fiction files redux discussion

In an effort to stir up some conversation I've stolen this somewhat basic thread topic from another Goodreads group. I am sure that in the original or second iteration of the Fiction Files we had a thread like this, but that was years ago and things may have changed.

So who's the most memorable fictional character you've encountered?

Wow! That's an interesting one. And REALLY difficult.

I will have to let that one sit for a few hours...

It is difficult. My tendency is to go to things I've read recently , but I'll try to fight that. I don't think I can narrow it down to just one so I'll toss out three that I think I lot of us have read about..Odysseus, Edmund Dantes, Don Corleone.

Don Quixote would be at the top... Bloom, too. Hmmmmm...

It's not really an easy question to answer. In fact both responses so far have listed more than one character.

What is it that makes for a memorable character? Is it the character himself? The journey she/he undergoes?

Is there commonality that makes a character great?

Is there commonality that makes a character great?

All of the three I mentioned had the ability to accomplish their respective goals, but in the final analysis I think it is the writer who brings a character to life and imbues him/her with greatness. i.e would Hamlet be a great character without Shakespeare?

For me, when I try to think of a memorable character from all my reading I tend to focus on the characters that I LIKED the most. If I really LIKE a character, then they are memorable to me. But then that seems to be taking this question of "who's the most memorable fictional character you've encountered" and changing it to "Who's your favorite fictional character?" and I don't think that's what you're asking. So I'm a little stuck here. Should I just tell you my most memorable characters which are my favorite characters or do I need to go at this question differently?

:D

It feels to me like the greatness of a fictional character is equal to the greatness of his/her struggles and aspirations. Sorry if that came of as strictly mathematical, as we all know it isn't.

But for me, a couple of the most memorable fictional characters are Ahab and Huckleberry Finn. I think each character becomes memorable for me when they just have a truckload of moxie and stubbornness. Ahab? A fucking old dude with one leg who goes on a vendetta against a sperm whale. Huck Finn? An illiterate kid who defies his whole society to help a friend viewed as less than human. My personal favorite: Hank Stamper? Taking a whole boom of logs down the river, defying everything and everyone in the world.

patty and i talked about this a bit today: there was some discussion as to whether the actual characterization of the character would make them memorable? for me, it seems that the archetypal characters would be memorable but that the actual characterization of them might be hazy. for example, when i think of odysseus, while i'm very fond of him, i think of him in the same vein as loki, or fox from first nations myth: the trickster who manages to find a way to turn the tables.

but then i think of books i've loved, and characters that peopled them, like my favourite shirley jackson, The Sundial, and i think all of those characters are very real and vivid, and memorable even though they're mostly deplorable, and function in the same way. i feel they have distinct qualities and character traits. if we go to a mutual favourite writer of kerry's and mine, i find austen's protagonists memorable and well-defined. anne eliot, elizabeth bennet, emma woodhouse are all very different women even though they are all "gentlewomen" and i find them to be very memorable. so i think that they might be favourites, as well. though i suppose it could go the other way as well... i certainly remember mr. collins very well, and mrs. bennet, and they make my skin crawl. :P

i think the key for me as to whether a character is memorable, is not whether they are successful, it's whether i believe the character, whether they come up off the page, and walk around in my head, and i think of what they've said, and it's as if they might've said it to me. sometimes they are the perfect mix of archetype and characterization: chandler's philip marlowe, and mcdonald's lew archer feel real to me, and memorable. not sure if at bottom of all this is that i believe in characters that are witty because that entertains me, and thus engages me. :P

here's where i wish some of our theory specialists posted more. maybe somebody should harass danielle to come back and give us her two cents. it would be great if goodreads would add @functionality a la twitter and goodreads to ping those people because i'd be doing that right about now.:)

thinking back to other books: Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge (written ten years apart by the same author -- i've been meaning to review these excellent novels for a year now) are both very vivid characters. those books succeed on the strength of connell's depiction of them as a typical WASP couple, and he's able to show you what they're like internally and externally, and how they see each other in reflection in those two books. they are both marvels of characterization, and i truly felt i understood WASP-y people a helluva lot better after i read those books.

Thanks for this thread, Dan; it's really fascinating to think about which characters resonate, and why (I'm not going to list Mickey Sabbath, although he is memorable). Thinking about Kerry's comment on a "likeable" character sent me in the other direction. Judge Holden, from Blood Meridian, is an embodiment of pure evil, and yet I can't seem to shake him (or the effect he had on me) even years later. His marching creed shook me to my boots - "Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak. Historical law subverts it at every turn."

