That meme, you know, with the characters.

[jlh]

So, I feel you can only really do book characters here, because movie and TV characters are at least half, if not more, the actor, and I did a whole picspam of 20 actors and musicians I find hot, so that's that done. And I think people should just do it, rather than my tagging them—no one tagged me, after all.

List ten fictional characters you wouldn't kick out of bed (in no particular order) and tag five people to do the same.

1. Gilbert Blythe, Anne of Green Gables et al. Is there anything more perfect for a smart girl than the man who, at the tender age of twelve, said that being smart was better than being pretty, and meant it? I've always thought of Gilbert as LMM's way of fixing Laurie/Jo, of saying, no, the boy next door isn't going to mary Ruby Gillis, even if she is your sister. Besides, he has brown curly hair and hazel eyes!
   
2. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Pride and Prejudice. Do I have to say anything about this, really?
   
3. Lord Peter Wimsey, Whose Body et al. Poor Peter, trying to give Harriet the world and finding all he could give her was Oxford and she already had that. Foolin' about because he's already gone mad with the war and all, you know. I suspect, however, that my personality is somewhat more akin to the Dowager Duchess than Harriet. I'm not into blond men as a rule, but this is mitigated by the grey eyes.
   
4. Seamus Finnigan, Harry Potter and the whathaveyou. It's really Seamus, full of life and spirit, and dirty blond hair, and loyalty and fun, and just all of it. My inner Hermione yearns for him.
   
5. Nick Carroway, The Great Gatsby. My second literary crush I think. I reread this book every summer and I love him strong. I want him to take me to the Princeton club. My favorites are always the stable sorts that keep their heads while everyone else goes mad, and that's our Nick. (The Sam Waterston thing, btw, happened because he played Nick in the film, not the other way around.)
   
6. Colin "Lamb", The Clocks. While many of you spent your formative years reading SF, fantasy, or manga, I was devouring mysteries, especially Christie. Colin has always stayed in the back of my mind, somehow. He's bright, groovy, a little inscrutable, has the right attitude toward Poirot (a lot of respect and a little irreverence), and he's probably good old wooden-faced Inspector Battle's son. And the stare down at the end? Man!
   
7. Cap Garland, The Long Winter et al. Oh poor doomed Cap, who in real life died in an explosion as quite a young man. Bit of a flirt, but a stand-up guy underneath. I dearly love Almanzo, and it's rare that I like the shiny over the stable, but then, Cap is pretty damned stable. And my god, so brave. The passage when he and Almanzo go after the wheat in The Long Winter—clearly told to Laura in later life by Almanzo—is one of my favorite sequences.
   
8. Bentley Haskell, The Thin Woman. Oh Bentley. You're such a nut, so completely out of your league half the time, with all your airs and ridiculousness. And you love Ellie. (Don't read the later books; not that he doesn't, just that she keeps thinking he doesn't, and it's really tiresome.)
   
9. Schroeder, Peanuts. Oh I love you Schroeder. I love you so. You made me love catchers, and piano players, and telling it like it is. I don't blame Lucy at all. I am not surprised that in that play—you know the one—you end up with Charlie, because he's pretty awesome too, and because of course you're gay; I've loved you since I was a girl.
   
10. Ravus, Valiant. Trolls are hot. It's true. Well, when they're written by Holly they're hot. When Holly was writing this she worried about Ravus being hot and I was like, A, he will be hot and B, Val will think he is hot long before she realizes that she thinks it. You just watch!

Comments

[piperki.livejournal.com]

CAP GARLAND IS HOT. I decree it. I demand fanfic.

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

i have been slashing cap/almanzo in my mind for a year. long story. has to do with american idol. don't ask.

[piperki.livejournal.com]

This deserves its place in literature. Make it so.

[skg.livejournal.com]

Cap/Almanzo, 'cause you know something went down after they went to get that wheat in The Long Winter

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

just so you know why you hear hysterical laughter somewhere, these are my exact words from my version of this meme, which i posted at the same time as clio posted hers:

3. cap garland and almanzo wilder (little house books, laura ingalls wilder). together. shut up. and yes i know they're not technically fictional. shut up. you may or may not recall how last year, in the heat of late spring cake frenzy, i found myself slashing them. i mean, you've got one volatile blond guy and one quiet dark guy and they're inseparable and...all i can say is, i will never again not imagine that their brave and thrilling trek to find the wheat and save the town didn't involve some hot times under the ol' bearskins. rawr.

[skg.livejournal.com]

Rawr indeed.

*friends*

[morganmuffle]

I think I've been slashing them since I first read The Long Winter aged about 12... When I wasn't desperately wishing Cap (I'm with you on that Clio) would come and carry me away with him.

[cricketnyc.livejournal.com]

Gilbert Blythe... swoon *thud*

[silksieve.livejournal.com]

Ah, Cap Garland. How adorable you are. I like how you describe him as shiny over stable. YES on the slash! :D

And Peter Wimsey, and GILBERT BLYTHE! That boy is pretty much perfect. And I never thought about the Little Women angle, but good point. I need my happy pairing, thankyouverymuch.

[skg.livejournal.com]

Geez, I like your list so much that I'm going to have to go and look up the characters I don't already have a crush on.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I would only say that while I love Colin Lamb, The Clocks is definitely not one of Christie's best mysteries. If you are a Poirot freak, as I am, there are pleasures, but the construction of the main mystery is not really one of them. There's a side plot mystery that has a much better end payoff, though.

