What literary character does this phrase bring to mind?
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Is it just me who associates this with Gandalf?
I don’t think of any single literary character. I think of a stereotypical urban intellectual crank, presumably with flyaway grey hair and dowdy clothing.
In contrast to “Gesticulating in a Civilized and Reserved Manner”?
But yes, I’d agree with your choice.
Daffy Duck.
More like Doc from Back to the Future.
I sort of think of Frasier. He often waves his arms about wildly when agitated.
StG
Kermit the Frog.
Don Quixote. Just seems like something he would do.
I find it odd that Daffy Duck, Doc from Back to the Future, Frasier, and Kermit the Frog are all being considered “literary characters”.
Where is this crazy library housing these legendary literary gesticulators?
Been to a library lately? Ours has more videos than books.
The first person I thought of was Hercule Poirot.
Probably because I just re-read it lately, but I instantly thought of Hal Incandenza at the beginning of Infinite Jest.
How 'bout the robot from Lost in Space?
So that’s where you’ve been for the last two months. Now, if the phrase had been “howling fantods”, you’d be right on the money.
Arthur Dent for me
I think of a guy who owns some property next to my primary work site. He’s a tall, thin, grey-haired character who is always overseeing the haphazard work of his employees with a lot of sweeping, vigorous, angry-looking arm movements. We call him “The Gesticulator” ;).
He could be a literary character - he sure looks like one.
I don’t think I’ve ever pictured Gandalf as every gesticulating, wildly or otherwise. Dude’ll blow you a sweet smoke figure, but a wild gesticulation is bound to unleash a fireball from his sleeve.
Ahhh, au contraire madame. Poirot does not make ze wild gesteeculations, as zey tend to deeslodge ze boutonniere.
And yeah, Gandalf would be very far down on my list of gesticulators, for some reason.
Stan from Monkey Island was the first thing to come to my mind (though he may not quite fit the literary character requirement).
Agreed. I never pictured him as “gesticulating wildly” when I read the books the first time, and no depiction of him in film has spown him that way. “Gesticulating wildly” suggests mental agitation and indecision, which doesn’t characterize Gandalf at all.