# How well can you identify with characters from different times/cultures? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-you-identify-with-characters-from-different-times-cultures/1005166 "2024-08-02T20:07:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-you-identify-with-characters-from-different-times-cultures/1005166/21 "2024-08-04T18:48:11Z")
Sure. Line 218 [here](https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/twelfth-night/read/1/5/). (OK, slight misquotation on my part – it’s “give us the place” rather than “this place,” but that’s an even closer match to the _Bridgerton_ phrasing.) ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2024, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-you-identify-with-characters-from-different-times-cultures/1005166/22 "2024-08-05T12:58:25Z")
Interesting. Who’d’a thunk! Ngram viewer does show it taking off in the last few years, though, so at least I’m not entirely nuts. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2024, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-you-identify-with-characters-from-different-times-cultures/1005166/23 "2024-08-05T13:02:29Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > With fiction, and to a certain extent, things that try to be non-fiction, you are seeing the world through the lens of the writer. Nothing but what the author has written for me. I don’t imagine seeing the characters through my own eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2024, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-you-identify-with-characters-from-different-times-cultures/1005166/24 "2024-08-05T13:33:24Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Nothing but what the author has written for me. I don’t imagine seeing the characters through my own eyes. Please elaborate. You don’t fill in any details - as to their appearances/surroundings? You don’t think, “Hmm, is that how I would act/react? Or how I would expect someone to act?” I suspect I’m misinterpreting your brief comment, because I thought one of the appeals of reading fiction was that you created a personal mental image of what was on the page. I’ve also heard folk complain of film adaptations, b/c the movie was not how they had imagined it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2024, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-you-identify-with-characters-from-different-times-cultures/1005166/25 "2024-08-05T14:27:01Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Please elaborate. You don’t fill in any details - as to their appearances/surroundings? You don’t think, “Hmm, is that how I would act/react? Or how I would expect someone to act?” Appearances probably. Not how I would act/react or expect someone to act. Reading is an escape for me, no audience participation from my end. After I’m done reading I sometimes imagine a continued story, or consider the characters transported to my time and place, but they’re still just the way the author described them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-can-you-identify-with-characters-from-different-times-cultures/1005166.md?page=1)