Trying a new twist in my book. No one believes in the main character and even his sanity is in question. I am looking for an imaginary friend/ advocate of some historical importance who might represent thinking outside the box and believing in ones self even when no one else does. Even a team from different areas of history and backgrounds could work. Kind of a schizophrenic aspect to the main character.
I assume you’re looking for an original approach, but Merlin has played that role in popular accounts of the Arthurian legend. There’s Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life, ghosts and angels have been used that way a lot. It’s common in coming of age stories. Obi Wan Kenobe? But you are looking for something new right?
Einstein, or Tony Robbins
Not necessarily new in using dead characters as friends, I was thinking a bit like field of dreams. The story is unique enough in it’s self. I think some dead characters could work well her.
Would a trickster fit the bill?
Take your pick.
The story is dealing with an eccentric elderly man who believes the ordinary man really has all the power if he can figure out a way to link them all up in a Collaborative culture. No one has any idea what he is even talking about and that’s why he needs these great thinkers from the past to collaborate with.
Daedalus or Odysseus, then?
Charles Manson. Except a good Charles Manson. As half of a good cop/bad cop team with a jerkass Fred Rodgers.
Maybe this will help, it unfolds something like this. The elderly man has a decade long obsession with finding the formula that creates an atmosphere for mass collaborating. As he meets with more rejection he sinks deeper and deeper into isolation and avoidance of people. It might appear to the readers that he is sinking into a depression but he really just wants less interruptions as he ferrets out the final details he feels he needs. being a social creature he doesn’t recognize his own loneliness and this is where the dead character start appearing and becoming his associates. This is just a rough description
King Solomon, perhaps? Threatening to cut the baby in half was pretty good out-of-the-box thinking.
Yeah, I meant to say someone new. You could dredge up Merlin again,Trancephalic may be on the right track. Maybe actual philosophers instead of mythical characters, Aristotle for instance. Or try a woman, Theodoraperhaps.
Good suggestions, I like the idea of using at least one philosopher, a business tycoon I am thinking of also Steve Jobs might fit here, some of his final statements were very human and kind in retrospect looking back at his life.
Given that you mentioned
You could conciser Corey Doctorow, Linus Torvolds, or Richard Stallman. Steve Jobs is to collaborative culture what Lot’s Wife is to a low-sodium diet. (Okay, I’m not sure if that actually makes sense. Steve Jobs was an authoritarian asshole who wanted complete control of all the hardware and software on his devices.)
(BTW, what happened to your plan to torture test the collaborative culture idea here on the dope, as you threaded about earlier?)
Steve Jobs could be portrayed as a bad guy turned good. He also has the right background.
I do hope to torture test parts of it here if I ever get them completed.
Joan of Arc? She was pretty badass about believing in herself when no one else did, and it would be interesting to get away from rut of the mentor always being an older man.
That’s an interesting thought, I will read up on her. Was she a real person or fictional? I know dumb question!
AFAICT, she was almost undoubtedly a real person (and a Catholic saint), though there’s also a lot of legend attached to her.
Alcibiades. He was cunning. Adventurous. Seems like he’d be fun, if you want some comic relief.
I would nominate Descartes as the philosopher. Cogito Ergo Sum required some pretty incredible thinking. Not Schrodinger, though. His thinking was totally in-the-box. Or was it?
Of course, you do want your potential audience to know who the person is. If you want mainstream readers, you probably pick one Cardasian, (sp?) one Duck Dynasty person, and one BooBoo.