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tree_and_leafI know, I'm spamming a bit today... but this is quite a fun thread on the Grauniad Culture Vulture blog:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2006/03/02/literary_lust.html
So which literary character does it for you?
In my case - like one of the people on the Gaurdian website, it's probably Peter Wimsey (as a result of overwhelmingly wonderful way with words, and nice hands; I don't normally go for blonds). Also up there, though in no particular order: Aragorn, Faramir (yes, I do identify with Eowyn, why do you ask?), Remus Lupin (though at the risk of getting brickbats thrown at me, I didn't really like David Thewliss), Darcy (Fitzwilliam, not Mark, and no, that's not just because of Colin Firth... though it probably helps), and Philip Marlowe. Oh, and although this will probably mean nothing to most people reading this: Willehalm*, in the Wolfram version.
Next question: what does this say about me? I'm not sure I want to know (though it's got to be better than what fancying Rochester would say about me...)
And now back to the life of S. Dominic.
*Willehalm is also known as Saint William of Aquitane, which means that if only there was any reason to suppose he was anything like the character in Wolfram would make him the answer to the appreciably more disturbing question, which saint do you find most fanciable? The field is, admittedly, rather small, since John Donne only rates a Commemoration in the Anglican calendar, and Ludwig of Thüringen, husband of Elisabeth of Thüringen in what is genrally agreed to have been one of the few recorded marriages for love in the middle ages, was never officially canonized, despite the popular tradition in Germany. But you do have to love a guy who, when his relatives tried to talk him out of marrying Elisabeth, because her family were in a lot of trouble and she was no longer a good match, replied 'See that mountain over there? Well, if you turned it into gold, and offered me it not to marry her, I wouldn't take it.' (it sounds a bit corny now, but in the context of thirteenth century historical writing...) And Elisabeth was given to scandalising the court by throwing herself in a passionate and undignified fashion at her husband when he returned even from short absences, so it was obviously mutual.
Elisabeth/ Ludwig OTP (after all, popular hagiography is the fanfic of the middle ages...)
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2006/03/02/literary_lust.html
So which literary character does it for you?
In my case - like one of the people on the Gaurdian website, it's probably Peter Wimsey (as a result of overwhelmingly wonderful way with words, and nice hands; I don't normally go for blonds). Also up there, though in no particular order: Aragorn, Faramir (yes, I do identify with Eowyn, why do you ask?), Remus Lupin (though at the risk of getting brickbats thrown at me, I didn't really like David Thewliss), Darcy (Fitzwilliam, not Mark, and no, that's not just because of Colin Firth... though it probably helps), and Philip Marlowe. Oh, and although this will probably mean nothing to most people reading this: Willehalm*, in the Wolfram version.
Next question: what does this say about me? I'm not sure I want to know (though it's got to be better than what fancying Rochester would say about me...)
And now back to the life of S. Dominic.
*Willehalm is also known as Saint William of Aquitane, which means that if only there was any reason to suppose he was anything like the character in Wolfram would make him the answer to the appreciably more disturbing question, which saint do you find most fanciable? The field is, admittedly, rather small, since John Donne only rates a Commemoration in the Anglican calendar, and Ludwig of Thüringen, husband of Elisabeth of Thüringen in what is genrally agreed to have been one of the few recorded marriages for love in the middle ages, was never officially canonized, despite the popular tradition in Germany. But you do have to love a guy who, when his relatives tried to talk him out of marrying Elisabeth, because her family were in a lot of trouble and she was no longer a good match, replied 'See that mountain over there? Well, if you turned it into gold, and offered me it not to marry her, I wouldn't take it.' (it sounds a bit corny now, but in the context of thirteenth century historical writing...) And Elisabeth was given to scandalising the court by throwing herself in a passionate and undignified fashion at her husband when he returned even from short absences, so it was obviously mutual.
Elisabeth/ Ludwig OTP (after all, popular hagiography is the fanfic of the middle ages...)
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 08:40 pm (UTC)And Remus Lupin, of course, but that goes without saying.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 09:41 pm (UTC)And then, in no particular order, Captain Wentworth from Persuasion, Faramir, Stephen Maturin, and Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing (which may or may not have got to do something with the fact that I'm mainly influenced by the film with a young Kenneth Branagh and, more recently, by the BBC radioplay with a youngish David Tennant...).
Oh, and as a kid/young teen (age 10-13 or so), I was very embarassingly in love with George Cooper King of Thieves from Tamora Pierce's YA fantasy novels (ah, Tortall, the realm of canon!Sues).
I do find, this question, however, faintly confusing: when reading a book I really like, I usually become so emotionally involved with lots of characters, both male and female, that I've got literary crushes on them all.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 09:54 am (UTC)Absolutely*. To the extent that really I have crushes on the stories these days rather than the characters - there are scenes that I could read to the end of time, but the crush is on the character in the book rather than the person. I certainly haven't got a crush on Simon Andresson in "Kristin Lavransdatter" and have no interest in meeting the man, but I think he is a wonderful character and re-read his scenes again and again.
That said, it wasn’t always the case, and early literary crushes include:
- Nancy Blackett
- Captain Campion (Yes, of Watership Down. The General Rommel of rabbits and my first contact with a type that never fails to fascinate me, the good man in a false position).
