Inspiring fictional characters—and who do you identify with?

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Paul Whybrow

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Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
This article in the Guardian today, about a report published by the literacy charity Quick Reads, set me to thinking about my own reading and writing.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ring-character-harper-lee-hobbit-hunger-games

Atticus Finch is certainly an inspirational character, though his popularity is undoubtedly aided through being played by stalwart Gregory Peck. It makes the publication of Go Set A Watchman even more questionable, revealing as it does his racist attitudes.

The survey by Quick Reads had two different categories, of those characters that readers found inspiring and which ones they most identified with. It tells us something useful as writers creating our own characters, that people like protagonists with flaws:

The survey found that readers prefer to read about a character who makes mistakes (23%) and is funny (20%), than one who is brave (19%), loyal (17%) or kind (11%).

“It is clear that readers are not looking for flawless characters, but instead they are looking for real characters that show us that it is OK to make mistakes. Bridget Jones tops the list as the character that most women identify with, but interestingly she is also in the top five of most inspiring characters, too,” the researchers write.

“The realisation that others share similar feelings of imperfection or inadequacy creates a shift from being ‘alone’ to being ‘one of many,’ enabling readers to challenge previous ideas of being different or non-normal, and become more accepting of their true selves.”

I find it hard to split the difference between the characters who've motivated me and those who I feel akin to, but in no particular order:

1) Mole, Ratty and Toad from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind In The Willowsfor their loyalty to friends, love of home and Nature, daft obsessions and opposition to tyranny.

2) Private Investigator Matt Scudder from Lawrence Block's long-running New York set crime novels. His unlicensed private detective is down on his luck and battling alcoholism after a tragic shooting when he was a cop. He's resourceful, determined and flawed. I was doing cold turkey quitting drinking after 27 years of alcoholism, when I first read the stories and they really helped me. 20 years dry and clean this August, I don't miss it a bit—life is a damned sight weirder sober!

3) Dave Robicheaux, from James Lee Burke's Louisiana set crime novels. Burke is a supreme prose stylist, one who Stephen King adores. His ex-cop, ex-infantryman hero is also an ex-alcoholic who endures and survives hardship and tragedy full of doubt and depression, but still doing the right thing. He faces down some of the scariest villains in fiction.

Who are you inspired by—and who do you like?
 
When I was ten and read Little Women for the first time, I just knew I'd grow up to be Jo March one day. :) When I first read 1984, I felt sorry for Winston Smith and his painfully tragic life from page one, and even when he was forced to betray Julia I didn't hate him. His life was all about self-preservation, after all, and you just knew those two were doomed from the moment they met. But I have to say the fictional character who most inspired me was Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility. :) :)
 
When I was ten and read Little Women for the first time, I just knew I'd grow up to be Jo March one day. :) When I first read 1984, I felt sorry for Winston Smith and his painfully tragic life from page one, and even when he was forced to betray Julia I didn't hate him. His life was all about self-preservation, after all, and you just knew those two were doomed from the moment they met. But I have to say the fictional character who most inspired me was Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility. :) :)

The Dashwood surname takes me back to a childhood memory—though nothing to do with Sense and Sensibility. I have wondered however if Jane Austen chose the name for its connection to a notorious man. My barbers were the Dashwood Brothers, in Stevenage High Street, who looked like identical twins but were actually born a few years apart. They were very nice men, but their ancestor was Sir Francis Dashwood, a politician and rake who founded the Hellfire Club in 1718. This gave their business a certain frisson, something they played up to by having crossed swords over an 18th century man's white powdered wig mounted above the shop door. Such a ploy would be called 'marketing' today.
 
The Dashwood surname takes me back to a childhood memory—though nothing to do with Sense and Sensibility. I have wondered however if Jane Austen chose the name for its connection to a notorious man. My barbers were the Dashwood Brothers, in Stevenage High Street, who looked like identical twins but were actually born a few years apart. They were very nice men, but their ancestor was Sir Francis Dashwood, a politician and rake who founded the Hellfire Club in 1718. This gave their business a certain frisson, something they played up to by having crossed swords over an 18th century man's white powdered wig mounted above the shop door. Such a ploy would be called 'marketing' today.

