Visualizing Words
Did you know Monday is yellow and is also a boy with blond hair?
It is! In my head, anyway.
I only recently learned that people visualizing words as people or characters isn't a wide-spread thing. It's actually a form of synesthesia, and it's daily life for me. I thought everyone saw the world this way. Apparently not.
If you say a word to me, I perceive it as either a version of the word printed in a particular way, or as an object, or as a person.
Most printed words for me are the short or abstract ones. The word "me," for example, in my head is a white word on a dark background in a 3d sans serif font with the M closer to me than the E, so the M looks bigger and the word itself is slanted. The word "the" appears in dark print on a pale background, all lower case letters, but the TH is a little darker than the E.
Yeah.
Objects? The word "chair" to me is a 1960s-style living room chair, but spindly and with two legs in back and only one in front. The chair is black. No background. The word "bird" is a child's drawing of a wood duck (a duck with a slightly pointed beak) sitting on a straw nest. The duck has no eyes. The word "path" or "trail" is a long, swooping line that curves back and forth. It has a definite female feeling to it.
Lots of words are people for me. The word "you" is a young person with a round head and black hair falling over their face to cover it completely, so it could be anyone--like you. "River" is a laughing woman with long hair streaming out behind her, and her hair has a blue tint. The word "poor" is a woman in a blue or gray robe. Her hands are held out sideways and water is dripping from her fingers.
Certain words that fall within the same category are people with their own personalities. Monday, as I said above, is a blond boy and is also a yellow day. Tuesday is female. It has dark hair that curves outward around her ears, but her features are hard to make out. Tuesday is the color black. Wednesday is an adult male, though I can't say what he looks like. Wednesday is the color white. Thursday is Tuesday's mirror image and is also black. Friday is green and a young woman, though I can't describe her, either, except that she has long blond hair. Saturday is a motherly woman in a gray dress from the perspective of a child looking up at her. Saturday is gray, like the dress. Sunday is a man with brown hair and a brown beard staring off into the distance in right profile. He has a big nose. Sunday is red.
While we're on the topics of colors, each of them has a gender for me. Red, orange, yellow, black, and blue are male. Green and purple are female. I don't see them as objects or people, but I do see the color in my head and that sense of gender.
January is a boy in white. He has silver-blond hair. February is a woman in red walking slowly toward me. March is a man in green, though this is somehow mingled with the word "March" in 3D font, like the word "me" above. April is a young girl in green, but is also a child's drawing of a daisy. May is a woman in profile. She's looking down and to the left and has a small smile on her face. She has long brown hair. June is a matronly women with her dark hair in a bun and her hands folded in front of her. July is June's sister, but her hair is down and she's dancing. August is a young man in orange. September is a rather younger man, maybe a teenager, but flat, like a cutout. October is May's opposite, a man looking down to the right. He's very pale and has black hair. November is someone's mother and is looking out a window at a gray space. December is a young woman in green and white. She's wearing a winter hat, and her hair flows out from under the brim.
Many words conjure up images similar to what they mean. "Popcorn" is a single kernel of popped corn, but as big as your head. "Cat" is a female calico cat sitting with her tail curled around her feet. She's facing right, and her head is turned away from me. "Coffee" is a white mug of black coffee (no cream) with steam rising from it, but from the perspective of someone looking straight down at the cup. "Phone" is a 1960s avocado green dial phone sitting on a round end table.
How about numbers? 0 is a baby. 1 is male. 2 is female. 3 is a boy. So is 4. 5 is an adult man. 6 is an African-American woman. 7 is an easygoing man. 8 is a plump woman. 9 is a running child. 10, made of two numbers, is a man and a woman smiling either at each other or at me. This goes on up to 20. After that, numbers show up as numerals in my head.
When I read or when someone talks to me, various images and sensations flick through my head at lightning speed, as if they're rushing past on an old-fashioned ticker-tape. (The word "old-fashioned," by the way, is brown and has lots of whirling gears.) You would think it would be dizzying or overwhelming, but it isn't. The images and sensations vanish as quickly as they appear, so my head doesn't get crowded.
"Dead" is a patch of white flowers that suddenly wither into dust. "Sex" is two faceless people writhing together in a way that stops you from seeing exactly what they're doing or even what gender the people are. "Crunch" is another 3D word, but brown on a black background. "Tea" is a white cup of dark liquid with a saucer underneath and a tea bag suspended in mid-air above it.
I have no way to comprehend the world any other way. I can't imagine NOT seeing words this way. ("Seeing" is a pair of coke-bottle glasses hanging in the air and pointing to my right.) I've learned that lots of people get no image of words, just an understanding of what the word means. That feels to me like being swallowed by a black void. ("Swallowed" is a wide-mouthed fish gulping down a big chunk of food that was floating above it.)
