If you could be a hero/heroine written by any writer, which one would it be?

[kelby_lake]

Not which of their current heroes/heroines but if you were written by that writer and had/already have the characteristics
of their heroes/heroines.

I think I'd be a Hardy heroine, early-era Hardy when he fell in love. Flighty and indecisive, impulsive, dreamy and stunning :)

[cafolini]

Madonna? LMAO! There are so many in this century. To look for one or two you've got to be in a very primitive place.

[PeterL]

Harry Flashman
Who else?

Or maybe Ensign Rate of [i]The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream]/i]

[Irishcrusader95]

it would have to be the Count of Monte Cristo, he's highly intelligent in areas of science, history and culture, is a crack shot with a pistol, has a very mysterious manner, can speak several languages and imitate their accents perfectly, has all sorts of contacts across the world and of course is also stinking rich!

[skyrise]

Midori from 'Norwegian Wood' or maybe that is the answer to the question 'Character you would most like to marry?' In my opinion she is the most interesting, light, warm, witty character that Murakami invented and none of his other one dimensional, eternally damaged female protagonists will ever live up to her. One of the reasons I have stopped reading Murakami is the type of female charachters in his novels, Midori however breaks the mold.

“I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally three hundred and sixty five days a year, I was still in elementary school at the time - fifth or sixth grade - but I made up my mind once and for all.”

“Wow,” I said. “Did the search pay off?”

“That’s the hard part,” said Midori. She watched the rising smoke for a while, thinking. “I guess I’ve been waiting so long I’m looking for perfection. That makes it tough.”

“Waiting for the perfect love?”

“No, even I know better than that. I’m looking for selfishness. Perfect selfishness. Like, say I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortcake. And you stop everything you’re doing and run out and buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on your knees and hold this strawberry shortcake out to me. And I say I don’t want it anymore and throw it out the window. That’s what I’m looking for.”

“I’m not sure that has anything to do with love,” I said with some amazement.

“It does,” she said. “You just don’t know it. There are time in a girl’s life when things like that are incredibly important.”

“Things like throwing strawberry shortcake out the window?”

“Exactly. And when I do it, I want the man to apologize to me. “Now I see, Midori. What a fool I have been! I should have known that you would lose your desire for strawberry shortcake. I have all the intelligence and sensitivity of a piece of donkey ****. To make it up to you, I’ll go out and buy you something else. What would you like? Chocolate Mousse? Cheesecake?”

“So then what?”

“So then I’d give him all the love he deserves for what he’s done.”

“Sounds crazy to me.”

“Well, to me, that’s what love is…”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

[Dark Muse]

I would most likely be a J.D. Salinger heroine.

[kelby_lake]

I would most likely be a J.D. Salinger heroine.

Interesting. Why? :)

[PeterL]

Or maybe Cap Huff.

[Dark Muse]

Interesting. Why? :)

In part because of the cynicism, and the sardonic humor. With a touch of the tragic. I connect very well with his characters and think it would be fun to be written by him. They have this tough outer shell but are pretty messed up inside. And it would be fun to be a femme fatale from that Era.

Plus J.D. like me was quite the recluse so he would really get me.

[aaron stark]

I'd like to be C. Auguste Dupin for one day, the main character in some of EA Poe's detective short stories. The man impresses me a lot with the way he reasons.

[Scheherazade]

Bernard Shaw's.

[Buh4Bee]

This is one of the BEST threads that I have seen in a long time.

I also love that scene Skyrise describes from Norwegian Wood. Maduri is a lovable character. (One that I secretly identified with.) It is a nice thing to fall in love with the characters in the books you read. I wouldn't mind being written by Murakami, because he loves and respects his female characters. I think this is one aspect of his writing I was touched by.

My first reaction was JD Salinger, also DM. I was very amused when I saw you write that.

This is one of those questions that I can't answer, but I'm going to have fun trying to answer. I just haven't read enough literature to really give a good opinion. Great thread!

