Who are the top three most influential fictitious characters in your life? They are probably listed in a new book, The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History. Three scientific authors wrote up their subjective list, including Frankenstein, Mr. Hyde, Prometheus, Jim Crow, Siegfried, and J.R. Ewing. Their top three are The Marlboro Man, Big Brother, and King Arthur. (No, no, the legend of Arthur which transcends whatever the reality was. No, I’m not going to argue over it, because you’re probably right.)
I think my personal list would be:
- Bilbo Baggins, who left his comfortable home to apply his skills in ways he could never have foreseen
- Winnie the Pooh, who is fun and compassionate if nothing else (I should learn more from him)
- Wolverine, an angry man who has been a bad influence on me. I should work to replace him with The Man who was Thursday, who strove after God.
Who are the characters on your list?
1) Aslan, who gave me a refreshingly morally comprehensible (if untrustworthy) vision of God. By which I mean it showed me what “God is good” *might* mean, though I can’t help my nagging suspicion that there’s something in the whole “give all your money away and follow me” side of Christ that may be downplayed in Aslan.
2) Phillip Marlowe, who should probably be #1 on the list, if I were honest. When I think of myself (which is too often), it’s generally myself as Marlowe: in tune with the poetry of shades of darkness, often slouched and seemingly unsure of myself while I take my time to figure things out, equally eager with a silly wise-crack or a compassionate silence, but fundamentally honorable and ready, when backed in a corner, to look the world in the eye, damn the consequences, and do what I feel must be right.
3) Ford Prefect. Because, really, if they made a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I’d be outta here quicker than you can say “pan-galactic gargleblaster.”
1) Sherlock Holmes, who showed me you don’t have to play well with others to be successful. If you’re a genius. (Unfortunately I’m not enough of a genius to make it work, myself.)
2) John Steed, who taught me never to go out without a hat.
3) Porkypine in “Pogo,” who was just… me.
Characters who actually influenced me, as opposed to being characters with whom I identify fairly strongly? I can’t think of any as having on ongoing influence. I can think of fictional characters who influenced me at a paricular moment, though.
Let’s hear about those characters, Dale.
Hmm, well, prudence suggests I be evasive, but when Peter Guillam takes a file in the great BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, that stuck in my mind & that probably influenced an action I took many years ago – – !
1) Aragorn
2)Indiana Jones
3) Gandalf!
Well, Tim, if anybody’s done OK in terms of his heroes, I’d say you have.
Check out his site, folks. He was just interviewed by the BBC.
John Galt. Ayn Rand remains hugely influential–there was even a short allusion to Atlas Shrugged in a recent episode of MAD MEN.
Given the difficulty in applying the modern dichotomy between history and fictional literature to ancient works, my list of influential characters seems rather superficial. Perhaps it is. Perhaps it isn’t.
Merlin (from Mary Stewart’s trilogy)
Chris Stevens (from Northern Exposure)
Batman