So how do you perceive words?
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It is! In my head, anyway.
I only recently learned that people visualizing words as people or characters isn't a wide-spread thing. It's actually a form of synesthesia, and it's daily life for me. I thought everyone saw the world this way. Apparently not.
If you say a word to me, I perceive it as either a version of the word printed in a particular way, or as an object, or as a person.
Most printed words for me are the short or abstract ones. The word "me," for example, in my head is a white word on a dark background in a 3d sans serif font with the M closer to me than the E, so the M looks bigger and the word itself is slanted. The word "the" appears in dark print on a pale background, all lower case letters, but the TH is a little darker than the E.
Yeah.
Objects? The word "chair" to me is a 1960s-style living room chair, but spindly and with two legs in back and only one in front. The chair is black. No background. The word "bird" is a child's drawing of a wood duck (a duck with a slightly pointed beak) sitting on a straw nest. The duck has no eyes. The word "path" or "trail" is a long, swooping line that curves back and forth. It has a definite female feeling to it.
Lots of words are people for me. The word "you" is a young person with a round head and black hair falling over their face to cover it completely, so it could be anyone--like you. "River" is a laughing woman with long hair streaming out behind her, and her hair has a blue tint. The word "poor" is a woman in a blue or gray robe. Her hands are held out sideways and water is dripping from her fingers.
Certain words that fall within the same category are people with their own personalities. Monday, as I said above, is a blond boy and is also a yellow day. Tuesday is female. It has dark hair that curves outward around her ears, but her features are hard to make out. Tuesday is the color black. Wednesday is an adult male, though I can't say what he looks like. Wednesday is the color white. Thursday is Tuesday's mirror image and is also black. Friday is green and a young woman, though I can't describe her, either, except that she has long blond hair. Saturday is a motherly woman in a gray dress from the perspective of a child looking up at her. Saturday is gray, like the dress. Sunday is a man with brown hair and a brown beard staring off into the distance in right profile. He has a big nose. Sunday is red.
While we're on the topics of colors, each of them has a gender for me. Red, orange, yellow, black, and blue are male. Green and purple are female. I don't see them as objects or people, but I do see the color in my head and that sense of gender.
January is a boy in white. He has silver-blond hair. February is a woman in red walking slowly toward me. March is a man in green, though this is somehow mingled with the word "March" in 3D font, like the word "me" above. April is a young girl in green, but is also a child's drawing of a daisy. May is a woman in profile. She's looking down and to the left and has a small smile on her face. She has long brown hair. June is a matronly women with her dark hair in a bun and her hands folded in front of her. July is June's sister, but her hair is down and she's dancing. August is a young man in orange. September is a rather younger man, maybe a teenager, but flat, like a cutout. October is May's opposite, a man looking down to the right. He's very pale and has black hair. November is someone's mother and is looking out a window at a gray space. December is a young woman in green and white. She's wearing a winter hat, and her hair flows out from under the brim.
Many words conjure up images similar to what they mean. "Popcorn" is a single kernel of popped corn, but as big as your head. "Cat" is a female calico cat sitting with her tail curled around her feet. She's facing right, and her head is turned away from me. "Coffee" is a white mug of black coffee (no cream) with steam rising from it, but from the perspective of someone looking straight down at the cup. "Phone" is a 1960s avocado green dial phone sitting on a round end table.
How about numbers? 0 is a baby. 1 is male. 2 is female. 3 is a boy. So is 4. 5 is an adult man. 6 is an African-American woman. 7 is an easygoing man. 8 is a plump woman. 9 is a running child. 10, made of two numbers, is a man and a woman smiling either at each other or at me. This goes on up to 20. After that, numbers show up as numerals in my head.
When I read or when someone talks to me, various images and sensations flick through my head at lightning speed, as if they're rushing past on an old-fashioned ticker-tape. (The word "old-fashioned," by the way, is brown and has lots of whirling gears.) You would think it would be dizzying or overwhelming, but it isn't. The images and sensations vanish as quickly as they appear, so my head doesn't get crowded.
"Dead" is a patch of white flowers that suddenly wither into dust. "Sex" is two faceless people writhing together in a way that stops you from seeing exactly what they're doing or even what gender the people are. "Crunch" is another 3D word, but brown on a black background. "Tea" is a white cup of dark liquid with a saucer underneath and a tea bag suspended in mid-air above it.
I have no way to comprehend the world any other way. I can't imagine NOT seeing words this way. ("Seeing" is a pair of coke-bottle glasses hanging in the air and pointing to my right.) I've learned that lots of people get no image of words, just an understanding of what the word means. That feels to me like being swallowed by a black void. ("Swallowed" is a wide-mouthed fish gulping down a big chunk of food that was floating above it.)
So how do you perceive words?
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