[Dark Muse]

This is one of the BEST threads that I have seen in a long time.

My first reaction was JD Salinger, also DM. I was very amused when I saw you write that.

This is one of those questions that I can't answer, but I'm going to have fun trying to answer. I just haven't read enough literature to really give a good opinion. Great thread!


Now that I think about it being an Ayn Rand character would also suit me quite well.

[JBI]

Casanova.

[Yasu]

Longbow from David and Leigh Eddings Dreamers Series.

He is a intelligent warrior, knows that patience can lead to the best results, is a skilled archer, and has a personality that can both intimidate and charm people.

[Alexander III]

Anatole Kuragin

[Buh4Bee]

Now that I think about it being an Ayn Rand character would also suit me quite well.

Is there one in particular that you identify with most?

[qimissung]

Jane Eyre. I am Jane, only I haven't found my Rochester yet,lol. Or Franny from "Franny and Zooey." I guess those two are fairly dissimilar, one just is, while the other seeks, but that's human nature for you, intricate and inconsistent.

[Dark Muse]

Is there one in particular that you identify with most?

In many ways I identify strong with Dominique from The Fountainhead. Though I did not agree with all of her choices and actions I think at root we have a very similar perspective on things and I understand what drove her to do the things she did. Plus she gets to hook up with Howard Roark which I would not mind at all :smilewinkgrin:

[Buh4Bee]

Qimi- I was thinking Jane Erye too, but she is too good. On the other hand, I also thought about Anna Karenina, but she is too soulless. Many females character Tolstoy writes from either War and Peace or Anna Karenina are appealing to me.

DM- I want to read Anne Rand. I think I may really like her or really hate her. It's going to be one or the other. But I was thinking that I'd prefer a female writer verses a male writer. Some other authors I thought about were Hemingway and Fitzgerald and both at times are lacking respect toward their female characters. As I already mentioned a quality I admired in Murakami.

[Dark Muse]

DM- I want to read Anne Rand. I think I may really like her or really hate her. It's going to be one or the other. But I was thinking that I'd prefer a female writer verses a male writer. Some other authors I thought about were Hemingway and Fitzgerald and both at times are lacking respect toward their female characters. As I already mentioned a quality I admired in Murakami.

I love Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

Yeah Rand tends to be like that. As well a lot of people just focus upon how much they disagree with her philosophy, and I know her writing is also based a lot, but I personally find her stories interesting, and I love her characters. I don't think she is truly a bad writer (but maybe I feel that way because I agree with a lot of her ideas)

The Fountainhead I think is one of her best works. It is the first thing of hers I read that made me fall in love with her. But it is a hefty book. She has a few shorter works that might be less daunting if you are uncertain about her.

Have you read any Atwood? As far as wanting to read more female authors.

[TheFifthElement]

Marianne from Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter. Or maybe Smilla from Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow.

[Emil Miller]

Jay Gatsby because ultimately we are all dreamers.

[kelby_lake]

This isn't a thread so much on "Which character would you like to be?" but more like "Which heroes/heroines do you identify with?". Which writers manage to show you yourself?

[PeterL]

I just reread the op, and I hadn't bothered reading it cthoroughly before; but the two ideas are close in nature. If George MacDonald Fraser were to write another novel with a first person narrator who was like most people and always underestimated himself, then that would work for me. Other authors have done similar things with under-stated narrators, and I think that G.C. Edmondson did that with his main characters in The Aluminum Man and The Ship that Sailed the Time Stream.

[mona amon]

This isn't a thread so much on "Which character would you like to be?" but more like "Which heroes/heroines do you identify with?". Which writers manage to show you yourself?

Don Quixote, because I too find the world of books more real than the actual world - well, maybe not so much now that I'm older and better adjusted, but it's still the closest I can get. :)

[Snowqueen]

Jane Eyre. I am Jane, only I haven't found my Rochester yet,lol.

I hope you find your Rochester soon, Qimi, but make sure he’s not hiding Bertha in his mansion. :smilewinkgrin: Rochester is one of my favourite characters. I was 15 when I read Jane Eyre.


