Liking a fictional charcter (in A Song of Ice and Fire examples)
I am in procrastinating mood today (the weather has been very gloomy lately), so I want to post about "Liking a fictional character". These are just my thoughts, the way things work for me, and all your thoughts are welcome!
The questions are:
Can a person like a fictional character that is NOT Good?
Does liking a "not good" character say something about the moral qualities of the person (the answer is no, methinks :D)?
What does "I like a fictional character" mean? I think this might have different meanings for different people..
For me - liking a fictional character doesn't equal liking a person in RL. When I say "I like a fictional character" I mean "I find her/him interesting" and in no way this is related to their virtues or the lack of thereof. Strangely enough, really good characters, as well as complete monsters, are almost never very interesting. There are exceptions to the rule, but in general, this is the case.
So when I say "I like her/him" I don't mean I condone throwing little kids out of the windows. I mean that there are interesting traits, or some interesting character development, or an interesting idea that this character represents. Some of the characters I like are just purely interesting to discuss, or sometimes they touch on some geeky ideas I have (for example, I love tournaments - Jaime, dogs - Sandor, and Joan of Arc - Brienne).
I never like characters "for the cause". I am a feminist and a stand-for-the-rights-of-all-oppressed person, but I don't like agenda in fiction, even "good" agenda". Agenda-driven books never rise above mediocrity, I feel, because the author's focus is not in "creating".
As far as characters go, I don't feel I "have to" only like female characters (because I am a feminist) or I "have to" only be interested in male characters that share my ideas. Because - WHY???? What does this have to do with their ability to be interesting? Like one Russian saying goes - "it is not as if we are going to be drinking buddies!". I find both these characters fascinating because I am interested in "dark recesses of human soul", but of course I don't think they are "good people"! :D
I also very rarely side with a character or a group of characters, maybe because they are not real people, but sort of fictional ideas for me? I mean - I will not dislike the character X just because they have done something bad to the character Y whom I happen to love.
The questions are:
Can a person like a fictional character that is NOT Good?
Does liking a "not good" character say something about the moral qualities of the person (the answer is no, methinks :D)?
What does "I like a fictional character" mean? I think this might have different meanings for different people..
For me - liking a fictional character doesn't equal liking a person in RL. When I say "I like a fictional character" I mean "I find her/him interesting" and in no way this is related to their virtues or the lack of thereof. Strangely enough, really good characters, as well as complete monsters, are almost never very interesting. There are exceptions to the rule, but in general, this is the case.
So when I say "I like her/him" I don't mean I condone throwing little kids out of the windows. I mean that there are interesting traits, or some interesting character development, or an interesting idea that this character represents. Some of the characters I like are just purely interesting to discuss, or sometimes they touch on some geeky ideas I have (for example, I love tournaments - Jaime, dogs - Sandor, and Joan of Arc - Brienne).
I never like characters "for the cause". I am a feminist and a stand-for-the-rights-of-all-oppressed person, but I don't like agenda in fiction, even "good" agenda". Agenda-driven books never rise above mediocrity, I feel, because the author's focus is not in "creating".
As far as characters go, I don't feel I "have to" only like female characters (because I am a feminist) or I "have to" only be interested in male characters that share my ideas. Because - WHY???? What does this have to do with their ability to be interesting? Like one Russian saying goes - "it is not as if we are going to be drinking buddies!". I find both these characters fascinating because I am interested in "dark recesses of human soul", but of course I don't think they are "good people"! :D
I also very rarely side with a character or a group of characters, maybe because they are not real people, but sort of fictional ideas for me? I mean - I will not dislike the character X just because they have done something bad to the character Y whom I happen to love.