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Tips for reading with facial blindness? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by thottistic@alien.top to c/books@metacritics.zone

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I have partial facial blindness which makes it hard to picture faces that aren’t super familiar and I can’t create new faces in my head. I end up picturing faces of people I know and celebrities.

It becomes frustrating when I’m reading as the faces morph constantly into my head. I constantly stop to get the faces right. Sydney Sweeney ended up as 2 characters when I read “Bunny” lol. I also get a biased view of the characters this way. It makes it really hard to enjoy reading nowadays. Any suggestions? Different strategies for picturing or reading without picturing?

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[–] Objective-Name-1802@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I don't have facial blindness but I don't usually picture faces either. Characters are like background figures in a painting, reduced to only their most striking features which can still be captured at the scale of a small brush stroke. It would be like asking me how to imagine the specific grain on a wooden floor board, that level of detail would just never occur to me.

[–] BroderUlf@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Same. And I don't realize I'm doing it. It feels like they're completely there, but if I suddenly had to nail down the details, I would realize it's just a vague idea.

[–] thottistic@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Omg that’s a really good way to explain it. I completely get that.