WilliamShatner.com :: Sight vs. Sound

Sight vs. Sound
Posted by: LeopardHead on Friday, April 19, 2002 - 12:39 AM

	One evening recently, I was sculpting in my art class. My teacher's daughter, a precocious eleven- year-old, was visiting us. She was using us as an "experiment" for one of her classes at school. She went around to each person and held up a poster with various images on it - a cat, a dog, a fire hydrant, a cookie, the word "America," and the word "food" among others.
April 18, 2002 One evening recently, I was sculpting in my art class. My teacher's daughter, a precocious eleven- year-old, was visiting us. She was using us as an "experiment" for one of her classes at school. She went around to each person and held up a poster with various images on it - a cat, a dog, a fire hydrant, a cookie, the word "America," and the word "food" among others. Each person stared at the poster for a few seconds, and then she took it away. She then asked each of us to repeat the images we remembered. Being, uh, slightly older than she was, I hesitated with fear. Would I remember? It turns out I could recite nine out of ten of the images. What I found interesting was the one I forgot. It was one of the printed words, "food," as I recall. It made me think of how each person experiences the things around him. Maybe someone is an audio person, preferring to say words out loud so he can remember them. Or possibly, someone could be a visual person, preferring to remember the picture rather than the sound. I realized I had no trouble recalling images such as a dog or a cookie, but had trouble remembering printed words. I guess that makes me a visual person. Which brings me to the next subject -- how I experience reading books. Because I am so visual, when I read, I usually have no trouble conjuring up images to go along with the text. So I was really curious to see how I would experience an audio book, which would require me to use my listening skills, something I have admittedly less experience with using. For my experiment, I chose you guessed it, a couple of Star Trek books. The ones I picked were "Star Trek: Avenger," and "Star Trek: Spectre." The fact that my Dad was reading them was somehow reassuring to me. After all, he spent many an evening reading stories to me when I was little. It seemed only natural that I would be listening to one of his stories on tape. And I have to say, the books were really a lot of fun! He reads with the same enthusiasm and imagination that I remember from my childhood, even changing his voice to depict the different characters. The tapes also have sound effects and music, which I thought might be distracting, but actually turned out to be part of the fun. I really felt like I was listening to a radio show more than reading a book. I also found that listening to a story instead of reading it didn't interfere with my imagination or ability to conjure up visual images. I was still required to use my "thinking cap" whenever a description of something was mentioned. I have to confess it was great to hear Captain Kirk back in action. Although I couldn't actually see him, the fact that his voice sounded so reassuringly familiar helped me feel like he was actually present. It only took one more step of the imagination to actually see him on the bridge, performing his usual miracles. If you're ever in a situation where reading is impossible, but you still want to use your imagination, an audio book might just be the ticket. Whether you're a visual person or an audio one, you'll still be experiencing something you can enjoy.