10 Favorite...

[in_the_blue]

It's supposed to be my 10 favorite literary characters. I answered this in a friend's journal, but it's locked so lots of you probably couldn't see it.

I decided the list would be better served if I fessed up that it was the 10 characters from written literature who were most meaningful and/or influential to me, rather than my favorite. I mean, I would have added the whole cast of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting and most every Flannery O'Connor character and so many more if it were just an unlimited list of my favorites.

1. Sirius Black - HP series


2. Willy Silver - War for the Oaks, Emma Bull (so sue me if you think Willy's just Sirius in a different guise...)


3. Aragorn - LOTR series


4. Remus Lupin - HP series


5. Coyote - many Native American trickster legends


6. Lipsha Morrissey - Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich


7. Charlie Bucket - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl


8. Puck - A Midsummer Night's Dream


9. Stephen Dedalus - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce


10. Scout - To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

I really, really wanted this to be a list of my 10 favorite fictional characters. Not just lit-fic, you know.

So hey, it's my journal. I can do that, and I can pepper it with explanations if I so desire. Without further ado, 10 of my favorite fictional characters from anywhere:

1. Still and always - Sirius Black. Don't ask why my IM ID is Sirius at Heart. Did you ever read a character and your jaw just dropped and you went... I know this person only too well? (Damn you for what you made happen, Herself! I'm still mad about that and I will never forgive you.)


2. Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop. If Sirius gets to be my heart, Spike gets to be my intellectual side. If you combine the two of them in the right proportions and turn the result female, you've got me pretty well figured out. Spike is just cool but he's smart: he's done things and has few regrets, but he's got a conscience. He doesn't take crap from anyone; he's self-sufficient; he has a sense of humor, he knows who and what he is without question.


3. Phouka from War for the Oaks. More fun than you can have with a deck of cards, and what a visualization! He's an awesome character.


4. Charlie Weasley from the HP series. I'm afraid to say this lest JKR kill him off, too, but he's so fun to imagine. We don't know very much (if anything) about him, so he's like this whole little undiscovered country all to himself. He's cheerful but determined and very, very skilled. He makes danger look like a walk in the park, and he's not about the angst.


5. Thomas Builds-the-Fire from Sherman Alexie's world. A storyteller wrapped in innocence, but not too much innocence. Whatever I might think of Sherman Alexie as a person doesn't really matter; he's created an absolutely spellbinding character here.


6. Nightcrawler from The Uncanny X-Men. Do I have to explain? He's just... so... erm... [insert favorite word here]


7. Professor Trelawney from the HP series. I know people like her. It's scary. I don't know how to describe this pick other than to say she's about the most realistic psychic I've ever seen written. She's uncanny and sharp but not in any way related to Divination. A near perfect characterization.


8. Arthur Dent from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He's so efficiently clueless. He moves the story along without realizing he's doing it, and he really is pivotal. And drinks everything that tea is not.


9. Eowyn from LOTR. Give me a good, strong female character who doesn't take shit from anyone.


10. Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. I make no excuses other than to wonder if he'd still be on my list had someone other than Johnny Depp played him. Probably; he's a great character.

There! Another list done. Now I can say I feel so accomplished.

---

erised1810, thank you so much for the gift fic. *sniff* *sob* *hugs* It was such a pleasure to know I had that to look forward to after a day spent editing. I sometimes feel that I rarely get to read HP fanfic just for pleasure any more: it's either to edit or to review. I'm tickled pink to have something from you, and I hope you got my email message about the Dogstar Project.

Comments

[h311ybean]

I cannot believe I left Sirius out of my list! Arghness! *kicks self*

I like your lists, though. Both of them. And I, too, no longer read fic for pleasure.

[sosirius.livejournal.com]

Ahem.

[significant clearing of throat, must be a piece of dog biscuit stuck there]

[awelkin.livejournal.com]

Sherman Alexie has wonderful characters. You've read Reservation Blues, I hope?

Catherine

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh, I certainly hope so! When it first came out. Although I have to confess, I prefer Thomas and Lester and all those guys in short-story form rather than novel; I think poetry and short prose are Alexie's true strengths. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is one of the best short story collections I've ever read.

I got into a nasty argument with him once over the appropriateness of adoption and ever since then I haven't been able to bring myself to support his ego by buying his stuff, although I did see Smoke Signals which was fairly good.