Literary Crushes

[PixelFish]

There was a thread on celebrity crushes over here and so I thought I'd complete the circle and do one on literary crushes.

To completely misquote Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a girl of a certain disposition and in a certain position in life, having enough access to books will develop mad crushes outside the realms of Tiger Beat.

So which literary characters (from any genre) have you had crushes on?

I present my list (or at least part of it):



Will, from the Dark is Rising. Damn. I had the worst crush on Will. In my head, my family mysteriously moved into a house just down the lane from Will's parents house, and it turned out that I had Wild Magic (couldn't be one of the Old Ones, since Will was the last). And of course, we had to stop the Dark from rising and all that, without that pesky Jane around to be a distraction.

Encyclopedia Brown held thrall over my heart during my early childhood as well. I was not particularly monogamous with my literary crushes. There was, mysteriously, no Sally Kimball in the universe that Encyclopedia and I shared together. Of course, it waned, probably because I grew older, and Encyclopedia never got older than 10 in my head. (Other characters could easily shift ages around, for the sake of convenience, but not Encyclopedia. Which is just as well, because I can't imagine calling out the name "Leroy" during sex, and "Encyclopedia, take me now," just doesn't quite work.)

I read Tolkein, and there was a whole trove of males for me to salivate over. I liked Pippin a lot when I was younger, but Faramir REALLY REALLY REALLY had my heart. (And Peter Jackson BROKE IT! The BASTARD!) I used to imagine running into Faramir at the Forbidden Pool of Henneth Annun and....well, being that I was just hitting puberty, Faramir and I didn't get up to anything TOO SKETCHY in Ye Olde Forbidden Pool, but yeah. Faramir had long rippling black black hair, and was all honourable (but not in a boring way) and pretty handy with swords and bows, and plus, he liked hanging out in the woods. (The whole business about him guarding the Forbidden Pool made him pretty attractive. Why wouldn't you totally adore a boy that had his own Forbidden Pool?)

Ramses, aka Walter Peabody Emerson, from Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries. What can one say about Ramses? (His own mother, Amelia, asked this question too, and had the following to say, "it required the concentrated attention of every adult in the household to restrain Ramses from self-immolation and a widespread destruction of property" "catastrophically precocious" "...Ramses is quite sane--cold-bloodedly, terrifyingly sane" "Linguistically Ramses was a juvenile genius. He had mastered the hieroglyphic language of ancient Egypt before his eighth birthday; he spoke Arabic with appalling fluency (the adjective refers to certain elements of his vocabulary); and even his command of his native tongue was marked at an early age by a ponderous pomposity of style more suitable to a venerable scholar than a small boy." I basically watched Ramses grow from being the same sort of linguistically obsessed child that I was, to the smoking hot archaeologist wunderkind with a penchant for disguises. (See above, Sexiness and Awesomeness of Men in Disguise, re: Batman)

John Smythe, aka John Tregarth, jewel thief extraordinaire from Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss mysteries. He can quote John Donne, Shakespeare, and Browning with ease and appropriateness, is good with disguises, and lives a dangerous life. How is that not sexier than hell? Okay, you have to keep an eye on him at all times, and he's not really likely to be there the morning after, but he has great taste.

Paul Atreides. I heart Dune so much. I heart Paul so much. Once again, there was the element of disguise present, first when Paul became Muad'dib among the Fremen, and later, when he abdicated emperorship to run around as a sort of desert prophet. (The second is less sexy, but oh well.) Paul didn't chop off people's arms, although you could say that he had access to a forbidden pool of sorts. His primary attraction was the whole Lawrence of Arabia, into the desert we go thing, and the fact that he had giant worms to ride. Giant worms! Secret desert cavey hidey holes. And later, much later, it would occur to me that the Bene Gesserit training in prana bindu was likely to have a great effect during sex.

[Janiece]

Miles Vorkosagen. HUGE crush. In real life I'd probably want to strangle him, but heart him to death on paper.

John Perry. Although I'm not willing to fight Jane for him.

Lincoln Rhymes from Jeffrey Deavers' mystery/thrillers. Love me a smart man.

Morgon, Prince of Hed from Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master of Hed series.

Jack Remillard from Julian May's Galactic Milieu Series.