The rest of the books I absolutely stand behind.

[calloocallay.livejournal.com]

The thing about making these lists is always that they imply so much role-playing on *MY* part. Like, I would really only shag Gilbert if I was Anne. I would in no way support a Darcy shag were I not Elizabeth, etc. The only gent I can think of who I wouldn't kick out of MY bed would be early Archie Goodwin before he hooked up with Lily.

I mean, I think the implied task of making a list like this is "what character might you want to BE, based on who he/she shags?"

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I kept thinking about my top ten romantic couples (http://jlh.livejournal.com/143997.html) and thinking about how much overlap this was, and when I was a fan of the couple, and when a fan of both of the couples, but the man somehow impacted the aspects of a man I would love to find for myself. And that's really how I thought of it, that Gilbert, and Lord Peter helped me to think at a young age "yes, some boys like smart girls" at an age when nearly all other indicators said otherwise. So yes, I ship these ships, and really, I'm not in that universe anyway, so I can't actually stand in the way of those ships, or be that lady. But would I want a guy who has lots of aspects of any of these particular characters, with me just as me? I definitely would.

[calloocallay.livejournal.com]

That's a good way of thinking about it. :)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

OMG, I totally have to do this meme. I love your list.

I had a Peanuts book when I was a kid, a really early one--possibly the earliest, and it's the one where Schroeder first appears and actually gets his piano. Although he's not his handsome self yet, because he's a baby.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

You have to do this meme like, IMMEDIATELY.

[illogicalvulcan.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if my list of TV/movie crushes would actually relate to the actor involved. I mean, I may have a huge crush Laura Roslin on Battlestar, but I'm honestly not sure if I could tell you anything Mary McDonnell has been in. Actually, I usually skip the "celebrity crush" question on meme for this very reason; it's always the character. This may just be me.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

It's funny that you use that example, since Laura Roslin reminds me so much of Stands with a Fist, McDonnell's character in Dances with Wolves, that I refer to her as President Stands with a Fist.

I guess, at least part of the crush is the visual, whether they're in a book or on a TV show, so it ends up being at least a little bit about casting, and about the hotness of the actor, and I wanted to keep this clean. The original meme is a picspam so it's like, a bunch of pictures of hot folks, and the pictures end up being really pictures of the actors, even if they are in character.

That said, would I have a crush on Matthew Perry absent Chandler? Nope. But would I have a crush on Chandler absent Matthew Perry? I just don't know.

[illogicalvulcan.livejournal.com]

Nonono, she's President Stands With an Airlock, according to the comms I'm on.

I generally tend to map celebrities onto the fictional characters in books, so I'm not entirely sure that counts as clean either. Of course, that's just my brain doing weird things.

*grin* I think crushed a little on Matthew Perry in Aaron Sorkin shows. He was adorable.

[mistress-mab.livejournal.com]

Schroeder. I used to crush so hard on him. *sigh*

[aome.livejournal.com]

Neat meme, and I like how you self-limited it, and why. I re-read Gatsby fairly recently, myself, and I can totally see why you'd dig in every summer. Hardly a page goes by without mentioning the weather and its effect on people. And poor Nick - watching everyone behave so badly all around him.

I didn't know about Cap Garland's fate - where did you learn that? Was he working in mines? :(

As for Gilbert - it's not just that he's smart and genuine, but also persistent and patient without being pushy. He was okay waiting for Anne's heart to wake up.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Gilbert Blythe, the anti-stalker. Because he's never creepy, and you know that if Anne had married someone else, especially if Gilbert thought she really loved him, he would have just headed west or something and made a new life for himself.

It was in a Laura bio I read. He died in a boiler explosion in a mill, and I believe he was in his twenties.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Hm. This makes me want to read Anne of Green Gables (it's true, I haven't read those yet) and Agatha Christie (seriously, I don't know how I've manage to not read her books all this time).

#9 cracked me UP.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Okay so here's the thing about Anne: You can read the first three books and just stop there, absolutely. But I would really encourage you to also read Anne's House O'Dreams (fourth book as written, fifth in the sequence, but Anne of Windy Poplars is a weird book). It's my favorite Anne and while I know not everyone likes an established relationship story, it's really about Anne and Gilbert as a very young couple, not parents yet, and there's a lot of other stuff going on that makes it a great read.

And I wish I had a good Gilbert icon.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Lord Peter Wimsey, Whose Body et al. Poor Peter, trying to give Harriet the world and finding all he could give her was Oxford and she already had that. Foolin' about because he's already gone mad with the war and all, you know. I suspect, however, that my personality is somewhat more akin to the Dowager Duchess than Harriet. I'm not into blond men as a rule, but this is mitigated by the grey eyes.

OMG what took Harriet so long? The scene in GAUDY NIGHT when she finally realizes she loves him was just about the most perfect thing ever.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

In the boat? Isn't it just? I love that book so much. But you know, Peter also calms down after the disaster of Have His Carcase. So I feel like it comes from both sides.

[meezergal.livejournal.com]

I read a bio of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and in it she confessed she actually favored Cap Garland over Almanzo Wilder! I don't know if Cap wasn't interested in her, or what, but obviously we all know how THAT turned out... ;)

[aome.livejournal.com]

Btw, unrelated, but have you seen this S/D fic (http://community.livejournal.com/hp_springsmut/114113.html) at hp_springsmut? I'm not a Deamus expert like you are, but I really enjoyed it, thought you might want to take a look. :)