Here's Herman's explanation of mental modeling.
Stories trigger recipients,
to establish a more or less direct or oblique relationship between the stories
they are interpreting and the contexts in which they are interpreting them.
>> Well, one question that I have is, if these mental models come from
our lived experiences and what we've seen
and where imagination comes in with what we're,
what we're seeing when we're reading. >> You mean like a child who reads
this who doesn't have a clear image of the forest
A child who's lived in a city all of her life and doesn't have a clear image of it.
Any response to that?
>> Yeah, I think experience is definitely part of it, but
though I think that not all that experience necessarily has to
come from
real life, if you've read other things
that can inform something that you are reading now.
I think that certainly helps, but your question
makes me think of when I first read about
King's Cross Station in the first Harry Potter
book, I had never seen King's Cross so what
I went to in my mind was actually Union Station in Washington, DC.
>> That's great, and what
happened when you saw the movie? Did it fit your mental model?
>> Well unfortunately by the time I'd seen the
movie, I, I had seen pictures of King's Cross Station, so...
>> So you really- This is a great example because
you have a complex layering of models drawn from your
imagination. From descriptions in Harry Potter, and
from photographs you have then seen in fan literature, and finally this,
film maker's.
>> Right.
>> So I think that really helps it give a little depth to what Herman is saying.
That you draw off whatever sources you have, whether it's real life experience,
personal experience with forests, or just what you imagine a forest to look like.
>> Herman
goes on
>> To explain, this prompts readers to relate two types of mental models.
One that they've built up from cues in the text, the sunlit paths, the
tunnel forest and the other based on their prior experience with the real world.
Narratives ask readers to search for analogies
between these two classes of mental models,
the textual model and the real
life model of the world.
So, Killian, let's test this model of Herman's against fantasy literature.
Now, how can it work in fantasy worlds,
which are really supposed to be fairly imaginary?
>> Right, yeah. It seems like it would present a problem.
It seems like If the narrative departed too much from something
that I were able to relate to, then the novel would
cease to function appropriately for me.
But it reminds me of the ways at in so
many points in Tolkien, we get incredibly thick, topographical description.
We're allowed to orient ourselves very, very
specifically, almost as though we were reading..
a story of somebody's travels to the countryside, or something like that.
and these are the things, for me, at least, help
me to ground myself in what's happening, despite the fantastical side.
>> And there's such a variety of topographical description.
It's clear that Tolkien is in love
with the imaginary landscape that he's drawing, the Shire.
>> I think it's rural England, and English countryside.
>> Yeah. And even the towns where he grew up.
And it's a fantasy realm.
But it's a fantasy realm that takes its reality, its particularity from
modeling of, of those concrete worlds.
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