Is it possible that certain characters resonate with us depending on where we are in our lives? When I was 15, Salinger's Zooey was more real to me than most people I knew; and by the time I turned 30 she had been replaced by Ellen Gilcrists's Rhoda. Now that I'm approaching my dotage, Allende's Eva Luna is more to my liking. The exception that proves this rule is, for me, Jane Eyre, who has been with me always.

Hank Stamper! Man, I love Sometimes a Great Notion....

Yes, Mo and Martha! It's easy to go the other way and see that characters that anger you, or rub you the wrong way or make your skin crawl are very memorable. For me this would be Alec D'Urberville in Hardy's Tess of the D'urbervilles or Mrs. Danvers from Du Maurier's Rebecca or Patrick Bateman from Ellis' American Psyco.

I also agree with characters that resonate with you personally. I've always had an affinity for Lucy Honeychurch in E.M. Forster's A Room With a View, her desire to break out of what she imagines are constraints, but her fear that doing so might disappoint those she loves. Because I feel this affinity for her, she is memorable to me.

Similarly I've always identified with the dreamer Ponyboy Curtis from S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. Especially as a teenager. I was a dreamer too, looking at clouds and sunsets when I should have been focusing on school work. He is memorable to me still.

Mmmmmm...Mrs. Danvers!

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot is a very memorable character. I think it's because his unique traits are so incredibly overdrawn and overemphasized. I think that characters that are practically charicatures are the most memorable.

On the other hand, my favorite character, Candide, I would be unable to describe to you. I can tell you about his adventures, but I remember almost nothing about his personal traits. I'd probably have better luck describing Pangloss.

Patty wrote: "I think that characters that are practically charicatures are the most memorable..."

Excellent point!

I was trying to find a reason why I think Crooks from Of Mice and Men is so memorable to me. Obviously he isn't a favorite literary character, but that tender scene where he begs to go with George and Lennie has played time and time again.

. . . as far as protagonists go, i always fall for the loveable loser . . . ray midge is a favorite, arturo bandini, another . . . i suppose quixote is pretty near the prototype . . . and also, i concur with ry on huck and ahab, with regard to the struggles . . . then there is the ancillary characters whom i would liken to character actors . . . nobody was better than dickens at this . . . vonnegut was damn good, too . ..

oh and also, even though i think empathy is a fabulous thing, it's those parts of the character that shock us, take us off guard, show us some other way of seeing the world, the things that are foreign from us, that really make them memorable.

Patty wrote: "oh and also, even though i think empathy is a fabulous thing, it's those parts of the character that shock us, take us off guard, show us some other way of seeing the world, the things that are for..."

Maybe that's why I have such a tough time thinking of one, or even just 10. Connecting to characters may be the best part of reading.

Shel wrote: "Patty wrote: "oh and also, even though i think empathy is a fabulous thing, it's those parts of the character that shock us, take us off guard, show us some other way of seeing the world, the thing..."

. . . i'm with you, shel . . . for me connecting with characters is the whole point of reading . . . i want to empathize, and as patty put it, gleen that other way of seeing the world . . .there is a point, though, where i just stop caring for characters who are anti-sympathetic . . . i don;t care how flawed and ugly they may be, i just need to know that they are at least trying to be better people . . .

My Crabby self today would say thats hard. The counte of Monte Cristo. That is not karma but sometimes its hard to let go of evilness on purpose. Then Mary Poppins I wish she was my nanny. Its A tie probably answered the wrong question.

You know bokks ae my best friends it is way to hard and never ever ending. I love It LOVE LOVE My
favorite thing beside something else. So many AHHH.You dont talk out loud they talk to you inside too deep.I think the most meanful things I have learned is reading.
You dont have to answer just absorb . I just iund out I hAVE ADHD. I knew it had to wait forever and i did not go to medical school anywho She is A women asking I read. I was so excited yes not too much lately. Then she says how many books are you reading? 15 That I guess is one of the symptoms. You can read like that the book isnt going to say no. I elt like saying you have been in my house. But maybe that is why I love it and your really never alone> Thats If you get lonely sometimes. I love books,ben & Jerry not fat either adhd.
Reading calms me funny how you know that when your young. Not by saying It But There alawys there better and Better Oldies people that knew so much back then and were not afraid to say so thank God !

Morris Bird the III in 'Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread' is absolutely wonderful in his tenacity to do the right thing and help that blind housewife and the African American gentleman during the worst explosion diaster in the Midwest. I wish I could be humble and brave like that kid!

It's Stephen Dedalus for me. That's probably rather obvious, but it's true. I'd also say Arturo Bandini in Ask The Dust. Both chaps I can relate to, especially, Dedalus. I think it was Charles Bukowski who cried "I am Arturo Bandini!" once. Well, I'll say "I am Stephen Dedalus!"