h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As we seem to be on a literary roll at the moment perhaps it is time for us to confess all.

WHICH FICTIONAL CHARACTERS HAVE GOT A CRUSH ON/SOFTSPOT FOR/WANT TO MAKE BABIES WITH?

I have to confess to:

Strider, from Lord of the Rings by JJR Tolkein

Richard Rahl, from The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

and most of the really cool versions of the wizard Merlin from any number of books.

sad aren't I?

FABT

Lazarus Long from Robert Heinlein's Time Enough For Love
Ayn Rand's protagonists.
The Boss from Mark Twain's Conneticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court
Lestat from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles
Most of Tom Robbins' eccentric male characters.

*sigh* If only they were real....

Well, Strider of course, but he is less interesting when he is Aragorn.

Yes, I kinda liked Lazarus Long, though I got a tad irritated with him towards the end of the book.

Edmund in King Lear - how could Shakespeare *write* sexy, when all he had was speaches in blank verse?

Me Rochester doesn't do it for me, even if he does do it for poor Jane. Neither does Mr Darcey, I'm afraid, though I am fond of the hero of Persuasion, even if I cannot currently remember his name. At least he doesn't turn out to be a clergyman half way through the book.

Hmmm. Who else do I fancy? Not very literary, I am afraid, but Lord Damerel, the hero of 'Venetia' by Georgette Heyer is good looking, witty, urbane, holds his drink well, has a chequered past, is kind to his friends, and is crazy about Venetia. I've been in love with him since I was 14, which is a while ago now.

Ged in 'The Tombs of Atuan', but not the other 'Earthsea Books'

F'Lar in 'Dragonrider', but not the other dragon books. (It is his wherehide jacket in the first chapter that did it for me...)

In fact all of the above, since I was 14 or so...

Books I have read since then?

Maybe the Doc in Steinbeck's Cannery Row. A kind, gentle, funny, courteous womaniser. (What is it with me and womanisers?)

Thats all I can think of for now.

Ford Prefect. God help me.

Oh yes, Ford Prefect, I get that one

No no no!

Zaphod is way sexier!

All those hands , you know?

FABT

Good point FABT, never thought of that

Oh I just though of someone else... Anyone read the Star Trek New Frontier series???

Captain Calhoun... now there´s a man that just screams sex... You can just feel his chrisma flowing of the pages... and those deep, sensual purple eyes...

(is it hot in here )

I admire Arabella in Hardy's Jude the Obscure, if only because she's so much better than the ghastly Sue. Plus throwing a pig's genitals at someone as a pulling technique - nice.

Does the lack of male response to this thread indicate a difference in gender sexual imagination? In that chaps are supposed to be 'visual' - ie we see a nice curve and get excited, and ladies are more 'imaginative' - ie they imagine a nice curve and get excited. Sorry, ramble over.

Some of the fiesty heroines of Gothic literature are quite nice, when they're not fainting or waxing lyrical about how their blood is running cold, how they're paralysed with dread etc etc ad nauseam.

No fair you ladies get all the decent characters to drool over, there aren't nearly so many women

Then again Dweia from the Redemption of Althalus isn't a bad prospect, there's just something about divine beauty

Hmmm and Sergeant Angua from the Discworld books....

Cosette in Les Miserables always made me go wibbly at the knees ... as does Rodya's sister in Crime and Punishment - can't remember her name ... desperately trying to think of other literary totty ... *stokes chin pensively*

On the subject of feisty heroines in Gothic fiction - why DID the hero of The Woman in White go for the blonde piece, who was wet, drippy, stupid, and a complete pain, when there was feisty little Rachel there, sorting out all the problems, and imaginitive and funny too?

Or maybe that was Wilkie Collins point, that the hero was a complete dodo.

Think I may go out and spend a quid in the books for a quid shop today.

agcB

How many books will you be buying, then? (maths? pah! )

Dear oh dear - I really can't think of any sexy female literary characters off the top of my head. They're either dull, wet or offensively dislikable, and that's the well-written ones. It seems to me that men writing female characters tend to make them token totty, so they're not very interesting and thus not very sexy, whereas women writing female characters make them more the central protagonists, and have no real interest in making them sexy for a male readership. Or is this completely wrong?

CH3 and Barton from 'Piece of Cake' - Ekki is the only one who will understand that one...

Still have a raging crush on them 14 years after I first read the book!

I've got the hots something rotten for Dame Jenny Everleigh who is the magnificent main character in the 'Intimate Memoirs of... Dame Jenny Everleigh'.

God, it's warm in here.

I think NexusSeven has hit the nail on the head with regards to why there are few attractive female characters.

It's got to be Zaphod, F'lar from Anne McCaffrey's Pern sagas, Taliesin from Stephen Lawheads Pendragon series or Pop Larkin (from the books, not the TV series).

Heh heh. This is a well-timed question, as I'm in the midle of a college course called 'Rise of the Novel.'

Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights, I'm afraid. And add to that Valerie Marneffe from Balzac's Cousin Bette. As you can see, I have a terrible penchant for preferring villains.

Between Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox, I'll admit to a preference for Ford. Zaphod's to unnaproachable to be fun, despite the extra arm and head. And besides, I wouldn't want to see him snoring *during* sex.

BTW for Nexus Seven and Dancing Ermine, my opinion is that prudishness accounts for much of the unattractive qualities of female heroines in novels. Instead of English or American fiction, you should try translations of French or Russian novels. You'll find they do a much better job with female characters than we do!

Heh heh, what a cool thread!!

I always had a soft spot for Ford. That was how I found h2g2, by doing a search on his name.

Mr Darcy *before* Colin Firth besmirched his personality in the Beeb's version. Grr, he wasn't right for it at all.

Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. A far superior man to the wishy-washy Ashley.

J. from Three Men In A Boat but that may be just a Jerome K. Jerome fixation on my part.

And (I wouldn't admit this to just anyone... ) David Lister in the Red Dwarf books. I know he eats his own toe-nail clippings *and* it's not great literature but I can't help it!!!!