Characters

It's not often I want to expand on a single question from a meme, but this time, well. I felt I needed to explain. Some are from early childhood, some are much more recent, all left their mark.

Name fictitious characters who made a lasting impression on you.

Pooh

At first, Winnie the Pooh was the D****y movie, and a little picture book of the same franchise, but it was the first book I memorized. Only later did I read the actual Milne book, and at first, it didn't much impress. But I kept going back. And then Benjamin Hoff drew the lines between eastern philosophy and Pooh, and I read them again. And fell in love with Pooh all over. And introduced him to D. D then found a recording of the books, and we listened to them together.

Pooh just is.


Black Beauty

A horse, and a real and enduring character. Aware as I was with the abuse he suffered, what I learned became more a matter of life lessons. That virtue had nothing to do with how we would be treated, what would be inflicted upon us. Love and happiness are not guaranteed, but grace comes sometimes unbidden.

Encyclopedia Brown

Ok, Uncle Walt knew a lot about just about everything, and I adored him. He would go on about aerodynamics or architectural stresses or ships, as though I could follow him. That implied respect gave me at least intellectual courage. So when I found the Encyclopedia Brown books, it was like meeting Uncle Walt when he was a little boy. I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to know stuff. E. Brown is probably the one fictional character who most inspired me to read anything I could get my eyes on.

Ford Prefect

The Douglas Adams canon entire is part of my worldview. The individual characters somewhat less so. ArthurDent felt too lost. The women were barely sketched. But Ford skimps on the research, tries to save one human of dubious value because he's a friend, and in a backward way stays strangely loyal. He's the kind of difficult friend I rather like.

Pippi Longstocking

One of those early impressions of what a girl could be that did not fit the old patterns. The details are lost now, but the idea of her has stayed with me. That eccentric can be acceptable.

Jim Prideaux

From Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, that tortured body and soul with a soft spot for the young and artistic. One of those characters that I want to reach out and help and stories about him outside the novel form in my mind. I respond to the murderous rage rooted in a fierce desire for justice, and the sense of personal responsibility that is so often lacking in the world of le Carré.

Granny Weatherwax

Pratchett characters all stay with me, so choosing just one is the hard part. Granny is the one I most want to sit and chat with over a cup of tea, even knowing full well she may just stare at me. Yes, I really do have an affection for people I have to earn my way with.

Death

So, of course, I couldn't just choose one Pratchett character. Long ago I felt a need to personify death, come to terms with my own death, feel it walking beside me in a comfortable way. When Death appeared, over-serious and getting it all wrong, but never unkind or capricious, I knew I'd found my imaginary friend.