And since Chronos explained the rules better than I ever could, here they are(obviously modified):
Let’s put together a list of the 100 most important/liked/respected/loved/influential fictional literary characters. Rules are as follows: You can nominate any number of characters. As soon as a character gets three or more nominations (from different people!), it goes on the list. If this gives us more than 100 characters, we up it to four votes, etc. (so feel free to re-nominate something already on the list).
All fictional characters from all genres of literature are allowed.
To start off the list, I’ll nominate:
Claude Frollo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hamlet, Hamlet
Oedipus, Oedipus Rex
Gollum, Lord of the Rings
Roland, The Dark Tower Series
Sherlock Holmes (Numerous Books)
James Bond (Ditto)
Tarzan (Ditto)
Captain Ahab (Moby-Dick)
Holden Caulfield (Catcher In The Rye)
Robinson Crusoe
Randall Flagg (The Stand)
Dracula
Zaphod Beeblebrox (The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy)
I suggest, to those of you who, if you felt it necessary (in some cases and not others) to reference what literary work the character appears in, the character doesn’t deserve to be on the list.
But I could be wrong.
Silas Marner (IMHO, the greatest bore ever)
Captains Ahab, Queeg, and Nemo
Colonel Blimp
Admiral Horatio Hornblower
Major Major
Holden Caulfield
Kilgore Trout
Robinson Crusoe
Dr. Frankenstein
Dracula
Jay Gatsby
Hannibal Lector
Louis Woo
Sherlock Holmes
Huck Finn
Tom Sawyer
Superman (assuming one can call comics literature)
Lolita
Jane Eyre
Miss Marple
Sam Spade
Nero Wolfe
D’Artagnon (sp?)
James Bond
Pippy Longstocking
Both Jack and Jill
Long John Silver
Red Chief
Scout and Atticus Finch and Boo Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird
Francie Nolan from A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Ponyboy Curtis from The Outsiders
Hazel from Watership Down
Scrooge from A Christmas Carol
“I suggest, to those of you who, if you felt it necessary (in some cases and not others) to reference what literary work the character appears in, the character doesn’t deserve to be on the list.”
I personally see referencing as courteous, despite Hamlet and Oedipus(among others) being hopefully obvious.
Phileas Fogg (Around the World in Eighty Days)
Sherlock Holmes
Myamoto Masana Musashi (kinda fictional)
Huckleberry Finn
Humbert Humbert (thousands of times more interesting than that vulgar little Dolores)
Gandalf
Bilbo
Ford Prefect
Grendel
Unnamed carachter of Wild Sheep-Chase and Dance Dance Dance
Scout and Atticus Finch
Prince Valiant
Elijah Bailey
Daneel Oliwan
Giskard something-or-other (Raventlov?)
Dr. Susan Calvin
Hercule Poirot
Lazarus Long (Methuselah’s children and others)
Jean Valjean (Les Misérables)
Gavroche (Les Misérables)
Fu Manchu (several books)
Doc Savage (idem)
Hagbard Celine (Illuminatus !)
Merlin Ambrosius
King Arthur
Guinevere
Lancelot du Lac
Oh, and there’s always that God dude in the all-time bestseller, ‘The Bible’. He was pretty influential and important and plenty of people love him. I reckon he should get on the list!
I found the book to be overlong with far too many digressions and obvious, hackneyed plot devices. Not to mention page after page of gratuitous sex and violence. The God character is flawed on many levels, he often seems to be suffering from multiple personality disorder. How this book achieved such a large cult following is beyond me.
[ul]Dr. Frankenstein
Frankenstein’s monster
Don Quixote
Sancho Panza
Huckleberry Finn
Oliver Twist
Ebenezer Scrooge
David Copperfield
Tom Sawyer
Dracula
Bruce Wayne/Batman
Atticus Finch
Sam Spade
Tarzan
Clark Kent/Superman
Captain Ahab
Hawkeye (not the comic book Hawkeye, ya geeks)
Ichabod Crane
Othello
Hamlet
King Lear
King Arthur
Lancelot
Tom Joad
George and Lenny (Of Mice and Men)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Cinderella
Hannibal Lecter
[/ul]
