Literary loves
Mar. 2nd, 2006 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylFor those not in the know, today is or was depending on your tz, World Book Day. As part of the celebrations, kids were asked which literary characters would make the best boyfriends/girlfriends, while the adults got a boring old "do you like happy or sad endings" question — well, duh! Anyhow, in order to prevent the pesky ankle-biters from having all the fun, the Grauniad's Culture Vulture Blog has posed the same question, despite admitting to a certain amount of doubt over the basic criteria. Question is, who here is man or woman enough to admit a thing for a literary character or characters?
Hmm, stunning silence, eh? Ok, then I'll have a go. In no particular order:
Zara bint-Hamzah. Young, clever (she went to Columbia), resourceful and angry but still willing to put up with all her sometime fiancé's idiosyncrasies. Plus, she's the daughter of a billionaire construction magnate, all of which gives her a certain je ne sais quoi.
Belis Coldwine. Ok so she's cold, stand-offish and makes some seriously bad choices about who to trust, but on the other hand she really thinks she's doing the right thing even when she isn't, she's smart, she takes responsibility for stuff, she's good at languages and she works as a librarian. Just imagine how great it would be to be able to dodge overdue library fines.
Ofred. Ok, so that's not even her name, but hey, what do names matter? As Donne says, "Twice or thrice had I loved thee, before I knew thy face or name", and if it's good enough for Johnny D, it's more than good enough for me. Sides, she has way more going for her than a mere name. What's in a name? A name is a meaningless string of random syllables that say nothing about its owner. Ofred, on the other hand is yet another smart literary heroine, someone who manages to maintain her sense of self despite stultifying and oppressive circumstances before eventually escaping when the opportunity presents itself. She's well educated, she used to work in a university library (see the common theme emerging here?), she plays a mean game of Scrabble, she's great with puns and word games (suggesting she'd be pretty damn good at crosswords too) and she likes cats.
Emma Woodhouse. She's "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition". Sure, she starts out as a total snob and an inveterate meddler in things best left alone, but as time goes on and she realises (or is made to realise) the errors of her ways, she makes a serious effort to fix things. I mean, despite Austen's claim that she had written a heroine that no-one except herself would even like, how is it possible to do anything other than totally fall in love with her?
Hmm, stunning silence, eh? Ok, then I'll have a go. In no particular order:
Zara bint-Hamzah. Young, clever (she went to Columbia), resourceful and angry but still willing to put up with all her sometime fiancé's idiosyncrasies. Plus, she's the daughter of a billionaire construction magnate, all of which gives her a certain je ne sais quoi.
Belis Coldwine. Ok so she's cold, stand-offish and makes some seriously bad choices about who to trust, but on the other hand she really thinks she's doing the right thing even when she isn't, she's smart, she takes responsibility for stuff, she's good at languages and she works as a librarian. Just imagine how great it would be to be able to dodge overdue library fines.
Ofred. Ok, so that's not even her name, but hey, what do names matter? As Donne says, "Twice or thrice had I loved thee, before I knew thy face or name", and if it's good enough for Johnny D, it's more than good enough for me. Sides, she has way more going for her than a mere name. What's in a name? A name is a meaningless string of random syllables that say nothing about its owner. Ofred, on the other hand is yet another smart literary heroine, someone who manages to maintain her sense of self despite stultifying and oppressive circumstances before eventually escaping when the opportunity presents itself. She's well educated, she used to work in a university library (see the common theme emerging here?), she plays a mean game of Scrabble, she's great with puns and word games (suggesting she'd be pretty damn good at crosswords too) and she likes cats.
Emma Woodhouse. She's "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition". Sure, she starts out as a total snob and an inveterate meddler in things best left alone, but as time goes on and she realises (or is made to realise) the errors of her ways, she makes a serious effort to fix things. I mean, despite Austen's claim that she had written a heroine that no-one except herself would even like, how is it possible to do anything other than totally fall in love with her?
