SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Saw this term and definition elsewhere, and was glad to finally have a name for this occurrence.

"FICTION LAG: temporary change in personality that occurs after being deeply involved with a movie, book, game, or some other work of fiction."

My worst case had to be when reading The Dark Tower series. I was "thankee sai"ing all over the place. And it lasted a long damn time.

Anyone else get this? What's your worst case ever?

Ala wrote: "Saw this term and definition elsewhere, and was glad to finally have a name for this occurrence.

"FICTION LAG: temporary change in personality that occurs after being deeply involved with a movi..."

The Dark Tower hit me like that, too. Also, whenever I read a P.G. Wodehouse book, I incorporate World War I era slang into my vocabulary for a day or two.

Oh, yes! Very much so.

It doesn't usually last more than a day or two, since I'm on the next book soon after finishing with whatever I'm reading. More, though, if I've been reading a whole series who watching seasons worth of shows.

We watched seasons 1 through 3 of Farscape recently, and I was using frell and microt all over the place.

They also slip into my dreams rather frequently.

(I think I noticed it most in my reviews for whatever book I've been reading - especially the historic type books.)

I'm glad that there's a term for this. Now I don't feel like I'm insane so much. :>

I'm still cleaning up all the bodies from after I finished 'American Psycho.'


;)

I recently re-read The Dubious Hills and had an uncontrollable craving for oatcakes, which it seems that they're constantly eating in that book. (I even actually made some.)

I'm so glad there is a term for this too and that I'm not alone :)

Usually, this happens to me with very long books, series or if I read several books of a certain genre back to back. For example, if I read too many Victorian novels.

I think the Shogun phase was the worse for me. A group of us on GR read it and everyone was throwing terms around even when out of the group.

Audiobooks where there is an accent are also bad for me. In The Help the narrators have Southern accents....everything I read during and after listening to the audio had a Southern accent to it. I couldn't stop. Now I'm listening to Lonesome Dove and it's a Western accent. :/

I don't listen to audiobooks, so I've never picked it up from there, but I do pick up accents, sometimes, from TV or movies.

The other night we were watching Justified, and I was asking him something during the commercial break and he asked if I realized I had slipped into a Kentucky accent. I'd had no idea until he mentioned it.

I should probably watch more period British movies. I tend to speak very properly for awhile after watching those. ;)

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress with the shortened sentences did it to me.

Nice to see I'm not insane. Or at least, not alone in my insanity :P

I think there's plenty of insanity to go around here. We're bookaholics, after all.
;-)

I read John Scalzi's affectionate rant about opening each of Rothfuss's books to a scene involving stew. So, I made a batch!

For me I have to go on a huge run with one author to experience this; because I tend to read books in one or two sittings their particular vocabularies don't often infect my own. But there are some authors that I am prone to going on kicks of -- Agatha Christie, for one, because I can easily read three of her mysteries in a day and do that for days on end, and that usually leads me to using random upper class Britishisms (it's been a while, so I forget which ones) that make people give me weird looks.

I also tend to parrot concepts from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga when I do my nearly yearly reread. . .

Phoenixfalls wrote: "I also tend to parrot concepts from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga when I do my nearly yearly reread. . . "

I finished the Vor Game recently, and "just so" kept popping into my speech. That was a weird one.

Can't say that this happened to me with books, but I can say frack.

I've read the Vorkosigan books so much and analogize to concepts and situations from them in my daily life that I can't really call that a case of fiction lag. More that it's genuinely influenced my thinking.

LOL I'm sure other Battlestar Galactica fans are with me when I say "FRAK"

Jeff wrote: "Can't say that this happened to me with books, but I can say frack."

Well television and movies are a form of fiction arn't they? They have writers. I saw it counts. :D

I cringe though when I catch myself murmuring "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills" or exclaiming "Light!"

(both Wheel of Time if ya don't know)

I have a weird (and meandering) example from this morning. It's snowing where I am, and eventually it got to a point where it was starting to accumulate, instead of melting as soon as it hit the ground, and I figured I should probably go out and clear the sidewalk. After I while I saw that the snowfall had gotten more dense and rapid and was starting to impair visibility, and apparently my brain thought "Young and Crippen are really moving out now" was the best way to express this.

This is something the public affairs officer said during the first launch of Columbia; the audio of this is used near the end of this song. Don't say I didn't warn you it's kind of cheesy.

Rush is my favorite band, and after I thought that I was reminded of this thread. And it made me think that some things just take up residence in the brain, Asherah-style. (And yes, that book has done just that for me.)

Leslie wrote: "I cringe though when I catch myself murmuring "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills" or exclaiming "Light!"

(both Wheel of Time if ya don't know)"

Heh. The other day a coworker was talking about bowling with another coworker, and he said something about how it's all in the wrist - you have to aim with the wrist... and I started thinking "I do not aim with my wrist. He who aims with his wrist has forgotten the face of his father."

