I recently reread To Say Nothing of the Dog for nefarious fic purposes I'm intrigued! That's one of my favourites, and I'd love to see that "nefarious fic" :D
You have Rousseau and the French Revolution to thank for this. Emphasis on the individual over the collective--all very useful for its time, but it's produced the most God-awful tolerance for and indulgence of selfishness and immaturity in the name of pursuing passion. Charisma makes up for every other sin--well, that and some level of physical attractiveness---and Hollywood's mores have so infected the public aesthetic that publishers now recognize the more or less obvious fact that books are most likely to sell well when they create a cinematic reading experience.
Often I don't fall in love with characters in the books I read, because they're so well-drawn. You can see their flaws and their good points, and even if you think something they do is stupid, by imagining yourself into their position you can see where they're coming from.
Characters I do obsess over tend to share some similarities with me, but nevertheless express their identity in a very different way. So there's this exciting combination of mystery and sympathy, and it's all very entertaining. That said, I don't think I'd ever feel a connection to a particular character if the book, the fishbowl in which they're swimming, is neither convincing nor sincere. (e.g. some glib publishing concept as olmue suggested.) To strongly engage me, a character has to be surrounded by other engaging characters, themes, events etc
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Different books have different strengths. Many SF (as opposed to Fantasy) novels are "ideas" books, where the Idea is the thing. And sometimes it's a cool idea, and sometimes the characters are a bit flat, but it doesn't matter (much). Just think Asimov, who wasn't that great at characterisation. On the other hand, Greg Egan, who also writes Ideas books, has had a tendency to write characters that I find really annoying and irritating, so that does drive me away
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Hmmm, it looks like kerravonsen said most of what I was going to say.
Let me just add one thing, with two different sides to it.
I do enjoy good plot, pacing, intrigue, and world-building. I will, certainly, pick up, enjoy, and recommend novels which excel in these areas without making me "fall in love" with one character or another. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age comes to mind--I couldn't tell you the name of any character, nor describe most of them, but I was tickled to death by the inventiveness of the world.
But I haven't re-read it. That's what tends to happen to me with such books; I read and enjoy them, but don't come back to them.
Even with books which are very much Idea books, such as Ursula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness (gender-roles what-if scifi), I will take them with me and re-read them *if* a character caught my heart or my imagination. (In this example, it's the secondary character...shoot, I know his/her name, but it's not coming up right now. Estevan, there, I got it
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I'm intrigued! That's one of my favourites, and I'd love to see that "nefarious fic" :D
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To use synaesthete's example, one of the things that enchants readers of the H.P. books is the wizarding world.
Done well enough that is the only character the reader need "fall in love with"
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Often I don't fall in love with characters in the books I read, because they're so well-drawn. You can see their flaws and their good points, and even if you think something they do is stupid, by imagining yourself into their position you can see where they're coming from.
Characters I do obsess over tend to share some similarities with me, but nevertheless express their identity in a very different way. So there's this exciting combination of mystery and sympathy, and it's all very entertaining. That said, I don't think I'd ever feel a connection to a particular character if the book, the fishbowl in which they're swimming, is neither convincing nor sincere. (e.g. some glib publishing concept as olmue suggested.) To strongly engage me, a character has to be surrounded by other engaging characters, themes, events etc ( ... )
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Let me just add one thing, with two different sides to it.
I do enjoy good plot, pacing, intrigue, and world-building. I will, certainly, pick up, enjoy, and recommend novels which excel in these areas without making me "fall in love" with one character or another. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age comes to mind--I couldn't tell you the name of any character, nor describe most of them, but I was tickled to death by the inventiveness of the world.
But I haven't re-read it. That's what tends to happen to me with such books; I read and enjoy them, but don't come back to them.
Even with books which are very much Idea books, such as Ursula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness (gender-roles what-if scifi), I will take them with me and re-read them *if* a character caught my heart or my imagination. (In this example, it's the secondary character...shoot, I know his/her name, but it's not coming up right now. Estevan, there, I got it ( ... )
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