The Sword and Laser discussion

We’re very pleased that the Hugo Nominations are open and we’ll keep reminding you. Also we’re pleased to discuss pairing beer with novels and pleased to look over the new Philip K. Dick award nominees. We’re pleased to be reading Ninefox Gambit too, even if it makes our brain hurt.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/24047431
http://swordandlaser.com/home/2019/1/...
https://soundcloud.com/swordandlaser/...

Okay you guys, here's why I end up dominating the Quick Burns: I get bored at work a lot when things are slow, so when I come across cool book or SFF news, I want to share it with dope people who will appreciate it. So I post it in the QB thread where cool bookworms will see it. It's fun for me the share things (even though I'm sure everyone is sick of me by now! Sorry, guys!).

Veronica, if you're still taking comic book recommendations, I suggest The Sword by The Luna Brothers. It's a story about a girl whose life is dramatically changed by three strangers in search of a magical sword. Her name is Dara. :-)

Funny Dara, I read that in floppies as it came out, and very much enjoyed it. I think you undersell it a bit, but I can’t think of a better sentence to describe it with out giving away spoilers. One of my favorite parts about reading it monthly as it came out was the letters section, named “The S Word”. Both the quality of the comments from readers, and the response from the creators was quite good.

I don't read lots of comic books, but I really liked Bone, Vol, 1: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith and of course all the sequels. The images were cute without being cutesy and I really enjoyed the characters and story.

John (Nevets) wrote: "Funny Dara, I read that in floppies as it came out, and very much enjoyed it. I think you undersell it a bit, but I can’t think of a better sentence to describe it with out giving away spoilers. On..."

I have them in the trade paperbacks. I had to read it for obvious reasons, haha. It's been a long time since I read it but I enjoyed it a ton. :-)

Dara wrote: "Okay you guys, here's why I end up dominating the Quick Burns: I get bored at work a lot when things are slow, so when I come across cool book or SFF news, I want to share it with dope people who w..."

The only time I contribute to QB is when you’re on vacation. Whenever I see some bit of interesting news, I notice that someone has already posted it and I think “Drats, scooped again!” with a mental voice that sounds a lot like a 1930s newspaper editor.

I'm sorry, Trike! Again, blame my work boredom. Or when I'm in a reading slump and I spent too much time perusing the internet.

+1 for Dara because there is a comic book character with the same name.

After listening to the podcast today, and after the discussion on visualization. I'm wondering if reading speed is tied to vividness of visualizers? Anecdotally it sounded like those that read fast, or tend to skim a lot were not possibly as vivid. Where I'm a fairly slow reader, and yet it seems that I may be higher on the vividness. So I wonder, is there any correlation to these, or is it just coincidence for these few examples?

I know I have both had to reread a section because I couldn't picture it the first time, and also paused while reading to imagine the previous scene better. But even when neither of those things are going on, I tend to be slower at reading then most. And maybe not compared to this bunch, but I know when I was a kid/teenager I tended to get more out what I read then most others.

It's hard to say if reading speed influences visualization or the other way round. In may case I'd say that since I always had trouble visualizing things I gave up on some point and settled for reading more quickly. I can visualizing things but I really have to focus and piece together the setting bit by bit and it's a fairly slow process when I'd rather get on with the story, so I don't do it.

So, they might be connected, but what is the cause and what is the symptom would still be to discuss.

this whole visualization discussion has blown my mind, but I guess I should never be surprised by the differences within humans in how we process information

Comedian Brandie Posey also has aphantasia. If you're interested, she talks about it on a podcast here: http://www.probablyscience.com/probab...

Having been a daydreamer my entire life, it's hard to imagine not being able to visualize...anything. Brains are weird.

One data point only but I am a SLOW reader and middle visualization.

I'm a medium - slow reader but hi-Def video... Sometimes I put my book down and just play the video in my head...

Tom wrote: "One data point only but I am a SLOW reader and middle visualization."

No pictures at all when I real, or do anything. I am a bit gob smacked that people actually see real pictures in their head. Sounds like a super power.

May explain why I am really crap at visual art.

Fast reader, middle to little visualization. I do see things, but they are vague and unspecific unless I really focus on imagining, which I usually don't.

I am a fast reader with little visualisation - that essentially seems like magic to me. It was only when I started talking to my mum and brother about this recently - they are both slower and less avid readers - that I realised *anyone* sees pictures in their head when they read. If a book gives me even a vague picture in my mind's eye, that really sticks out to me - I can't think of any SFF examples, but Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier was a recent read that created reasonably vivid pictures in my head. Lots of landscape and scene-setting description in that book.

I'm a pretty artistic person and am very good as visualizing things when the author gives good and interesting descriptions. When something is described that makes no sense it annoys the heck out of me. Hence my 1 star for Firefox Gambit.