2008

So ive been gone a long time. Wonder if anyone noticed. Sorry, but ive been distracted by the hell my personal life has become among other things. Things such as the cursed Facebook (which i have forsaken in every way) that siphoned off some of my creative offerings. Fuck Facebook. My creative offerings belong here. My personal life? Don't ask.

So I though i'd kick off 2008 (here in late May) with one of my favourite things - not to mention something easy - a list.

This list is called "Favourite Literary Characters Whose Original Incarnation (assuming any more followed) Was in Books". Don't i rock at titles? Ridiculously long even without the added bonus of a section in brackets. What can I say? It's a gift.

So Indiana Jones cannot be on this list. Yes, there are many novels with him but he started as a movie character. So Spider-Man is not on this list - he started in...duh, comics.

one little aside before i get to the list is that while I did briefly consider characters such as Decker in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lector, I realized as cool as those characters are in their original forms, it is their portrayal in (good) movies based on the books that made me really, really love them. I don't think I could enjoy Lector quite as much if I didn't have Anthony Hopkins to picture while I read him.

At this point (way too long in coming, as usual) you understand the rules and parameters of my list (unless you're a retard - political correctness be damned! also, there might be spoilers ahead)
So here you go:

Bruno Walton (creator: Gordon Korman. first appearance: "This Can't be Happening at Macdonald Hall!")
The famous Bruno of the acclaimed "Bruno and Boots Books". The...um, yin or yang to Boots's yang or yin depending on which one is the fiery, enthusiastic one. Cause that's what Bruno is - enthusiastic. Often dangerously so. Possessing a school spirit that goes beyond sanity (except when it comes to actually studying and working hard scholastically), Bruno is constantly dragging his reluctant pal Boots (and eventually many other students) into zany, possibly expulsion-worthy schemes, all in the name of his beloved MacDonald Hall. He'll take anyone on: a discipline-obssessed, computer-worshiping teacher out to "revolutionize" education, a beloved Hollywood heartthrob and his entire movie crew, even total bankruptcy!
All the while, doing his best to sidestep the attentions of the school's strict (but still loveable) headmaster, "The Fish". However, Bruno's trademark claim "I never get caught" is a little less than accurate. But he doesn't care. He'll wash dishes, pick up garbage or endure any other punishment with a smile so long as he can still labour to "save the Hall" in one way or another.
And he does it all with charm. How else would he get his somewhat less passionate friends to follow him into one debacle after another? Bruno's the kind of guy you'd follow into hell without ever really understanding why.

Drizzt Do'Urden (creator: R.A. Salvatore. first appearance: "The Crystal Shard")
With apologies to Legolas, there is no more badass elf in all the realms. Probably helps that he's a Dark Elf - a Drow. But this one isn't evil and he felt so strongly about not living in an evil world that he did everything he could to valiantly bust out of the EVIL city of his EVIL kin. It wound up costing him dearly but he endured it all: his family repeatedly trying to kill him after realizing they couldn't corrupt him, years of isolation and solitude and constant scrutiny and racism from the peoples of the surface. But he never gets bitter, never gives up. He just forges ahead, and, in doing so, proves his heroism and uncompromising morals over and over again. And he does a lot of it with two wicked swords.
Cause as noble and loyal and brave etc. as Drizzt is, one can't overlook the fact that he is badass. He's fought hordes of orcs, trolls, orges and goblins, fellow Dark Elves and even a few demons and he's beaten them all. He is grace and athleticism personified with phenomenal fighting skills thrown in. Once again with apologies to Legolas, he could kick Legolas's lily "light elf" ass. Fire all the arrows you want - you'll hit nothing but air. And no sword or dagger will keep those twin scimitars at bay for long - for most opponents, it's barely a few seconds.
Drizzt fights for what's right again and again in a world that mostly judges and condemns him for the colour of his skin. His intelligence, integrity and amazing fighting prowess make him one hell of a character. Hero, anti-hero, whatever - he is Drizzt Do'Urden.

