I got an interesting message the other day from a lady who has been reading "On Angel Mountain". She had been scanning this blog, and expressed the view that she was not sure about me using many illustrations in the normal course of events -- it sounded as if she preferred to have her own mental picture of what Martha looked like, what the Plas looked like, and what everything else in the stories looked like. So that got me thinking. Is it a good idea for an author (or anybody else, for that matter) to issue an image that happens to portray one particular impression or perception of a face, or a place that features in a story?
People do like to have their own mental images, which they hold in their mind's eye as they work through a book. Children like vibrant images in their books -- these are a means to sparking their imagination and whetting their appetite for the written word. Adults clearly like to inhabit their own imaginary worlds without too much interference from outside. But I've learnt that there are two (only two? I hear you cry..) groups of readers who enjoy the books of the saga -- those who know nothing about the local area, and who imagine everything, and those who know North Pembs, Cilgwyn and Carningli intimately, and who identify strongly with the stories for that very reason. Is there a right and a wrong on this issue? I doubt it -- after all. Every publisher who decides on a book jacket, or a promotional trailer or video, or even a poster campaign for a novel, is flagging up one particular vision -- no better or worse, and no more valid or invalid, than any other.
No comments:
Post a Comment