various pontifcations on the mental state of my cranial cavity

Chia has mentioned that, as we read, we should keep in mind that the characters in the books, novels, articles, short stories etc. that we read aren't real people. I've been trying to do this, but obviously, my mind had to carry me further.

I started to wonder, when I do think about a character, or at least in the way that I used to, where does that character go? I have two interesting theories/ideas. One is that for each topic/book/creation, I create a new, floating area on which all of their actions occur. It is actually a lot like the game The Sims. My characters act the way that the author tells me that they act, and I can see them going around carrying out these actions.

It is interesting to me, however, to think about the world that I have created for them. Obviously an author has a place in mind when he or she writes, and at the same, I create a place when I read. I have noticed, however, that in this world, everything is ambiguous, that nothing is clearly defined outside of a small bubble that the characters operate in. For example, in my "reader's eye," I might see a tree in the background when I hear one person talk, yet when I hear another person talk, and turn back again, there might be a bush and a tree, or three trees, or a mountain. I would assume that this is similar with everybody, that nobody is thinking out the descriptions to the point of being able to return to the same place after putting the book down for a week.

As an aside, it is also really interesting to think about how I know I am reading a good book. I know that I am reading a good book when, instead of reading what is happening, I see the events unfolding, if I read about a character riding the train to go to his castle-school in the mountains of England, I am either sitting in the car with him, listening to a conversation, or outside of the train, watching it puff its way uphill.

I mentioned that I have two theories about the viewing of my literary world. The other is that I have, instead of creating small, floating islands, created one massive world that encompasses all of my characters. They carry out their purpose in this world, and tell me the story, never seeing other people from other plots.

This, of course, raisies the question, what do my characters do in their free time? I'm not sure if I've come up with that yet. I suppose that they would do one of three things: act out the plotline over and over again, cease to exist when the plot is completed, or just live the life that character would create for him or herself. I think that the last is the most likely, but I have no way of knowing, I can't just check in on Holden, The Cat in the Hat and Othello without recalling the plot, meaning that all I see them doing is enacting the plot.

I know that some of this is a bit fairytale-ish, especially the one big world theory, but what fiction reading isn't just a little bit magical?