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Thread: A Recurring Character

  1. #1
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    A Recurring Character

    Hello all,

    I looking for some assistance in assembling a literary puzzle. I need to gleam one powerful recurring character from various literary great works. The character has to be sinister (which can manifest itself in a variety of personalities) and implied, rather than explicit. So, for example, there might be an Old Testament figure --- however major or minor --- who could be considered to have made an appearance in several of the works of Dickens and, later one of Aldous Huxley's Brief Candles short stories; but in a different guise every time. Whether by the intention of the authors or not.

    If any of you have read London: A Biography by Peter Ackroyd you'll have a good idea of what I'm getting at. He draws seemingly tenuous parallels between events and features of London from all of its history, in order to tease out a deep, dark and sometimes unsettling caricature of the place.

    The idea behind the puzzle is still embryonic, so I hope you'll forgive me not explaining it in full at this moment. Suffice to say it is an Interactive Fiction piece where the the character has to be rediscovered from works of literature by the player. It is therefore quite important that the character isn't something immediately obvious, such as the Devil or Lady Macbeth.

    Thanks,

    EM

  2. #2
    Card-carrying Medievalist Lokasenna's Avatar
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    Excluding Satan, there are not many I can think of. What about John Faustus, Roger Bacon, John Dee or Paracelsus? I've seen all of those appearing in a sinister context as a kind of side-mention.
    "I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche

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    Voice of Chaos & Anarchy
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    I can only add Yahweh to Lokasena's list. If you definition of sinister is broad enough, then any recurring character would do, but there aren't many recurring characters, either good or evil.

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    Artist and Bibliophile stlukesguild's Avatar
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    I'd begin looking at Greco-Roman characters. Medea would be a possibility with works by Euripides, Ovid, Herodotus, Jean Anouilh, John Gardner, Pierre Corneille, William Morris referencing her... as well as other art forms such as operas by Cherubini, Charpentier, Milhaud and others.

    What of Clytemnestra? Or Salome?
    Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
    The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
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    Registered User kiki1982's Avatar
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    The only thing that springs to my mind is Klamm or even the owner of the castle in Kafka's Castle. Klamm at least is always talked about, but no-one seems to have ever seen him, and all the villagers seem to be in awe and perpetually afraid of him at the same time. As with all king-like/God-like creatures, the maddest rumours circulate about him. His concept seems to be rather like Yahweh in the old testament: he shouldn't be upset, but he can be benevolent at the same time. It's a bit weird.

    It's sinister and funny at the same time. But I'm not sure that's what you're looking for.
    One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.

    "Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)

  6. #6
    Registered User kelby_lake's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by stlukesguild View Post
    I'd begin looking at Greco-Roman characters. Medea would be a possibility with works by Euripides, Ovid, Herodotus, Jean Anouilh, John Gardner, Pierre Corneille, William Morris referencing her... as well as other art forms such as operas by Cherubini, Charpentier, Milhaud and others.

    What of Clytemnestra? Or Salome?
    This is true. Faustus is also a good one.

    If you're looking for 'types', Jane Eyre and Lolita.

  7. #7
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    This is a really good starting point, thanks! I'll take some time to go through them all and make up a shortlist of the most likely candidates.

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