Nick Andros (creator: Stephen King. first appearance: "The Stand")
Easily my favourite King character. The deaf-mute loner with the heart of gold, Nick is one of the survivors of the crazy "Captain Trips" superflu that wipes out something like 99% of the world's population. These survivors are basically "good" people who dream of Mother Abigail or "bad" people that dream of The Dark Man, Randal Flagg. Luckily for the "good" side, that's where he stands (ha, stands!)
From his letter to the police chief, we learn Nick had a pretty tough life even before everyone started croaking and you can only respect him for all the adversity he's overcome. An orphan and outcast, rarely bothered with and even more rarely understood. He goes on to show a fellow survivor, a man of somewhat limited...ahem, intelligence and maturity, unfathomable kindness and support in a world where many others would have simply abandoned him, labeling him as a hindrance. After that, despite his youth (twenty-two) and disability (although the term certainly doesn't apply in this sense), he emerges as one of the leaders of the "good" people and is instrumental in their survival as well as in their hope.
Nick is often frustrated by challenges such as people pre-judging him or his difficulties in communicating with others but he never wallows - he just tries harder until he succeeds.
He doesn't blow away bad guys or save kids from a burning house but his accomplishments are no less important and noble. Stephen King admits that the decision to have Nick killed three quarters of the way through the book was staggeringly difficult and emotional, but he saw it as necessary. It sure made an impression on me.
Here was a character that didn't really have dialogue - instead he is mostly voiced through interior and written monologues and everything he had to "say" just made me love him even more. Like Drizzt, he's another individual who is guided by his principles and won't make any compromises or accept any defeats. He'll do the right thing, or die trying. Ultimately, that's what ended up happening.
If the world ever does come down to a showdown between good and evil, I'd want Nick Andros there with us.

"Charlie" (creator: Stephen Chbosky. first appearance: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower")
We never get to know the kid's real name, so his suggestion of Charlie will have to do. The Holden Caulfield of the nineties, he drips empathy. I love him because I am him. Almost anyone who reads Wallflower can be him in some way or another.
His home life isn't completely tragic - but it's far from completely perfect. Just like any of us. He wants to gain love and acceptance, just like any of us. But how he goes about things may separate him from a lot of us. But still, so many of us can relate.
I think one reason I like Charlie so much is I truly do believe I can identify with him more than most. It comes down to feelings, sensitivity, perception. I don't think he ever actually says it, but one of the great tragedies, as well as virtues of Charlie is that maybe he cares too much. Feels too much. He thinks about other people probably more than most do. Whatever impact someone makes on him, however small, it affects him. He thinks about it. Feels it. Apparently he doesn't even know the person he's sending these letters to. Not personally anyway. He just heard some things about him (we know it's a him) and thought maybe he would understand better than most. I think I'm like that too. I often find myself thinking about various people in my life, many of them who are no longer in my life. I wonder about them. How they're doing. What they're feeling. I don't want to rush to them or try to get them back in my life or even talk to them - I just...care. Charlie strikes me as the same way.
To Charlie, the ultimate expression of feelings is in the form of a mix tape - don't so many of us feel exactly the same way? And he doesn't judge and doesn't pretend to be someone else. He just...is. But is he truly a wallflower? I don't think so. I think he just cares too much about people sometimes so he puts his own wants and needs aside. Honestly, most people really can't relate to that and the guy who deemed him a wallflower definitely couldn't. It's a label that didn't really fit. But Charlie doesn't argue it.
It's hard to pin down exactly what Charlie's personality is and I think that's because he's too raw - just a jumble of strong emotions. I think we can all feel that way sometimes. We don't know who we are but we know how we feel. Throughout the book, Charlie gets it down to an art. I sometimes wonder if that's what happened to me somewhere along the way.
Anyway, Charlie is one of my favourite literary characters because he really does touch my heart. Maybe I'm a jaded prick, but few characters or even real people do that for me these days. Because of peace, love, empathy and M*A*S*H (hell, even The Rocky Horror Picture Show) I love Charlie.

We'll call that PART ONE. Writing about characters I feel so strongly about is pretty draining. Let's hope we don't get to a PART THREE.