Wednesday, July 19, 2006

my voice

I don't really have my own voice. I have Douglas Adams'. The majority of my sayings tend to come from his books. I read the repeatedly at an early age and they are just a part of me. Lately I have been getting a lot of "Why are they buildign that Mommy?" questions from DS1. Constuction is booming in this area, we can't go anywhere without running into an excavator or dumptruck or shell of a building. There are only so many good factual answers to his question and after a bit just respond. "It's a Target. You've got to build Targets" which is from Hitchhiker's Guide "Its a bypass. You've got to build bypasses" I've also been known to stop an endless flood of questions by saying "42". The boys now realize Mommy has give them the Ultimate Answer & no more questions are necessary. I'll make comments about "having the sort of day that would make St Francis of Asissi kick babies.", refer to broken items as "the alleged *item*", answer complicated math questions with "A suffusion of yellow" and mention that "people are a problem".

I also quote old movies, like Clue - "So he says, but does he know?" and "but look what happened to the cook."

It's really amazing how often the opportunity to use things like that come up IRL. Not so much online. But one of the 'requirements' of my coven is that you have read everything by Douglas Adams or at the very least have watched lots of Monty Python. Not for religious reasons but so you can keep up with us when we start tossing around one liners & quoting things.

My own personal voice includes the work 'freaking' which is said in place of the less appropriate F word. I use a lot of contractions, drop final 'g's and have an accent in certain vowel sounds.

I don't tidy up my voice when I am writing very often. Usually just for clarity. Journaling is more thought than spoken word & there is a difference for me in those 2. I have a much larger mental vocabulary than spoken one and mentally my grammar is better. However my though process tends to ramble, whereas I am much more concise verbally. So often when I am journaling for a layout I will lean more toward my spoken voice than my mental voice. When I am journaling here I tend to stick with my mental voice - which should be obvious from the rambling nature of this post.

7 comments:

Monica said...

I don't recall ever reading Douglas Adams, but I'm pretty up on the Monty Python quips. I'll have to look for one of his books next time I'm in the bookstore!

Tink said...

Been years since I have read Douglas Adams and I believe we have all of the Monty Python's on dvd (except Jabberwocky and the flying circus). All of my kids could sing all of the songs from the movies which could be quite embarassing from time to time.

loonyhiker said...

I never could get into Monty Python. I remember friends watching it in college but they usually were laughing hysterically. I never thought it was that funny and think it was because they were drunk. All I can remember is "Bring me your dead!"

Glynis said...

I have said before that you and I have similar senses of humor, but you've made me think I just HAVE to go back and re-read all those Douglas Adams books! I just giggled at this post!

heather said...

LOL great post - i'd love to hear you saying a few of those funny lines!

faery-wings said...

Never read Douglas Adams, but M Python... "She turned me into a newt!"
My kids are almost 8 and 10 and they love Holy Grail and we'll often get itno reciting lines till the whole family is practically peeing in their pants.

Anyway, I think I have to check good ol Doug out.

And I think our writing and thinking styles are pretty similar too :)

Bonnie said...

Hee hee. Odd that I have just watched the movie "the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy".
"So long and thanks for all the fish", "Don't panic" come to mind! I also have read a lot of his books! I remember hitchhikers from when I was little! The movie was good.