NBLB Weekend Survey #3: Questions of Character

An early start to your weekend this time around - pardon us, we here at NBLB have had an eventful week, and are ready to curl up with stacks of library finds until the next Monday. Friday cannot come too soon!

This week's survey takes on literary characters - those you love, and those you love to hate...as well as the ones you wouldn't want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Here's a questionable list from your NBLB-ers - copy, paste and post your own!

Meimei: Rumplestiltskin gives her the shivers.

1) Who is your all-time literary villain? This is difficult for me. Experience tells me that villains are merely characters who cannot overcome flaws; my upbringing, on the other hand, has taught me not to love a villain. So, because I'm hard up for an answer... Rumpelstiltskin. (Don't look at me like that. The Brothers Grimm do count as literature, y'know.)

2) On the opposite end - who is your all-time fictional hero? Fitzwilliam Darcy may be THE template for the ultimate romantic lead - and I'm not denying that - but my heart has been irrevocably claimed by George Emerson, from E.M. Forster's A Room with a View. Who can't resist a free spirit who loves without pretense?

3) Who would you date? NOT Rumpelstiltskin, obviously.

4) Which fictional gal/guy would be your best pal? Miss Jane Marple! She may be an old biddy, but I do have to admire someone who relies on her knowledge of human nature to solve mysteries. We'd spend endless hours knitting, gossiping, and refilling bottomless cups of Earl Grey. Come to think of it, I could plan an entire dinner party with Agatha Christie's detectives. It would be worth it just to hear Hercule Poirot say, "Zees CSI Miami - eet ees nonsense!"

5) Which fictional monster creeps you out the most? Here's an unpopular opinion for you: Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. Will somebody PLEASE tell me what's so romantic about him? I understand that he was heartbroken, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it... but, really, now, all that crap he pulled after losing Catherine Earnshaw? Way past pathetic.

6) Who do you want to give a good smack? Another unpopular opinion: Bridget. Freaking. Jones. Sorry, but she lost my sympathy during Edge of Reason... so imagine how happy I was when I realized that the movie did not follow the book.

7) Which hero/heroine is YOU - like "whoah, took the words outta my mouth" sort of YOU.. I have to say this without having read the book: Catherine Morland from Austen's Northanger Abbey. Trashy novel addiction? Check. Inquisitive nature? Check. Strong yearning for love conquering all? Obviously. Now I want to know more about her story.

8) If you could have an hour long interview with a great literary character, who would it be? Mr. Rochester, from Jane Eyre. Just so I can ask him about those WTF questions (see #10).

9) Who would you lock in a room with your worst frenemy? The Devil, of course - preferably Milton's, from Paradise Lost.

10) Finally, which literary side character deserves a book all on his/her own? (If it hasn't been written yet) St. John Rivers, the jilted suitor/cousin from Jane Eyre. (Note to Scribe: What is it about this book, anyway? Does that mean I now have to read Jasper Fforde?) I was disappointed that the one "legit" JE spin-off that I know of - Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea - was about Rochester shacking up with crazy Bertha (yet another character that deserves to be slapped) in the Caribbean. Why couldn't it have been St. John sailing off to India instead?

The Happy Scribe: No clowns, please.

1) Who is your all-time literary villain? Professor Moriarty tops my list - a good villain in my book needs to be able to make one think they COULD intellectually trounce the hero's ass if given more time/resources/page space.

2) On the opposite end - who is your all-time fictional hero? Granny Weatherwax of Terry Pratchett's Discworld seems to be an unlikely heroine, being a grumpy witch from Lancre. Whenever she enters a scene, I feel like everything's going to be right as rain...as long as Esme has her way (she usually does).

3) Who would you date? I've had questionable dating choices in real life. I always thought Lt. Cmdr. Data from the Star Trek Next Generation series would be a fun date - everything "old" would be new to this android who aspires to be human. (While "Number One" William Riker seems the more dishy sci-fi choice, he had a wandering eye...which would force me to fictionally smack him.) My husband thinks I would prefer Darcy...but Fitzwilliam is more of the "who would you marry" type. (And hubby is rather like Darcy...the better-looking, more talented counterpart in real life. ;)

4) Which fictional gal/guy would be your best pal? The fantastically flamboyant lady novelist of A Room with a View - Eleanor Lavish and I would share many a macintosh square gossiping under the Tuscan sun.

5) Which fictional monster creeps you out the most? I'm very predictable: Pennywise from Stephen King's It, hands down - el Yucko creepo del mundo! I cannot stand clowns - there's something about forced merriment that makes me cringe (Pratchett illustrates this quite perfectly with the creepy Dr. Whiteface, of the Guild of Fools).

6) Who do you want to give a good smack? I mentioned William Riker, but if I really thought about it: Briony Tallis of Ian McEwan's Atonement begs a good shake. Also: most romance novel heroines (especially the ones who seem "feisty"...but their horniness throws brain and corset to the four winds in less than four pages), Anne Rice's whiny Louis, and (if it was possible before the double suicide - the Priest and Nursey deserve added whacks for not doing the smacking themselves) Romeo and Juliet.

7) Which hero/heroine is YOU - like "whoah, took the words outta my mouth" sort of YOU.. Scarlett O'Hara's "I'll never be hungry again!" definitely echoes my current state of mind (though I kept wanting to snap her hoops at her absolute blindness to Rhett Butler's devotion), as does Shakespeare's Beatrice, who is simultaneously protective and vulnerable. Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter books is also another personality doppelganger - fiercely loyal, very nerdy, and just the right amount of scruffiness.

8) If you could have an hour long interview with a great literary character, who would it be? That's a difficult question, because one thing that makes all these characters "great" are the multitude of layers we have yet to discover from them. I'd have to start off with a classic character if forced to choose - and this is a cop out - it would be Dante of the celestial worlds and words.

9) Who would you lock in a room with your worst frenemy? I would dress him/her up as a sperm whale and put them in a pool with Capt. Ahab. Thar she blows!

10) Finally, which literary side character deserves a book all on his/her own? (If it hasn't been written yet) Yes, Mei, you must read Fforde! I always thought Lady Macbeth needed her own novel. Ah, and Wicked is such a phenomenon now...so there goes another "untold story." Villains deserve their own say, n'est-ce pas? Too many fall prey to violence and ruin while the milksop hero/heroine ride off into the sunset with all the glory.