Thank goodness, I never studied solid geometry. Algebra was bad enough. However, I liked plane geometry better than other mathematics—which isn't saying much.
If I become absorbed in a story, my imagination runs away ahead of the author; though not always, of course, nor often, to his conclusions.
I usually get different pictures for every church or cowboy, or dog or barnyard, or anything else.
There is, I believe, a difference in the conduct of my imagination when reading or writing a story. It acts more slowly, perhaps less logically, when writing; I have to ponder situations a good deal before deciding and going ahead.
Yes, I have thought of them as tools of my trade. The sub-divisions have not occurred to me in that light.
E. E. Harriman: In reading a story I see every, smallest detail and if the author is chary of descriptions I fill in unconsciously. One reason why I am at times short on descriptions—I see it so plainly myself that I am liable to forget that others can not. My imagination carries me into a field of action so completely that I am often under a strain that tires me out. I have, in writing a gunfight scene, jumped nearly out of my chair when a neighbor slammed a board down on another one. I am often so affected by pathos of my own composition that I have to pause and assure myself that it is fiction, before I can finish. In reading Payson Terhune's dog story in the last Ladies' Home Journal last night I got so worked up that I wanted to hammer hell out of that speed maniac who killed the dog. I feel, see, hear, smell, anything vividly represented by a good writer.
Seeing in the dark—the colorings are there, to the last gradation. Every detail is clear cut and distinct. I can see things I saw fifty years ago, in just that way. As I think of my dog that died forty-two years ago, I can see the shadings that ran down from his reddish back to his light yellow belly. I can see the color and expression of his eyes and the way he would cock his head on one side when listening to me.
Never studied solid geometry, though I made the drawings in the University of Minnesota. Enjoyed them immensely and took a high mark.
If a writer hints at anything, my mind pictures it instantly. If his description is stopped shy of completion, I finish it.
I have no stock pictures, though my memory is full of scenes. Any style or kind is built up instantly by a phrase or sentence.