Not meaning in any way to copycat ftg, but I am reading Cryptonomicon right now, and I am falling in love with Lawrence Waterhouse. My own position in the geek heirarchy allows me to safely look down my nose at mathematicians, and I’m sure that from the outside Lawrence would be another freaky brainiac that I would dismiss easily–and really, this is what we’re most comfortable doing with geniuses, aren’t we? Thinking, “Well, yeah, sure he’s a genius, but for heaven’s sake, he can’t even carry out the simplest social interactions! There’s no reason for me to feel jealous of or threatened by such a pathetic creature!”
However, seeing the world through his eyes, I find that he’s more like me than different from me, that there’s a shorter step from me to him than from me to the most other people (by which I mean only to allude to my weirdness and lack of social graces, not to imply that I am possessed of any particular genius, since, sadly, I am not.)
burundi, I also loved Toni. I’ve mentioned her (and her backwards-reading) in several threads–she definitely carved a niche in my mind. The Atwood character who really haunts me is Ofred’s mother from The Handmaid’s Tale . “She who fails to hesistate is lost.” I’ve often turned that over in my mind.
Obligatory Heinlein Pick: Richard Colin Ames Campbell from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.
Allow me to be the second[sup]*[/sup] one to mention two of my favorites. First of all, Samwise Gamgee. Whereas Frodo is doing wha he does because it’s his role in life, and he must, Sam is acting purely out of friendship and loyalty. He’s not an epic Hero for the Ages, and he lives out a perfectly mundane life after the War is over… But he still manages to accomplish Great Deads, many unmatched by any other character in the books.
And for as long as I can remember, I’ve identified with Charles Wallace, from Madeline L’Engel’s A Wrinkle in Time and sequels. His life seemed to be an exaggerated version of my own.
[sub]*As of when I clicked “Reply to topic”, neither of these two characters had been mentioned, but knowing this board, someone’ll have slipped in before me by the time this posts.[/sub]
Pretty much all the characters from Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. What a great range - from the incredibly loathsome to the sweetest ever created. The nasty dastardly Thenardiers to the forgiving and compassionate Jean Valjean. Sublime.
My other favorite is George Smiley, the master spy from LeCarre’s Karla Trilogy. Here’s a guy you wouldn’t look twice at on the street. He’s a tubby little cuckold, despised and betrayed by his social betters, but his genius saves England from a Soviet spymaster. Throughout all of this, he’s never bitter, he’s never demanding, and he’s never ever EVER rude. From Smiley, I learned that you don’t have to look like Schwarzenegger to get things done in life.
Has got to be Mudge the Otter from Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger
He’s lewd, mouthy, corrupted, untrustworthy, cowardly, and worldly. Needless to say, just the guy you want around when it comes to saving the world from Chaos or going down to the corner for some aspirin.
Extra Nods go to * Paul Muad’dib Atraides* from Frank Herbert’s Dune
If there ever was a guy stuck in his own oracle here it is, This is tragety Shakespere can’t match. Neither could the evil the Maddi thought he could or did do in any way match that done by his son Leto II
I also Have to agree about Samwise Gamgee form JRR Tolkien’s LotR
Being the best character.Loyalty of that kind does not go unnoticed. That we all should have a friend willing to bear such burdons for us!As well as being the only ring bearer to live a full life before going to the grey havens.
Recently, the character I most identify with is Rincewind from Terry Pratchet’s Discworld series. He’s a wizard that doesn’t know any magic, and his misadventures show that he has incredibly bad luck in everything he does, yet the fact he’s still alive shows that he’s got incredibly good luck as well. I just identify with a guy who’s devoted himself to something only to become unaccomplished in it, and who’d life never seems to come together. Yet in the end, he always manages to come out on top.
Howard based Conan on, well, on himself. Conan was a little stronger, a little tougher. Howard was much smarter, more capable of self-expression. But the two were a lot more alike than most fans realize.
Ender was pretty cool, as were the hobbits and some of their friends.
C. Auguste Dupin, of Edgar Alan Poe’s detective stories, and Lestat–the two always remind me of each other because they’re both arrogant, genius, and somehow cool–maybe because they disdain authority figures.
I liked Lestat before he became an invincible cry-baby.
Honorable mention to the guy who ate himself in Stephen King’s “Survivor Type.”