Ahahaha damn. That just made my morning, thanks Colleen.

No prob. It's always nice when people can share a particular brand of insanity and amuse themselves with the fall-out. ;)

I am reading Elfquest again and tend to say "puckernuts" rather than, um, well, other expletives. And I count things in eights ...

Thought of another one — The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Can't escape the Law of Fives.

To this day my speech is riddled with leavings from Hitchhiker's Guide ... I can't hear 42 (and I notice it everywhere!) without adding the question, I describe unpleasantly good things as being struck in the head by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick, and threaten recalicitrant cow orkers with Vogon poetry.

I am a geek.

Vogon poetry? Oh dear gods, why?

One more little Dark Tower reference, though not quite fiction-laggy. When I was at Universal Studios, in the stall of one of the women's bathrooms someone had written "Go then. There are other worlds than these."

I tried to take a picture, but my camera wouldn't focus on something that close-up. :(

Colleen ~blackrose~ wrote: " I started thinking "I do not aim with my wrist. He who aims with his wrist has forgotten the face of his father."
"

LOLOLOL!!! That's PERFECT!

Anyone else remember how many people used to use 'grok' instead of 'understand' back in the 60's & 70's?

If movies are on the table, I admit to flashing the Vulcan greeting & telling users "May the Force be with you." after I've hopefully fixed a weird computer problem that may return.

Jim - I use grok a lot. I never realized it came from Heinlein (just googled it).

Yeah - grok is still in use in the geekier segments of the population. Not sure how widespread it is anymore.

I don't think I've actually ever said "may the force be with you". Though "do or do not, there is no try" has passed my lips a few dozen times.

stormhawk wrote: "To this day my speech is riddled with leavings from Hitchhiker's Guide ... I can't hear 42 (and I notice it everywhere!) without adding the question, I describe unpleasantly good things as being st..."

One of my geek tests when I meet new people is to see if I get a reaction when I casually work the number 42 into a conversation.

Colleen ~blackrose~ wrote: "Jim - I use grok a lot. I never realized it came from Heinlein (just googled it)."

Stranger in a Strange Land was really an 'in' novel for a couple of decades. It was surprising how many different people had read it.

Jim - Cool to know. Before my time, though. ;)

I just used 'do or do not, there is no try' the other day. = )

My biggest shift happened when I read the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon. I started thinking in Scottish brogue. Don't think I actually used it though, 'cause I can't pronounce it. = D

Still have flashbacks to it on occasion - things like "I dinna ken", "wee laddie", and "aye, then" just stuck with me.

I do it all the time, but mainly when in a conversation when someone who throws out a straight line. And in my writing. It's a useful tool for a writer to have oceans of dialog and song lyrics and other story parts in the back of his head. Never know what'll come out.

Yesterday a few of us on Twitter got into a prolonged 'Princess Bride' quote-a-thon.

A sure-fire sign of geekhood, quoting Princess Bride :P

My worst fiction lag happens when I read about teens or others from decades significantly younger that I, who do things I wish I had done and which I can no longer do.

My brothers and I have all read 1984, so we are constantly using Newspeak words when we talk to each other. Sometimes we get extra dorky and make up new Newspeak words. Like instead of something that something is boring, we say that it is doubleplusunwhimsical.

Laughing, Stormhawk, because I have the same reaction to "42."
Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my favorite immersion writers, and I always walk around in a daze after finishing his books.
I've been on a Tony Hillerman jag, and when I leave the house after finishing one, I'm amazed by all the people, the green trees and the total lack of desert around me.

Not a book, but it was Buffy that would get me and I'd find myself speaking like the teen characters.

"Bored now" is still in regular use at my house.

Portal (the video game) is something else that's given my household a bad case of this. Imitating GlaDOS's voice, quoting from or singing the end song, and joking about delicious cake are all fair game.

Speaking of video games... My husband plays Call of Duty, and he particularly like the online zombie killing part of it.. The first time my son laughed (he's 15 months now) it was because I was imitating the voice in the game and yelling "Max Ammo!" and "Instakill!" at him. He still laughs when I do it, lol :P

In 5 years your son is going to be one of those kids on xbox live, laughing as they shotgun me in the face...

Hell no! Ok maybe. Probably. But only for an hour a day on weekends!

Ala wrote: "In 5 years your son is going to be one of those kids on xbox live, laughing as they shotgun me in the face..."

Wait, 5 years? Make that 15 and I'll agree. My five year old baby will be watching Dora the Explorer and all of those other really annoying shows. No video games until he's well into his teens! *cracks whip*

that's exactly how it is. only more high pitched.

damn kids

Heh, Dawn, I just read this (NSFW) and can't help being reminded of it.

Reading Sandman Slim gave me a huge craving for a cigarette, and I've never smoked in my life!