character identification poll

[rm]

Quick and dirty, but of interest due to random convo with copperbadge:

[Poll #1541697]

Comments

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

When I identify with a fictional character it is because of their ideals and approach, it is because of how they view the world, and I look in real people too for a certain set of characteristics - diligence; the experience of being an outsider that has necessitated the ability to develop and hold their own beliefs in the face of prevailing attitudes; intelligence; fortitude; an intimate knowledge of depression and the struggle to overcome it; the drive to be the best for themselves alone, and the arrogance to know it is possible; a certain tendency to have a reason for all they think, do and say; a certain ability to conceptualise implications of small thoughts and that they reach into infinity. They do not need to be accurate, or be able to determine all of these, but they need to carry the concept and be pleased with it. I give them the freedom to be wrong in these and any things, but they must try. And surprisingly, even with all these criteria, I find people with whom to identify!

These are naturally based on the character's past and realisations ze has had.

In the words of Walt Whitman,
"They do not sweat and whine about their condition
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God
Not one is dissatisfied... not one is demented with the mania of owning things
Not one kneels to another nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth."

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

I think it is also, and perhaps universal, that one identifies, rightly or wrongly, with those who do things. No one wants to think of themselves as boring or lacking identity. I know I don't, and Rene Girard says this. I identify characters who know this and, like me, endeavour to ensure their lives are unlikely. And though this leads to beauty it also leads to pain, and I identify with characters who know and can sympathise.