Interesting. :)
 
I tend to identify more with historical characters, like Maria Sklodowska-Curie or Catherine he Great (please, don't lash out on me- I do not identify with everything she DID in her life, a lot of which was undeniably terrible- rather with her strenght of character and determination). From books, it would be the hero of Martin Eden. And, of course, the characters from Cortazar's Hopscotch- after reading that book, as a very young person, all I wanted to do was to drink mate and absinth, smoke a lot and be artsy :D
 
When I was a kid, I was all about Laura Ingalls. I wanted to be as independent as she and her sisters were...being left at home alone for a week at ages 6 and 8, helping with the chores, becoming an adult at 16...

Now, I look at Maureen and Harold Fry in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry--hopelessly flawed characters almost broken by life who manage to stumble their way to peace.
 
The characters I identify with (I really mean enjoy reading about) tend to be rebellious loners who work outside of organised structures. I'm a bit of a loner (now there's any oxymoron) but far from being rebellious or violent. For example, Mike Hammer and Jack Reacher, plus a few exceptions to what I just said, such as the Duke de Richlieu. All are pulp characters of course...
 
Strangely, I tend to identify with old-before-his-time, dour, world-weary, unafraid-to-die warrior characters that are nominally on the side of good, but tend to disregard rules and cause a lot of collateral damage. Pretty much any of the "chaotic good" archetypes, like:
Auron in FFX; or James Bond; or Qui-gon Jinn; Rorschach; Tony Stark; Sirius Black; Wolverine... you get the idea.
Final-Fantasy-X-X-2-HD-Remaster_2013_10-27-13_007.jpg James_Bond_Scotland_F.jpg x-men-days-of-future-past-hugh-jackman-wolverine-six-pack.jpgRorschach-watchmen-19767359-2000-1339.jpg
 
Strangely, I tend to identify with old-before-his-time, dour, world-weary, unafraid-to-die warrior characters that are nominally on the side of good, but tend to disregard rules and cause a lot of collateral damage. Pretty much any of the "chaotic good" archetypes, like:
Auron in FFX; or James Bond; or Qui-gon Jinn; Rorschach; Tony Stark; Sirius Black; Wolverine... you get the idea.
View attachment 1016 View attachment 1017 View attachment 1018View attachment 1019

To be fair, FFX had a fantastic list of flawed characters that you couldn't help but root for. Gah...now I need to get the HD remaster and play it again. So good...and that soundtrack *shivers*...
 
Ooh! Also Kimari!!
Take that, Ronsos...

I had to play through the game twice to like it. The first time, I thought it was TERRIBLE, but the second time everything just clicked and it was fantastic. I was surprised at how attached and intrigued I became with each character and the intricacies of their individual stories. IMO, it's one of the best of the new FF games.
 
I had to play through the game twice to like it. The first time, I thought it was TERRIBLE, but the second time everything just clicked and it was fantastic. I was surprised at how attached and intrigued I became with each character and the intricacies of their individual stories. IMO, it's one of the best of the new FF games.
FFX was the only one I played. If you defined played as sat next to my brother and shouted advice and encouragement because he was physically holding the controller. That is also how I played Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, and WoW.
 
Only way to play it. Otherwise it would be infuriating.

I did play it a little bit, but it wasn't terrible as I played MGS2 for hours upon hours. I did the same for MGS4 and dumped something like 50+ hours into MGS5 late last year, but that one was a whole different experience from what came before. Either way, I love the MGS series for just how absolutely bonkers the story line was...
 
I did play it a little bit, but it wasn't terrible as I played MGS2 for hours upon hours. I did the same for MGS4 and dumped something like 50+ hours into MGS5 late last year, but that one was a whole different experience from what came before. Either way, I love the MGS series for just how absolutely bonkers the story line was...
Couldn't even guess how many hours I poured into Oblivion. I completed every quest in the world, and furnished every house on the market in the country, going as far as stealing the dinnerware of whole castles and painstakingly arranging them in the cupboards, and filling laundry hampers full of jewels, only to have the clunky physics engine eject the dishes across the room like someone set off an anti-gravity bomb in the china cabinet, and spilled hundreds upon hundreds of jewels across the floor from tipping it with a single pearl. I just left them sitting where the landed. House was haunted anyway.
 
Couldn't even guess how many hours I poured into Oblivion. I completed every quest in the world, and furnished every house on the market in the country, going as far as stealing the dinnerware of whole castles and painstakingly arranging them in the cupboards, and filling laundry hampers full of jewels, only to have the clunky physics engine eject the dishes across the room like someone set off an anti-gravity bomb in the china cabinet, and spilled hundreds upon hundreds of jewels across the floor from tipping it with a single pearl. I just left them sitting where the landed. House was haunted anyway.

