5 ms·

I love a properly made book, though I don't buy Folio Society books due to the illustrations. Don't get my wrong, they're beautiful, but any time a book has ill

I love a properly made book, though I don't buy Folio Society books due to the illustrations. Don't get my wrong, they're beautiful, but any time a book has illustrations it feels like I don't get to use my imagination (as much) for world building. The drawings seem to overwrite my own image-making process for characters, environments, etc. I don't like it. Another example: I was re-reading the Lord of the Rings recently and I couldn't get Peter Jackson's big screen images out of my head while reading. Same thing with Gaiman's Norse Mythology—for the first few stories all I could see was Chris Hemsworth's Thor, running around in my head as I read Gaiman's interpretation. In time, my mind seems to come up with its own imagery that's a mash-up of all the worlds and art and images I've seen. But I still want to "do the work" while reading. It feels like illustrations alongside text rob my mind of that opportunity, and give me a ready-made world with details and characteristics and visuals that are not my own.

lancesells 4y ago
I feel exactly the same way. I would love to buy these books with the beautiful cover and production without the illustrations. The magic of a book of fiction is you get to imagine.
nottorp 4y ago
> I was re-reading the Lord of the Rings recently and I couldn't get Peter Jackson's big screen images out of my head while reading. Why? You shouldn't be able to get Alan Lee's illustrations out of your head while watching the movie :)
dekhn 4y ago
When I read norse mythology, I can't unsee this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159017125X https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159017125X (D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths)
- B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
  Very nice, thank you. Tangent: "Originally, they used stone lithography for their illustrations. A single four-color illustration required four slabs of Bavarian limestone that weighed up to two hundred pounds apiece." (Stone stone-writing stimulates my department of redundancy department ...)
- bitwize 4y ago
  The illustrations in their Greek myths book were how the Greek gods and heroes looked to me for many years.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 4y ago
    To me they looked like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemision_Bronze https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemision_Bronze
jimmygrapes 4y ago
I often get a similar phenomenon, for better or worse. I kind of have this rule: read the book first if there's a movie/show about it, then watch the movie/show, then read the book again. This helps me avoid "the book is better" (sometimes -- it's a rare case where the audiovisual format excels, but it happens). First reading I get my imagination and expectations. Watching the movie/show lets me know how others interpreted it. If it was a well made, casted, and acted depiction, then the 2nd reading often will conjure images of specific scenes, actors, soundtracks, etc. even if it wasn't quite what I imagined initially. If it was a poor adaptation, rereading the book reminds me that my imagination was better. To date I can only think of two movies that captured their respective novels nearly identically to my imagination (within reason, given content and technological limitations): - Phillip K Dick / Richard Linklater - A Scanner Darkly - Michael Crichton / Barry Levinson - Sphere - Ted Chiang / Denis Villanueve - Story of Your Life (Arrival) - Bret Easton Ellis / Roger Avery - The Rules of Attraction - Alex Garland / Danny Boyle - The Beach I often wonder if the influence of the authors of these books upon the production of the movies was a factor, but I've seen plenty movies where the original author had lots of input/approval and the result was a mess. Dunno.
- jimmygrapes 4y ago
  I said two but got caught up in more as I thought about it, my bad.
fmajid 4y ago
Yes, but if the illustrations were actually drawn by the author like the recent re-release of The Silmarillion, or Tolkien’s illustrations for The Hobbit, it’s a different matter.

lancesells 4y ago

I feel exactly the same way. I would love to buy these books with the beautiful cover and production without the illustrations. The magic of a book of fiction is you get to imagine.

nottorp 4y ago

> I was re-reading the Lord of the Rings recently and I couldn't get Peter Jackson's big screen images out of my head while reading. Why? You shouldn't be able to get Alan Lee's illustrations out of your head while watching the movie :)

dekhn 4y ago

When I read norse mythology, I can't unsee this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159017125X https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159017125X (D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths)

B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
Very nice, thank you. Tangent: "Originally, they used stone lithography for their illustrations. A single four-color illustration required four slabs of Bavarian limestone that weighed up to two hundred pounds apiece." (Stone stone-writing stimulates my department of redundancy department ...)
bitwize 4y ago
The illustrations in their Greek myths book were how the Greek gods and heroes looked to me for many years.
- YeGoblynQueenne 4y ago
  To me they looked like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemision_Bronze https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemision_Bronze

jimmygrapes 4y ago

I often get a similar phenomenon, for better or worse. I kind of have this rule: read the book first if there's a movie/show about it, then watch the movie/show, then read the book again. This helps me avoid "the book is better" (sometimes -- it's a rare case where the audiovisual format excels, but it happens). First reading I get my imagination and expectations. Watching the movie/show lets me know how others interpreted it. If it was a well made, casted, and acted depiction, then the 2nd reading often will conjure images of specific scenes, actors, soundtracks, etc. even if it wasn't quite what I imagined initially. If it was a poor adaptation, rereading the book reminds me that my imagination was better. To date I can only think of two movies that captured their respective novels nearly identically to my imagination (within reason, given content and technological limitations): - Phillip K Dick / Richard Linklater - A Scanner Darkly - Michael Crichton / Barry Levinson - Sphere - Ted Chiang / Denis Villanueve - Story of Your Life (Arrival) - Bret Easton Ellis / Roger Avery - The Rules of Attraction - Alex Garland / Danny Boyle - The Beach I often wonder if the influence of the authors of these books upon the production of the movies was a factor, but I've seen plenty movies where the original author had lots of input/approval and the result was a mess. Dunno.

jimmygrapes 4y ago
I said two but got caught up in more as I thought about it, my bad.

fmajid 4y ago

Yes, but if the illustrations were actually drawn by the author like the recent re-release of The Silmarillion, or Tolkien’s illustrations for The Hobbit, it’s a different matter.