- Most of the cast of The Lord of the Rings, but Aragorn heads the list by virtue of being played by Robert Stephens, who was a magnificent Abner Brown in The Box of Delights)
- Hephaistion in Mary Renault’s Alexander trilogy
*Tho’ I still have the hots for Lord Peter.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 03:19 pm (UTC)As far as Arthur Ransome goes: I don't think I had a crush on any of them, but I wanted to be fifth Swallow, or possibly third Amazon, but I think I instictively felt that Nancy would so dominate her crew that that that was less attractive. I mean, Peggy clearly has less personality than any of the other kids - Susan's personality is a bit unexciting, but at least she has one, whereas the only thing I can remember about Peggy was that she was scared of thunder ("She'd have been fine if it were guns" said Nancy, somewhat unconvincingly)
Actually, I still like re-reading the Swallows and Amazons stories. They are so well written, especially 'We didn't mean to go to sea'.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 04:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 08:04 pm (UTC)Some time ago, an acquaintance recommended a series of Scandinavian novels to me. With my mind being a steel-sieve, really, I, of course, forgot very quickly what he'd been talking about, And I've been racking my brain ever since.
It was Kristin Lavransdatter, of course! Are they really that good?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-06 09:59 am (UTC)If you do decide to read it, make sure you get the recent Penguin edition, translated by Tiina Nunnally, as the old versions omit chunks and are rather stilted.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-06 09:34 pm (UTC)When I put it on my reading list, I'll make sure to get an unabridged modern translation (albeit maybe a German one :D).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-06 10:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 02:21 pm (UTC)I find this with the Aubrey/Maturin books (mind you, I love Stephen, but I wouldn't say I find him hot, exactly - and Aubrey's not my type, though I like him very much)
Then of course there are people like Snape and Malfoy, whose scenes I really enjoy reading - but that doesn't translate to a crush...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 04:24 pm (UTC)His propensity towards brown woollen garments (it is a knitted catsuit, isn't it), the wig, the dodgy personal hygiene are marks against him, though he seems to scrub up pretty well. He'd just be such hard word, though.
Diana, however, is simply cool,
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-06 10:48 pm (UTC)I assume you mean 'work'?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-07 09:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 08:07 pm (UTC)I don't think anyone would find Snape and Malfoy sexy. Interesting yes, sexy no. Unless you count the countless fangirls who've got the hots for Alan Rickman or Tom Felton. Or fanon!Draco in black leather... *sigh*
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 12:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 02:24 pm (UTC)The chap in 'The Blue Castle', on the other hand....
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 04:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 03:10 pm (UTC)Well, hagiography is great fun - but I'd stay away from the legends of virgin martyrs. With the exception of S. Katherine of Alexandria, they are all the same and all dull.
Katherine is fantastic, though (any girl who is generally represented reading a book while casually clutching a sword in the other hand gets my vote!)
Elisabeth of Thuringia, or of Hungary, was clearly a very exceptional woman, and the sources on her are unusually good - the accounts of her life haven't been pushed as far into the normal pattern as often happens. Married women rarely get canonized, and if they do, you never hear about how passionately they loved their husbands (they are too busy moping over the loss of their maidenhead, which gets tiresome very quickly).
Willehalm is utterly fantastic, but I don't know if it's been translated into English, and if so, whether the translation is any good or not...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 08:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 02:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 09:51 am (UTC)*I was fourteen. It was nice to find a character who was extremely personally reserved and thought sex was a waste of time, but who was also handsome, charming, clever and rich (plus stuck 6 million years in the past, but that looked OK to me) – given that we both had dark curly hair, he was something of a role model.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 02:26 pm (UTC)Asexuality can be quite refreshing, if you're fourteen and reserved (speaking as some-one who was).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-03 04:27 pm (UTC)Hurrah for reserved people – the world needs more of us. Being chronically shy didn't help, but these days I'm much better at faking it.
Invented Tradition and Scottish Kilts
Date: 2006-03-03 02:47 pm (UTC)'Indeed, the whole concept of a distinct Highland culture and tradition is a retrospective invention. Before the later years of the 17thC, the Highlanders of Scotland did not form a distinct people. They were simply the overflow of Ireland. On that broken and inhospitable coast, in that archipelago of islands large and small, the sea unites rather than divides and from the late 5thC, when the Scots of Ulster landed in Argyll, until the mid-18thC, when it was "opened up" after the Jacobite revolts, the West of Scotland, cut off by mountains from the East, was always linked rather to Ireland than to the Saxon Lowlands. Racially and culturally, it was a colony of Ireland.'
What say you, my dear Scottish friend?!
Re: Invented Tradition and Scottish Kilts
Date: 2006-03-03 03:04 pm (UTC)it's true that there were strong links between the isles, and that certainly Christianity arrived through Ireland; and yes, the Highland Scots were Irish originally. And yes, there is a big Highland-Lowland divide in Scotland.
But I think he overstates Irish influence on the Highlands. The two forms of Gaelic are really quite different (though closer to each other than Welsh); there are greater differences in the music, and the folklore and poetry are more different still. The fact that the Higlands were not highly unified but a patchwork of different lordships in fact speaks against his 'colonial' model. But then, Hobsbawm is a Marxist and has a tendency to try to force things into pre-defined and in this case anachronistic patterns.
It is, however, true that the tartan system was largely invented by Walter Scott...
Re: Invented Tradition and Scottish Kilts
Date: 2006-03-03 03:24 pm (UTC)