I think I might have been possessed by anna quindlen and the voice of the lady who was reading ?black and blue? to me on my way to work this morning.
I drove into the parking lot around 9:05. I was still sitting there, in my car, baking in the early morning summer heat at 9:37. Sitting there, my face a red, puffy mess of tears and sweat. I was sitting there, listening to the last words of ?black and blue.?
This is my second time hearing this story. I read the book when it first came out, about two years ago. I cried then too. what?s scary is the way anna quindlen?s writing style and that woman?s voice are the voices and manner I am using when talking to myself. I can hear it. I can feel myself phrasing my words the way quindlen did in the novel. I just wrote an entire e-mail using that voice. I hate when I do that. I did it with dave eggers and bridget jones too. I wonder why I do it, do other people do this? Or am I alone in this strange phenomenon?
i totally do that! whenever i read or hear a “voice” that i identify with, i tend to pick it up for a few days afterwards. hell, i do that with accents. if i’m talking to a brit, i sound like a brit. if i’m talking to a southerner, i sound like a belle.
i’m a linguistic chameleon!
I really noticed that happening to me after reading Bridget Jones’s Diary. I found myself omitting pronouns from my personal journal all the time… then promptly writing “Get Bridget Jones out of my head!!”
and so but then i totally don’t do that at all(1).
1. (!).
i catch myself doing wallaceisms all the time. i think i am so clever.
its a good thing somebody very smart made you read his stuff.
I do it with Doug Coupland and Kerouac. But badly.