagine the main character having red hair.
To the point where I would copy an entire paragraph from the book where they describe the main character's hair colour and change it to red. Then read it again until I'm convinced.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I am indifferent about races, but I always have to imagine the main character having red hair.
To the point where I would copy an entire paragraph from the book where they describe the main character's hair colour and change it to red. Then read it again until I'm convinced.

Wait so you imagine non caucasians having red hair?

 

[Gabanuka]

For some reason I cant imagine main characters as fat. They're always skinny in my mine.

 

[Lukeje]

I have to admit not paying attention to the fact that a significant portion of the characters in the Earthsea npvels were dark-skinned and had imagined them in my head to be white. This has a lot to do with my skimming over `irrelevant' details, of which appearance tends to be one...

 

[Furioso]

I thought Haymitch from "The Hunger Games" was Black, but in the movie he is white... I could have sworn I read something about that somewhere...

 

[The_Waspman]

Quite simply, I never picture the characters (or locations, or anything) in books.

I read a lot, both fiction and non fiction, and to be honest, its all just words on a page to me. Doesn't mean I have trouble following the plot of character arcs or anything, I just don't visualise very well.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Wait so you imagine non caucasians having red hair?

Don't you bring logic into this conversation!!

 

[Zhukov]

I don't really picture characters at all. I just get a very vague and general impression of them in words rather than images.

For example, when reading War and Peace (ohh, look at me and my classic literature) my impression of Pierre was "fat, burly and cheerful". That's it. I couldn't tell you what his face was like or what colour hair he had nor can I remember if the author ever described these attributes.