I like Oblivion, but I spent my time in Morrowind. I poured over 300 hours into it while I was in college and still go back for more every once in a while! :D
 
I like Oblivion, but I spent my time in Morrowind. I poured over 300 hours into it while I was in college and still go back for more every once in a while! :D
That was my first love! I did all my modding in that — I made my own islands and some were bigger than Solstheim. It was the fact that I got into the Morrowing game code and tweaked it to do things that I wanted in part that I got the position that I'm transitioning into now at work.
 
That was my first love! I did all my modding in that — I made my own islands and some were bigger than Solstheim. It was the fact that I got into the Morrowing game code and tweaked it to do things that I wanted in part that I got the position that I'm transitioning into now at work.

HUZZAH! You should make sure that your new title is Jason Byrne, Office Nerevarine!
 
The only literary character I ever really identified with was Samwise Gamgee, although I don't think I would have displayed his unwavering loyalty, especially in the face of Ungoliant. But then, he did have an Elvish blade in hand, so maybe...
THIS is why I've been looking up this stuff for the last hour! I forgot! It was YOU!
Feanon vs. Gothmog
Ecthelion vs Gothmog
Ungoliant vs Balrog
Fingolfin vs Morgoth
Morgoth and Sauron

Check out these Valar illustrations!
bm__the_valar_by_lelia-d5f0y62.jpg
Tumblr_n2cn1tJpre1s3svhbo1_1280.png
Melkor_by_formenost.jpg
 
Ahhhh... Yavanna. She found reason in creation to remain in Middle Earth and not return to Valinor. My kind of goddess.

But Balrog and Ungoliant, coming from before the first age, probably had some kind of working agreement once they had staked out their territory. A "No bite/No burn" clause or something...
Hey how much do you know of the Middle Earth cosmology off the top of your head?!:eek:
 
Tolkien remains my "go-to" for all kinds of stress relief and cabin fever. Especially since GRRM has decided to just let the script writers do it while he attends Comic-Con...
Haha! I knew the mythos was vast and sprawling, but it just continues to amaze me. He was foremost a historian, after all.
But this particular concept art was great, as a sort of inspirational piece to brainstorm ideas for the "true form" of my Tuatha dé Danann, as they appear in the Tír na nÓg.

a73f41363bd953f78e4f4ffa82a94e0a.jpg


I was thinking most similar to Yavanna, actually (second from the left), with Djinn appearing more like Oromë (rightmost), and sluagh like Namo (leftmost).
 
Of course, the Valar had the ability to cloak themselves in whatever "skin" was most suited to their task, even if it meant appearing as a Siddari. Yavanna seemed to enjoy a human aspect more than the rest. Ulmo, of course kept everything on the low-down, didn't he? Are your Tuatha going to be the forerunners of the Sidhe? The Sidhe can take all sorts of forms, too, even animal like Phookas, etc. I've thought about the Tuatha myslef for many years, often wondering if the Plaintive "longing" that many identify in Irish songs and stories may be a tether back through the ages to the mixed emotions the Gael may have felt, of having supplanted a much older, more adept race, and driven them underground when they may have become allies and even friends? Hmmm.... that kind of puzzling could go on for days and days...
 
When I'm feeling lazy, awkward or stubborn, I'm reminded of Herman Melville's uncooperative scrivener Bartleby.

He appeared in a short story called Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, first published in 1853, and his perpetual response of "I would prefer not to" has seen me through some trying situations.

The full text is available for you to read at: http://www.bartleby.com/129/

(Unless you'd prefer not to....)
 
Ahhhh... Yavanna. She found reason in creation to remain in Middle Earth and not return to Valinor. My kind of goddess.

But Balrog and Ungoliant, coming from before the first age, probably had some kind of working agreement once they had staked out their territory. A "No bite/No burn" clause or something...

I had a conversation with a 'tosser in a put' who happens to be my brother in law and he had the cheek to say to me 'there wasnn't much in the silmarilian, he didnt even finish it', I said 'have you read it?' he said , 'no but I've seen the film' I Kid you not.

Of Hurin and Huor is my favourite.

And probably how Finglefinn has to pick up after the crap his brother puts him through
 
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