"Which heroes/heroines do you identify with?". Which writers manage to show you yourself?


I would say Bathsheba Everdene, Gabriel’s cold hearted darling. :D

[kelby_lake]

I would say Bathsheba Everdene, Gabriel’s cold hearted darling. :D

Yep, I see some of myself there too. The indecisiveness, the impulsive nature, petulence...possibly my favourite Hardy heroine.

[qimissung]

Thank you, SnowQueen! I shall be sure to look. I adore Bathsheba Everdene. I should reread that book. I will never forget the description of her as first seen by Gabriel Oak, laying back on her horse to ride under the branches of the trees, if I remember correctly.

Fifth, I love Smilla, too, and also relate to her. Can you describe Marianne? Why did you choose her?

Also, Buh4Bee, Jane isn't necessarily good. She is not a criminal, nor does she create a lot of personal drama, but in her mind she was not a "good" person. The main point to be remembered about her is that in her description she was small and quiet and plain, but inside she was deeply passionate.

I don't think Anna was too soulless, either. Sorry to dispute you on both points, but listen to Tolstoy's description of her:

"...her shining grey eyes, which seemed dark because of their thick lashes, rested amiably and attentively on his face, as if she recognized him, and at once wandered over the approaching crowd as though looking for someone. In that brief glance Vronsky had time to notice the restrained animation that played over her face and fluttered between her shining eyes and the barely noticeable smile that curved her red lips. It was as if a surplus of something so overflowed her being that it expressed itself beyond her will, now in the brightness of her glance, now in her smile. She deliberately extinguished the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will in a barely noticeable smile."

How beautiful she sounds, and how full of life. I don't think this is a description of a woman at all soulless, although the tragedy is there, a foreshadowing of what was to come, even as she is shown at the height of her beauty.

[Irishcrusader95]

a character i definitely feel i relate with is Jon Snow from the song of ice and fire series. i know how it is to feel like the lone wolf yet he overcomes that showing courage, determination and leadership when the time calls. also love his tragic love story with Yegette.
http://062012.imgbb.ru/9/4/b/94bf44d44d9cbd7e9116161f8fb5f9dc.jpg

[dark desire]

This isn't a thread so much on "Which character would you like to be?" but more like "Which heroes/heroines do you identify with?". Which writers manage to show you yourself?

For both the questions my answer is Meursault from The Outsider by Camus. The way he lived, the way he loved, the way he died and before that the way he grabbed the priest who came to atone him of his sins. I don't live as indifferently on the outside. I wish I could.

[Buh4Bee]

Qimi- I guess my point is that the character I'd most identify with falls somewhere in between these two characters (Tolstoy and Bronte).

One character flaw about Anna that always bothered me was how easily she left her son. Then when society turned on her, she couldn't cope. To me she was an ugly character, although beautifully crafted.

But this thread is about finding a writer that reveals yourself through the construct of a heroine, not necessarily just about the character.

[STX360]

what about jon snow, the bastard boy in the " a song of ice and fire" series?

when he says: "kill the boy, and let the man be born".

[kelby_lake]

what about jon snow, the bastard boy in the " a song of ice and fire" series?

when he says: "kill the boy, and let the man be born".

Somebody got that one in on page 2 :)

[prendrelemick]

Hmm.. Now who would I trust to pen my alter-ego... I think Dickens, one of those jolly philosophical comedy characters like Mr Micawber or Sam Weller, with a fat happy wife and 10 kids.

[TheFifthElement]

Fifth, I love Smilla, too, and also relate to her. Can you describe Marianne? Why did you choose her?


Hmm, Marianne.


Marianne had sharp, cold eyes and she was spiteful but her father loved her.

She is independent, forceful, singularly minded, cruel, perverse, practical, brutal and direct. She is not massively likeable. I think it is this in both her and Smilla that I associate with, their lack of acquiescence. It is not popular, but it is true.