the wicked ways of stories

[rm]

The romantic way to ask this question is, "What have you done because you read it in a book?"

the less romantic, more completist way to ask this question is -- what things have you done because of some random (pop)culture inspiration?

Offhand, I went to Australia, took up Regency Dance and learnt to ride horses. I have a fourth one (herbalism) that's arguably similarly attributable (although also predates anything you could possibly blame it on as a personal interest) and I may be acquiring a fifth soon.

So really, my fellow nerds, what've you done?

When I was little, my parents always worried that I'd jump out a window so I could fly like in stories. I think they still worry.

Comments

[bunnymasterg.livejournal.com]

For me personally, I can't think of anything.
However, a friend comes to mind instantly, who started rubbing nettles on her arm because she saw it in a flash cartoon.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Let's see ....

I explored NYC club life ( Bright Lights, Big City )
I became a techie/hacker ( Countless Science Fiction books )
I became a Postmodern Minimalist ( Carver )
I became an unchained explorer of the human condition ( Miller, Nin )
I became a utter bastard ( That copy of Titus I used to carry everywhere )
I changed several aspects of my life based on what I read of Henry Rollins

I made pasta sauce based on the book " Harry & Catherine "

Gore Vidal ( No explaination needed )

I could go on for days . .. . .

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...from an iconic television show, a girlfriend and I read a book to each other. We'd take turns reading it aloud. That would be the most memorable, and most directly attributable to a pop-culture inspiration.

[random-girl.livejournal.com]

I started practicing religion (not the one I read in the book, but it encouraged me to find the one I was looking for).

I started doing crafts -- a lot of articles and people in stories do them; turns out, they aren't so hard.

Romantic candle lit experiences (replete with rose petals)...which, when you don't have to clean up (say at a hotel) are pretty much as fun as they seem to be in books.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Altered my style of dress (various influences, starting with the 3rd [Jon Pertwee] Doctor on Doctor Who and including Lex Luthor on Smallville), (as a child) talked my parents into getting me a pet cat, tried a wide variety of new styles of food & new types of cooking, decided to major in physics in college (the result of reading vast amounts of 1960s & 1950s hard SF), and first started exploring both magic and martial arts, and learned to better interact with people attempting to consciously both model and imitate their behavior. In some ways, it more of a question of what in my life wasn't originally inspired by some fantasy (or more likely) SF novel.

[rufus.livejournal.com]

I went to Eileen Donan (castle) because of Highlander , and I totally stood on the bridge and pumped the air and said "There can be only one!" and all of the other tourists were like OMGWTF?

Arguably I went JYA to Scotland because of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (which are excellent historical fiction disguised as romance novels).

I read a certain amount of hard SF a between the ages of 9 and 12 which I think . . . expanded my mental horizons in ways that are difficult to quantify., and not, as it happens, to include an interest in science. Silverberg's To Live Again and Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land come to mind in particular, here. I was really fascinated with Jubal, at age 9, and the way he closed himself off from the world, and the relationships he had with the three girls, as well as the relationships they had with others.

And Michener's The Tell made me long to visit Jerusalem.

[rm.livejournal.com]

OMG, I can't believe I left out my CAW stuff. Totally.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

I went to Eilean Donan (castle) because of Highlander , and I totally stood on the bridge and pumped the air and said "There can be only one!" and all of the other tourists were like OMGWTF?

OMG I totally did the same thing! And got the same reaction!

[fuyukodachi.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to think about this for a little while. I know there were a lot of things, but not everyone remembers everything we've done all at once.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Oh boy.

* Cut and dyed my hair, repeatedly
* Bought clothes, accessories etc. and even sewed my own sometimes
* Bought/Read books (fiction and non) that a character in a book read, or that expanded on the topic in the book (like, reading up on string theory because some character mentioned it)
* Dressed up in costume, usually but not always for costume occasions (cons, Halloween, costume parties)
* Bought/Listened to music
* Written nonfiction articles (as myself and in character)
* Tried foods and drinks from books, and recipes
* Traveled locally (I don't think I ever went farther than 100 miles for such a thing)
* Put together a fake porn Web site (for an RPG character)
* Bought cheesy tie-in materials
* Adopted mannerisms, accents, tics and behavior patterns
* Learned to drink hard liquor straight up at an age when most of my peers drank beer and mixers
* Created huge-ass databases
* Written - um - I really don't want to estimate how much fiction, but over several novels' worth in wordcount
* Fetishized things and had sexual fantasies
* Learned skills (all kinds of ramdom crap from survival skills to bartending to sewing, none of them well, thanks to no attention span)
* Gotten in a physical fight (oh, the dumb)
* Applied for, and worked at, jobs
* Convinced my entire junior high school that I believed I was a space alien
* Memorized poetry, quotations etc. (and I suck at memorizing things)
* Formed or changed a serious moral or political or similar belief (Pro or anti-war, pro or anti animal testing, etc)
* Found someone attractive and seriously flirted with them
* Learned a language, or tried to

I'm sure there's other stuff. I think my biggest currently contemplated wankery is getting prescription eyeglasses in a specific shade and tint in order to look more like (one version of) a comics character, when I can afford them; and cursing the fact that I am moving into yet another rental rather than a condo because I can't paint very subtle Elvish on the walls or windows.

