You read a book and relate to a character. You become immersed in this character, their thoughts, their mind, their life. You watch a film, or a television series, or you read another book, and you do the same thing, absorbing a character. Eventually you look back at how you deal with tasks, relationships, and just plain life in general and you can identify almost everything back to a character whose life you have lived. And now you wonder, were you drawn to those characters because you were already similar to them and that is why you can compare these things to these characters? Or can you compare these things to these characters because you have given up your personality and taken on theirs? And if you did trade some of who you were for who these fictional beings are, is it a shallow and temporary change, or is it written into you as if it had always been there?
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Probably not the characteristics, but I've read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead so many times for so long that I'm occasionally shocked to find what I thought were my own thoughts coming out of Ender's mouth.
Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
I recently read a book my roommate has been pushing me to read since FOREVER, and now I constantly find myself saying "Nothing is ever easy".
Tolkien and Rowling have also been written into my soul, as well as Card and Hobb. It's more that I adapt the catchphrases and use them whenever I'm speaking.
::is a geek::
Posted by margarita (Member # 6856) on :
I think some of my more antiquated vocabulary words and phrases probably come from characters in books and movies. Perhaps because something in what those characters say or stand for resonates with me, and when I go to express something similar, the phrase comes back to me readily.
My other thought on this involves uniqueness. As much as we like thinking of ourselves as singular and special individuals, it's also comforting to know we are not completely unique. I am different from the people around me, but we still share some feelings, similar experiences, interests, philosophies, etc. In reading or watching stories about people like us, we come to a better understanding of ourselves.
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
I speak in the style of whoever i'm surrent;y reading. Like, when I'm reading Pride and Prejudice, I'm talking like Elizabeth.
I think a lot of my personality comes from the characters of Ivanova and Delenn on Babylon 5. My mom thinks so too, so it can't be all my imagination.
Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
Hi, margarita. Welcome to Hatrack.
Posted by miles_per_hour (Member # 6451) on :
When I read Alvin Maker, I start speaking in hick.
Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :
I always pick up accents, dialects, and phrases from books I'm reading.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I do that too. Like if I read Angela's Ashes I think in an Irish accent for days. Or an English one for HP and I use words like "ruddy". There's a ton of characters I identify with. Like Akemi in Kabuki. Except for the killing people thing.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I pick up emotions. If I'm reading a book filled with depressing characters or actions, I start acting depressed. IF they are fun energetic people, I start feeling more fun and energetic.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
I hate it when I catch myself emulating phrases and mannerisms from other sources.
And I do it way, way too much.
-Trevor
Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
Another thing I do is pick up on anime. For example, one of the themes in Gundam Wing is 'do as your heart tells you', which I use freqently.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Which has to rank as one of the top five worst pieces of advice ever.
-Trevor
Posted by ReikoDemosthenes (Member # 6218) on :
I've just found it odd how I tend to respond to certain situations the same way as different characters...I was reading Ender's Game again the other day and I noticed that I tend to respond to social situations in a similar way to how Ender responds...and I can't help but wonder if I have been influenced by this character to be like this, or if I was always like that and am only noticing it now that I see it in someone else...
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
I react to visual things. Movies. The occaisional strong imaged-book. It's happened more than once that I've seen the movie and then people have commented on how much I look like so-and-so, not because I physically do (although they're always female, young etc) but because I've stolen the actors/characters actions and way of speaking.
Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
Actually, Trevor, ever since I started actually living that way, I've been happier. Of course, it hasn't come back to bite me in the rear yet, either.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
And I hope it never does.
-Trevor
Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
quote:I always pick up accents, dialects, and phrases from books I'm reading.
Do you do pick them from forums, too? It would be terrible to know people are suddenly speaking with a Polish accent all because of me
[ September 17, 2004, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: Kama ]
Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
((Trevor)) Posted by margarita (Member # 6856) on :
Thanks, Sara Sasse.
TMedina: I have to agree with MaydayDesiax about living as my heart tells me. The decisions I most regret so far in my life have been the ones made too rationally or too emotionally (or without enough of either).
Then again, it could simply be coincidence.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
My experience has been a mixed bag - I have the poor timing to listen to the wrong one at the wrong time.
I listened to my heart when I would have been better served listening to my head and vice versa.
It would be fair to say my experience has been generally bad, but I would hate to consign everyone to my particular fate.
But by the same token, being ruled by one and not the other has it's own set of consequences. As I told Mayday, I hope it never comes back to haunt you (or her).
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