VISUALIZATION

VISUALIZATION

To visualize is literally to image, to picture for the eye. In its broader meaning it appeals to all the senses, not simply to sight. In selecting suggestive details, therefore, everything that appeals strongly to any of the senses must be carefully considered, and must be used if it has value. Appeals to the sense of smell and to the sense of hearing are often more potent than appeals to the sight, and appeals to taste and touch are not infrequently full of power.

visualization the verbal presentation of experiences with so suggestive vividness that they become for the reader practically as real as they were either actually or imaginatively for the writer.

The secret of effective visualization is to be concrete and specific, to omit carefully every statement that even tends toward the abstract and general. The spectator has certain feelings because he sees or smells or hears or touches or tastes certain definite things. To display advantageously the few exact details that are suggestive of the experience will arouse in the reader the same emotions in kind, if not in degree, that they aroused in the spectator.

A student wrote, "As I came into camp the smell of the cooking supper was very pleasant to me. " The statement is general; it has no concrete detail to arouse the imagination; it suggests no experience. Asked to be more definite he restated his idea thus: "When I came into camp the pungent fragrance of the coffee and the spicy smell of the sizzling bacon and eggs made my mouth water, and I found myself moistening my lips. " His choice of words is far from exact, but the vividness of his expression is increased many fold. The reader really gets something of the experience.

When asked to make more vivid her sentence, "The floor was full of merry dancers, " a girl rewrote, "The floor was alive with rosy-cheeked, laughing eyed dancers. " The change is certainly for the better. The word full as she used it is dull, heavy, dead; it gives no idea of motion; it gives nothing to see. The abstract idea in merry, too, becomes more suggestive and vivid in the adjectives she chose in order to make her experience concrete and real.

the value of the specific as op-. posed to the general.

A narrative written by a high school pupil contained the very lifeless statement, "But by this time it was lunch time, and so we unpacked our baskets and ate our lunch. " A request to make the middle clause of the sentence as vivid as possible by the use of suggestive details, resulted in the following paragraphs:

When the cover of the first basket was taken off a snowy tablecloth, neatly folded, came into view. It was soon spread over the dark-green carpet of velvety grass. Then brown wooden picnic plates, glistening knives and forks, and dainty china salt-cellars were brought forth.

From another basket came great puffy buns, brown and shiny on top and fringed around the edges with the delicate pink of juicy ham. Then deep-red tomatoes, bottles of prickly pickles and yellow-green olives; boxes of crisp golden potato chips, and two delicious cakes covered with smooth chocolate icing.

Last but not least came the fruit, —juicy yellow pears, blushing peaches, apples with red-brown cheeks, as though they had slept in the sun, and purple grapes like so many "tight little bags of wine. "

Actions, details of motion, and especially details of color are suggestive to sight. The power of color is illustrated inthe paragraph quoted describing the unpacking of the picnic baskets. Motion may be made valuable in describing, for example, a field of grain, a clump of trees, and living creatures, as well as smoke and clouds and the human expression. Actions are always effective, especially when they not only visualize but also show mood.

The appeal to hearing must be by means of onomatopoetic words, that is, words similar in sound to the sounds they describe; as, Aunt Rachel flopped in; the brook sang and bubbled along; sizzling bacon and eggs; in the farmyard was heard the cooing of the doves, the cluck-cluck of the chickens, the moo of the cows, and the harsh grunt of the pigs, while from within the barn came the swish of the hay thrown from the mow.

Appeals to smell and taste are often accompanied by additional suggestive details which follow the odor or the flavor as effects following causes; as, the pungent fragrance of the coffee and the spicy smell of the sizzling bacon and eggs made my mouth water, and I found myself moistening my lips. The permanence of impressions made on the organs of taste and smell renders these senses of peculiar value in life, and this same lasting quality makes all taste and smell associations very potent in visualization.