[mobobocita.livejournal.com]

Visited Ireland, tried to stop speaking (it lasted a week), learned a variety of languages, taught myself to read/write backwards, wrote a play in iambic pentameter, tried teaching school, it just goes on and on.

[alabastard.livejournal.com]

Took up Martial Arts (old kung fu films)

Camped out in a castle for months at a time, and while there,
rode a horse from Scotland to Spain and back (started as a Highwayman adventure, became so much more)

Started cosplaying (HP), as an outlet for my acting jones when ultimately tired of theatre and it's people around here, and wanted to try something different

[splix.livejournal.com]

Mostly everything, really.

But the thing that's sticking out in my mind most prominently is the time I ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of art and danced around at the top with my hands in the air. Because Rocky Balboa did it. Fuck yes.

[airspaniel.livejournal.com]

I went to Rock City, walked the paths like water on a prayer wheel, and saw seven states. And I imagined I could almost see through the veil to the epic battle of the gods. Moreover, I made my mom drive an hour out of our way so I could do this. Thanks, American Gods!
I also huffed ether for the first time because of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I don't know that it was depraved, but I definitely did forget the word for "dog" and spent 3 minutes in the fetal position giggling under the piano.

[rinkori.livejournal.com]

Decided to become a med student (that didn't last for very long, given that I hate both math and science--it was the caretaking aspect that appealed to me).

Changed my speech patterns.

Learned to appreciate the aesthetic of high heels, make pound cake, and roll marzipan.

Studied Japanese (oh boy, who hasn't).

Decided to major in English and write about ugly things (A Tree Grows In Brooklyn? Anyone?).

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

When I was a preadolescent I read all the 70's-feminist books my suburban library had (the 'new books' bin was next to the young adult section). I thought the future was going to be like that, imagine my surprise at growing up.

I'm sure I read about sex in a book but that's not why I started doing it.

I started growing avocados from the seed from a 70's ad (that I later as an adult wrote to the Avocado grower's lobby to get a vintage copy of).

My sister and I wrote a lot of stuff down in partial homage to Harriet the Spy.

One of my friends just moved into a housing complex where everything is the same, even the trees lining the streets, and I did ask him if his kid opens the front door and bounces his red ball at the same time as all the other kids. I stopped short of yelling I LOVE YOU CHARLES WALLACE at the poor kid (who I hardly know) though.

My sister and I tried milk and Pepsi inspired by Laverne and Shirley (it was like an ice cream soda except sort of gross).

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Dyed my hair blue (Robotech).

Started prancing about my apartment wearing robes and brandishing a wand (You can guess where that came from).

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

I lived on the street in a half-assed way because of various things in Delany. I came to New York because of Konigsberg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I became a bull-dancer because of Renault's The King Must Die.

[torenheksje.livejournal.com]

My whole love of All Things Tudor began with a randomly-chosen book in a library. I've now amassed a frightening collection of books, kitsch, and even music from that era, and spent a big chunk of my first honeymoon visiting places in the UK that had ties to that time frame.

I've dressed, colored my hair, taught myself a permanent "adult" handwriting style, traveled, cooked, and read other books based on pop cultere inspiration.

Reclaiming, Renn Faire-type stuff, aromatherapy, and crocheting all fall under that category. I've named pets (but thankfully no children) after characters in books. I almost took up Latin after reading too much HP fanfic, but stopped myself with the realization that I have zero apptitude for languages. :c)

[amberite.livejournal.com]

I first came to the Northwest for the Lovecraft Film Festival. Drove up from California, then decided I wanted to move to Portland. Lived here for a month, then went on a roadtrip, then settled in Tacoma -- now I'm back in Portland with my sweeties. That set the course of my life pretty completely.

My spiritual and magical tendencies are giantly inspired by Diane Duane's Young Wizard series, which I read at an impressionable age. And boy, am I glad of it. I keep going back, and you know? They're just more sensible than most real religions. :-)

I regularly change my hairstyle or style of dress because of a fandom, but I also regularly change my hairstyle or style of dress because whatever. It's one of my primary ways of making an immediate, short-term self-redefinition.

And lots of my "stuff" is in Doctor Who right now, and this time I've become even more aware of the sense in which a modern mythology can be interacted with like any other mythology: so it's even weirder and more intense, because I'm consciously diving in.

I'm sure I'm leaving about a zillion things out.

I'm about to get a tattoo from Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones.

I live in story.

I can't identify all of the threads because they're buried deep. Take them out and I'd unravel.