[Zalandris]

I had the biggest crush on Friday (from Heinlein's novel for those who aren't familiar).

Smart, sexy and could kick ass with the best of them.

Death from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic books is cute as hell too but not sure if I'd want to get involved with one of the Endless. Bad things happen there.

[Rita In Hoood]

F'nor, the earnest younger brother who quietly goes around doing what's right. And he has a dragon.

Ukiah Oregon - "like ... the dali lama in the body of a young god". "So it's the hot bunny sex, right?"

Merlin, son of Corwin - swords and microchips, muscular and smart . .and smartassed.

Valentinian the Mongoose from the Belisarius. Ugly, merciless, wicked with a sword, scoundral. Skilled, loyal to a fault, apparently good with kids.

Taran the pig boy from the Black Cauldron

[PixelFish]

Oooooo, ooo. Yes. Miles, for sure.

(Although I have already convinced my boyfriend to name our first male offspring Miles. We argue about the female offspring's name. He doesn't like Arkady.)



Also, I have a platonic crush on Havelock Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. Terry Pratchett says Vetinari has an almost exclusively female fan club. I wonder why that is.

[Janiece]

Oooooo! F'nor and Taran! Teen crushes for me, but yes, yes!

[dr-phil-physics]

As a teenager, I first read Dune during a New York heat wave -- 3am and I'm still reading Dune and it's still 100degF outside. It was also humid, which didn't really fit, but sweating while reading Dune is a priceless gift. Anyway, I was thrilled with Paul's mom, the Lady Jessica. Very capable, lovely -- she of course was the one who taught me the Litany Against Fear, since she taught it to Paul.

And then there's Chani, also from Dune.

What a great book...

Dr. Phil

[Tania]

Also, I have a platonic crush on Havelock Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. Terry Pratchett says Vetinari has an almost exclusively female fan club. I wonder why that is.

Ooh, Vetinari. Rowwrr. Not platonic. He'd be so very interesting, don't you think? I'm starting Making Money at lunch today, as I finished Dark Moon Defender last night.

[Domini]

I have tons and tons of literary crushes.

The two original? Masterharper Robinton (Anne McCaffrey's Pern), and Afra Lyon (Anne McCaffrey's Talent series). Wuv 'em both to death! Wuv wuv wuv. I'd trade places with Menolly or Damia any day. They're still my top two!

The rest in no particular order.

Severus Snape (From Harry Potter. I'd never date the guy, but the character himself is a gem!)

The Fool/Amber (Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy)

Saetan Daemon SaDiablo (Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy)

Captain Carrot (Terry Pratchett's Diskworld. He just rocks. I should probably be leery of his girlfriend, though!)

Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard sequence)

Melisande (Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series)

Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher's Dresden files)

Edward (Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series)

There's more, I know there's more, but I don't have my books with me to job my imagination. :(

Finally, am I able to crush on my own characters? Seems very egotistic, but I just love some of 'em to death.

Raul Akelarre (faun star of an urban fantasy)
Jakome Frewyn (sorcerer, architect, and love-interest of a main character for a different urban fantasy)
Rouwan Lariat Lariat tall Mintemar (King of Dragons! Sadistic bastard, though.)
Alebeouf (bumbling half-incubus--in a "You're kidding me? Alebeouf?" way--and teacher of magic.)

[iiradned]

Modesty Blaise
Katsuragi Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion
Rogue from X-Men as depicted at the start of Jim Lee's original run on the title
Tifa Lockheart from Final Fantasy VII
Lara Croft

[PixelFish]

Also, I have a platonic crush on Havelock Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. Terry Pratchett says Vetinari has an almost exclusively female fan club. I wonder why that is.

Ooh, Vetinari. Rowwrr. Not platonic. He'd be so very interesting, don't you think? I'm starting Making Money at lunch today, as I finished Dark Moon Defender last night.

If you are Vetinari fan, you'll love Making Money. There's probably more Vetinari than any other book outside of Jingo. It's the Vetinari-and-Moist show.

[Tania]

If you are Vetinari fan, you'll love Making Money. There's probably more Vetinari than any other book outside of Jingo. It's the Vetinari-and-Moist show.

Oooh. ::squees like the pathetic fangirl she is:: You are making my evening plans hard to keep. Do I go to the meeting at 5:30, or do I go home and plow through Making Money?