Characters... sexy and otherwise....

[fajrdrako]

I got this from imaginarytiff:

1. Name your ten favorite fictional characters of all time and what book, movie, or tv show they came from.

It's going to be really, really hard to keep this to only ten.

1. Francis Crawford of Lymond (The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, et seq.)
   
2. Remy Lebeau, a.k.a. Gambit (X-Men - comic)
   
3. Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean - movie)
   
4. Aral Vorkosigan (Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, et seq.)
   
5. Eugene Wrayburn (Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens)
   
6. Lex Luthor (Smallville - TV show)
   
7. Aragorn son of Arathorn (The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien)
   
8. Bruce Wayne (Batman - comic)
   
9. Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare)
   
10. Philip Marlowe (Teh Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, et seq.)
    

2. Name five fictional characters that you would like to have an affair with and/or marry, plus the source. You may disregard any pre-existing attachments for these characters.

Pick any four of the above.


3. Name five books/literary works that you would like to live in.

Live in a book? Or the setting of a book? Or to know the characters in that book, as friends? I find this question rather abstract, but here goes:

Much Ado About Nothing (cute men, smart women, Tuscan countryside...)
Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series (where heroes can quote everything they ever read)
X-Men (pretty dark, but I'd like to be a mutant)
Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
any Georgette Heyer Regency novel


4. What classic/critically acclaimed work(s) of literature do you fully appreciate the artistic merits of but hate nonetheless?

There are many classic/critically acclaimed works that I hate, but I don't appreciate their artistic merits, which I consider overblown and misguided. I suppose the classic that most fits this category is Moby Dick, which sounds so good when quoted on X-Files or Star Trek but which annoyed me no end when I actually read it.


5. Name five books that you would recommend I read.

The Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett, which is of course six books. In order:

The Game of Kings
Queen's Play
The Disorderly Knights
Pawn in Frankincense
The Ringed Castle

I don't need to recommend the sixth book, Checkmate, because I do think if you read that far you'll want to read the last one too.

If I can count the series above as one book, I would add the following four other choices:

The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox
The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker
Pilgrim at Tinker's creek by Amnie Dillard
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.

I'm trying to put in variety there.

Comments

[teaphile.livejournal.com]

I suppose the classic that most fits this category is Moby Dick

Oh, oh yes. I couldn't get past the page-long run-on sentence about the whiteness of the whale. Great concept, debatable execution.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this reaction! I persevered out of stubbornness and read the whole darned thing and begrudged just about every moment.

Yeah, good concept, and good characters too - but pretty close to unreadable in my opinion.

The only other classic English author that I had this reaction to is Sir Walter Scott - again, it's a pity becuase I like his stories (and movies based on them) but dislike his style.

I don't like Henry James either, but I can understand why he is respected.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I suppose the classic that most fits this category is Moby Dick, which sounds so good when quoted on X-Files or Star Trek but which annoyed me no end when I actually read it.

Ah. And let us not forget that delightful sequence in Bone, no?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh dear - believe it or not, I had forgotten that wonderful sequence in Bone until you mentioned it just now. How could I forget? It was so wonderful.

[jfc013.livejournal.com]

Psst... the original meme's last question was to be answered by the people who *read* the post, and was a request for other's book recs to be posted on your own LJ. Of course, I said "don't you dare!", because I virtually NEVER read books! :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And I hope people do recommend things because I'm always looking for recs. But I like making recommendations, too.