15 from Fiction, a list-meme
“Be your own fiction. After that, the story almost writes itself.”
I usually avoid these but I have time to burn tonight, and I enjoyed this challenge much more than that nonsensical “BBC” list of 100 books that’s floating around. Thanks, Justin D.
The Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Name fifteen fictional characters (television, films, plays, books, etc.) who’ve influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Then, if you’d like, tag fifteen friends on [Fb] (including me, please. I’m interested in seeing what characters you choose.)
Mine:
1. Arthur Dent (The Hitchhiker’s Guide)
2. Jack Duluoz [Kerouac's literary alter-ego] (Desolation Angels, etc)
3. Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
4. Legolas (LotR)
5. Yakko Warner (Animaniacs)
6. Encyclopedia Brown
7. Pippi Longstocking
8. Usagi Yojimbo
9. Ed Bloom (Big Fish)
10. Kaylee Frye (Firefly)
11. Kurt Wagner [Nightcrawler] (X-Men)
12. Randy Waterhouse (Cryptonomicon)
13. John Locke (Lost)
14. Radical Edward (Cowboy Bebop)
15. Shelley Winters ([Scary Go Round])
honorable mention:
Bugs Bunny, The Doctor, Arkady from [FreakAngels] [also: KK, Karl], Rob Gordon (High Fidelity), Cool Hand Luke, Guy Noir
commentary: #1-3 should be obvious. Small-town dreamers turned hapless, seat-of-pants adventurers after falling in with marvelous friends? Yeah. (4) Legolas was a tough choice; Aragorn is my hero in the novels, but in the films there are subtle– and a few not so subtle– moments where Legolas really shines. (5) I realized again just a couple weeks ago (while talking with Monica T) that Animaniacs likely had a bigger influence on my sense of humor than any other single source.
(6,7) Encyclopedia Brown and Pippi Longstocking were my grade-school literary heroes. (8,9) Usagi Yojimbo & Ed Bloom are the guys I want to be when I grown up. (10) Kaylee was another toughie. All nine of those characters are so fun and relatable. But Kaylee is the person on that crew whom I would most like to be. (11) Kurt’s my favorite X-Man– for many of the same reasons as Kaylee, oddly. (12) I’ve said it before: Randall Waterhouse is the finest nerd in fiction. (The rest) You figure it out.
Shelly and Ed were late-adds when I was nearing the end and realized I hadn’t named very many women. Looking back over the list though, the biggest bias that jumps out is that these characters are 100% white people. Well, okay, I guess Usagi is Japanese and technically a rabbit, and Radical Ed is fairly post-racial, but the rest of these dudes– much like the rest of my Facebook friends list– are very, very white. Not saying that’s particularly strange or unexpected. Just interesting. I guess one take-away is that it’d be healthy for me to read about and emulate a more diverse array of people.
Also, no Star Trek characters on there? Or video games characters? Huh.