Details that are suggestive because of appeal to the sense of touch are less frequent, and perhaps of less value. They are often combined with appeals to sight, as the touch-quality of most objects may be perceived, at least in part, by the eye; as, smooth chocolate icing; prickly pickles; his sandpaper face against the child's velvet cheek made her wince at first; the chill of the snake seemed to numb my hand, even my whole arm, during all of the afternoon.

Figures of speech play an important part in visualization. A word carried from one department of thought to another brings with it all the associations and suggestions that it has

when literally used, and as a rule these associations and suggestions become even more powerful because of the unfamiliar surroundings amid which the word finds itself. The word alive carries with it far more visualizing power in the sentence "The floor was alive with dancers, " than it carries in the sentence "The bird was alive. " So too with splashes in the sentence "The sunbeams lay in splashes on the lawn;" it is much more powerful than in the sentence "There were splashes of water on the table. "

The following statement originally opened a brief exercise:

He had a very small room on the third floor. It was lighted by one large window, which was covered with a vine.

To obtain better visualization the student reworded the idea thus:

His was a tiny coop of a room at the top of the stairs. The sun shone in through one large window, and during the summer a green vine tapped against the pane.

Between the two forms there is certainly a wide difference. Much of the added suggestiveness in the second form comes from the figures of speech, a tiny coop, and tapped against the pane. In what other way is suggestiveness added?

Other examples of visualizing figures of speech in the quotations already given in the chapter are as follows: carpet of velvety grass; fringed around the edges; blushing peaches; red-brown cheeks; slept in the sun; the brook sang; sandpaper face against velvet cheek. The literal use of any of these words contrasted with the use here given, will at once show for the figurative meaning a power that is not present in the literal.

Nor are figures of speech beyond the ability of young people. All illustrative material used in this chapter is drawn from high school exercises, and most of it from the work of second-year pupils. The figure of speech should not be looked upon as trimming and ornament; it is very often the only means of effectively expressing an idea, and frequently is the most potent method of visualizing.

Most persons see the distinguishing characteristics of their friends and of people they meet, and recognize men and women by them, but they do not see them exactly enough to make use of them in Description. A successful mimic, however, not only sees them, but he sees them so accurately and remembers them so definitely that at will he can reproduce them, and by touching them with exaggeration he is able to make all about him laugh. The reason we are not all good mimics /is because we do not see and remember, rather than because we lack sufficient control of our muscles to make them reproduce what we wish to reproduce.

Places have their distinguishing characteristics, just as people have. The power to see the little details and actions that are thoroughly individual, that give life and animation and vivacity, is absolutely essential to one who would succeed in visualization. If one can catch and reproduce such individualizing details and actions he has what may be called the literary touch, and he will be able to make his scenes live for his readers. Some can seize them and portray them naturally; such have at least one of the gifts that are essential to the making of an artist. All, however, have something of the power, and careful cultivation of whatever amount one has will bring forth a bountiful harvest in the form of a vastly increased ability to visualize successfully. Those who would learn to write must habituate themselves to jotting down effective bits of vizualization that come to mind, and to determining what the suggestive details are in landscapes, in persons, in buildings, in feelings, in everything that may be visualized in literature.

"COURAGE!" he said, and pointed toward the land, "This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon. " In the afternoon they came unto a land,

In which it seemed always afternoon.

All round the coast the languid air did swoon, Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. Full-faced above the valley stood the moon; And like a downward smoke, the slender stream

Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem.

A land of stream! some, like a downward smoke, Slowdropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go;

And some thro' wavering lights and shadows broke, Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below.

They saw the gleaming river seaward flow

From the inner land: far off, three mountain-tops, Three silent pinnacles of aged snow,

Stood sunset-flush'd: and, dew'd with showery drops, Up-clomb the shadowy pine above the woven copse. The charmed sunset linger'd low adown

In the red West: thro' mountain clefts the dale Was seen far inland, and the yellow down

Border'd with palm, and many a winding vale And meadow, set with slender galingale:

A land where all things always seem'd the same!