Fictional Couples...

[fajrdrako]

From October 23, 2008:

Got this idea from Literary Feline during her recent contest: "Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me."

I'd like to be able to say Lymond and Philippa from the Lymond novels, but as it happens, I always wished Lymond would get together with Kate rather than Philippa. I'm not unhappy with the plot as it progressed, but Kate was my favourite female character in the books, and I liked her with Lymond. Other fans have explained to me why Lymond couldn't possibly have ended up with Kate, and you know what? I think that's ridiculous. The only reason he didn't choose Kate is because that isn't what the author wanted.

So. Eliminate them as my choice. Who to say. Beatrice and Benedick? Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester? Eugene Wrayburn and Lizzie Hexham? Archy and Mehitabel? (No, no, only kidding.)

Okay, my choice - no surprise, I'm sure - Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia Naismith from Shards of Honour and many of the other Lois McMaster Bujold novels.

I was amused to see when I looked at the Booking Through Thursday website that the first person who posted anything picked as their first choice Lymond and Philppa. And I liked all their other choices, too. I should make a Top Ten list.

Lymond and Philippa might be on it, if I am feeling particularly tolerant.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think the point is usually (or often, I can't say whether it's the general rule) that opposite temperaments are complimentary, which makes for a tidy yin/yang balance. And are fun to read about because it adds to the tension.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

But you can't believe in them as lasting and durable relationships, which is what the 'happy ending' sort of demands. Tension and conflict can make for a brief passionate fling that ends in tears or violence (in which case, as reader, I will be on one side or the other, but know it could never have worked in the long-term, and berate the character I like for being so bloody stupid), but not for a long-term successful relationship. Yin/yang balance, masculine/feminine & c I see as things people have within themselves as individuals. I don't see it as about one person providing one, the other the opposite.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

But you can't believe in them as lasting and durable relationships

Why not? I've known couples in RL who seemed such, and were perfectly happy. I've also known couples who seemed very alike in temperament, and ended up fighting, or divorced. I don't think it works logically.

And tension and conflict are a matter of degrees, and usually, in novels, either a matter of circumstance and plot or misunderstanding. I have no problem with this.

Moreover I find it easy - even natural - to be on both sides at once.

Yin/yang balance, masculine/feminine & c I see as things people have within themselves as individuals. I don't see it as about one person providing one, the other the opposite.

So it is; but the relationship, the pair as a couple, makes a third entity with its own interior balances.