Warning: Geekiness Ahead

[jennythereader]

I know I have a lot of fellow SF&F fans reading me, many of whom are more or less active at Cons and other aspects of fandom. Given that, I figure I can't be the only one who has incorperated terminology from some of my favorite books and movies into my everyday speech. I'm not talking about repeating a character's catch phrase because it's funny and more-or-less appropriate, but rather using the made-up words or phrases in regular conversation the same way the characters would have.

The one word I notice myself using the most is "Grok," from Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land. Superficially, to grok something is simply to understand it, but it implies an extremely complete understanding of all the nuances and complexities of the subject.

A phrase I sometimes use is "on the gripping hand," from Niven's The Mote In God's Eye. It's used with "on the one hand ... , on the other hand ... " to give a third option.

How about you guys? Any words or phrases you've swiped from books?

(I'm also testing if this crossposted to Facebook. Let me know?)

Comments

[nounsandverbs]

I use "grok" on occasion, and I also talk about sides of the Force. (For example, while I'm using an iPod to post this, I have not gone all the way to the Apple side of the Force.)

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

I tend to use "Force" oriented concepts primarily in reference to heraldry. After years of people muttering about evil heralds in Northshield, we decided to embrace it, declaring ourselves the Dark Heralds of the Sith, and occasionally using such phrases as, "I find your lack of documentation disturbing!" and "The Voice is strong with this one!" (for a particularly notable up-and-coming voice herald).

I've also been called into court in an official capacity only to have the musical consort that was providing pre-court entertainment strike up the Imperial March.

That said, for some reason, nobody seems to find "Darth Mikey" especially terrifying. I think it's somewhat akin to the Dread Pirate Westley...