I can't actually find much information about this anywhere, so I'm going to assume that I'm one of a very small group of closet Inadvertent Imitators, specifically when it comes to fictional characters. Of course there are thousands of people who dress up as their favorite characters for cosplay conventions and the like, and may even adopt their favorite character's tenant or sayings, but what I'm talking about is accidental. It only happens when I spend a good deal of time around a certain character (be it a TV show, a movie series, or whatever).
A good example is Doctor Who. I started watching the revived seasons just this past summer in hopes of catching up to the new season. That meant I was speeding through the show, watching anywhere from one to six episodes a day if I had nothing else to do, and hardly taking breaks in between to watch other shows or movies. For four days (The time it took me to speed through the first two seasons), I watched nothing but Doctor Who in my free time. By then, I was thinking in an almost pure British accent. It was almost startling to talk and find myself speaking proper American. I had to force myself to not pretend to be British in my head, and I decided to take a week break to watch Dollhouse to get my head back in order.
This doesn't only happen to me with accents, though. After a week of watching Dollhouse, I found myself walking around the house like one of the characters in their Tabula Rasa state (blankly). After speeding through Firefly, I sauntered like the main protagonist and forced myself not to use their Chinese (though I allow myself the say "shiny" whenever appropriate). I remember coming home from seeing Cyrano de Bergerac and having mom chide me for trying to talk just like he does, though I hadn't realized I'd been doing it.
I think this stems from the childhood act of playing as characters in stories. As if, as an adult, I haven't broken this habit, but instead evolved it to fit my new lifestyle. I'm not sure about this, though; I honestly don't remember pretending, as a child, to be my favorite characters. The only reason I would have adopted the habit growing older would be to help my writing. I know that, while reading a book, I'll copy character's expressions as described in order to help me 'see' the character better. It's easier to imagine a character's grimace if I practice it on myself.
I've found one other blogger who mentioned doing this, so I know I'm not the only one. But it's definitely a goo biological reminder not to get too focused on a single story. As great as a certain TV show might be, once I start inadvertently imitating the characters, I know I've been watching too much.
2 comments:
OMG I do the same thing! Less so with accents b/c most of the shows I watch are in Japanese, but I start adopting the mannerisms and, interestingly, the style of wit/sarcasm/humor or whatever. And same with the writing and expressions. But I don't think that's a bad thing, the shift required to do that is actually very good for your brain, especially if you're trying to come up with a novel idea, like, say, for a book ;)
Whenever I read the Chronicles of Prydain, I start talking like I'm at a Renaissance Faire or something. Its fun. I also break out Japanese words randomly. Yeah, it happens.
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