Does anyone else have that problem where you automatically imagine characters as being white unless the writer makes a point of specifically describing their skin color?
I need to break this habit, so what would you suggest? I just want some books where there's no doubt, or the premise forces me to think about this at all times. Off the top of my head I've read Things Fall Apart, Kaffir Boy, and Invisible Man. Not necessarily just looking for African literature though - just anything non-white.
Julian Stewart
I don't even have a picture of the character before the author describes it. It's just a concept with a name attached to me.
Jose Garcia
Why is this a problem?
Brody Russell
Why is it a problem?
Ryan Baker
lol I had the same problem when I was reading Crime and Punishment.
I kept imagining the Russian Characters as being white lol!
Sebastian Butler
Russians are white though
Carson Bell
So when you are left with no answer, you think the character is white and you consider this to be a problem. But then to solve this problem you ask for books that won't leave you with that doubt? I mean, obviously, if the book is explicit about it, you have no room to imagine something else, except in this way you will still be left with the same unchanged automatic response when you read another book that leaves it to imagination. Why not just assume the prejudice, face it everytime you imagine a character and perhaps transform that process of imagination while you're at it?
Logan Scott
yeah, after a while it's sort of just a feeling what helps is noticing how many different versions of people you can make from the same descriptions that still fit
for a while characters would change around every couple of chapters until I hit a few key details that seemed immutable, but by the time I've hit my stride in a story, I'm really focused more on the way the words make me feel and what the author is trying to get me to imagine than what I am actually visualizing or imagining.
Samuel Turner
I feel the same way.
When it is said >A man walks out of his house and get to the car I don't imagine any man in particular, house in particular or car in particular. I only know it's not a woman, an apartment or a bike.
Ayden Ross
I imagine everything as anime. It's been like this as long as I can remember.
Jose Torres
>I need to break this habit, so what would you suggest?
Gavin Evans
Haha, holy shit. I thought I was the only one who did this. Imagine my pleasure when I was reading Discworld and the delicious brown girl showed up.
John Adams
I don't have a picture of the character AFTER the author describes it, really. Everyone looks like nothing to me. this sounds hilarious to me
Jason Powell
this if you have a problem with your imagination you have worse things to worry for
Jonathan Anderson
I'm sure there's more of us out there then you'd think at first glance. Also reading lolita was a trip
Jackson White
It's a bit of a mixed bag tbqh. On one hand I'm sure it reflects deep-seated pathologies that I don't want to touch with a ten-foot pole. On the other hand I don't think I'd enjoy literature half as much if I didn't.
Nicholas Bailey
I'm basically colourblind to race in real life so its not an issue for me, I don't even notice people are black before its mentioned in conversation
Lincoln Stewart
Try Paulo Coelho's the Alchemist.
Joshua Russell
I just picture myself
Angel Powell
I definitely have that problem too. All through the seven Harry Potter books I was picturing Hermione as a white girl. Imagine how embarrassed I felt when the author corrected me.
Daniel Watson
This. It's a bit simple, but actually the "protagonists" are fit to be from the middle-east.
Anthony Barnes
If the book's set in a majority white part of the world, I do. If it's not, I imagine them accordingly. Africans if it's in Africa; Asians if it's in Asia; etc.
Angel King
Why are you doing that when you aren't the OP? Do you enjoy confusing people? Are you (insert name of author who is well known for confusing people)?
Dylan Foster
A Wizard of Earthsea
Ethan Ortiz
What's the alt-right memesters' take on this question? They generally seem to be big fans of Russia, or at least Putin, but on the other hand Hitler wasn't very keen on the Slavs.
Nathan King
It's almost as if the 'alt right' aren't Nazis or something.
Asher Bell
Isn't this the one where they have ridiculous colors?
Wyatt Allen
No lol!!
Jose Murphy
I imagine their phenotypes according to context. You could try reading some Brazilian literature which does not include Paulo Coelho and picture each character as pertaining to a different ethnicity.
Jayden Brown
Why do you need to break this habit? If you're in a majority-white country reading a book by a white person in a majority-white country it's perfectly reasonable to do. Just read the back of the book if you want to know if it's about white people or not.
Henry Allen
niceme.me
Logan Butler
Theres this textbook about electronic circuits wrote by Sadiku. I studied this for years picturing Sadiku as a japanese since it is about electronics. One day I saw the preface and discovered Sadiku is actually an African or Congolese.
Brandon Williams
That's because they're Spanish and the Spanish have a touch of the tar brush.
Nathaniel Miller
...
Andrew Anderson
Just don't imagine them as anything then. A book doesn't have to play out like a movie in your head
Jonathan White
You could check out Zone One by Colson Whitehead. You basically don't know the characters' races for sure until way late in the book. Besides, it's a pretty neat book
Leo Gomez
>They generally seem to be big fans of Russia, or at least Putin, but on the other hand Hitler wasn't very keen on the Slavs.
They also can't decide if the Holocaust is the "Holohoax" or the Nazi's great work/back in the oven/gas the kikes race war now.
The Nazis themselves were hilariously inconsistent on their own stance on the Jews. On one hand the Jews were international finance usurers on the other they were the apparent aegis of Bolshevism.
Matthew Richardson
lol no
Parker Gonzalez
This. Fascists do not have beliefs, they have feels.
Nathan Allen
Yep. I also assume everyone on the internet is middle class, early twenties white dudes.
Luke Cox
It depends where the book is from. Even though America isn't only a bite people, I'm white and American, so whenever a male character is of an u specified race but is American I imagine him to be white. I don't see how it's a problem, really.