And Then Some Shock Treatment Takes Place

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Just as memes work their way through the blogosphere, we tag each other with things on Facebook.  Sometimes I play along and other times I think Favorites?  Have these people not figured out that I can't make up my mind about what to eat for lunch and they expect me to sort out my fifteen favorite authors in the Steampunk genre?

I was tagged with a couple of games.  Why not do them here and then they'll link over to Facebook?  And yes, this is me doing a bit of lazy blogging.  I'm behind on my NaNoWriMo word count and have to use my energy worrying about writing my work in progress.

So this came from Holly.  The rules (rules?) are thus:

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen fictional characters (television, films, plays, books) who've influenced you and who will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what characters my friends choose. 

Ready?

1.  Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H, probably more from the TV show than the movie. I loved how he played with words, pretty much thought the establishment could go fuck itself and walked around in his robe with boots.  Me.  Totally.

2.  Lucy Honeychurch from A Room with a View.  I still picture her played by Helena Bonham Carter with her pouty lips and long, flowing dark curls.  My favorite line of hers "Mother doesn't like me playing Beethoven.  She says I'm always peevish afterward..."  But truly the memorable character in E.M. Forster's novel is George Emerson.  I would have given up my Baedeker for a kiss from him in the field.  (Okay, so I may have made out with the hot Italian after George died, too, but that's neither here nor there, is it?  Life is for living, yo.)

3.  Hermione Granger from Harry Potter.  I love her.  She gets on my last nerve, but I adore her. I want to be her and be friends with her and, well, corrupt her a little.

4.  Sam Stewart from Foyle's War.  She's Mr. Foyle's driver.  I love her curiosity and how humanly flawed and funny and sweet and kind she is.

5.  Donna Reed.  I mean, come on. Of course!

6.  Elaine Benes from Seinfeld.  I have been Elaine on a number of occasions and it could be argued that I still am the Elaine to a photographer in Amsterdam and a college professor in Dijon.  I am international Elaine.

7.  Rhoda from Mary Tyler Moore.  Funny. Jewish.  Always fighting her weight.  Although I am not Jewish, I'd love to be.  Considering I was raised by Midwestern Protestants of a mostly Scots-Irish background, I'm pretty danged close.  Plus I used to imagine living in her cool attic apartment.

8.  Scarlet O'Hara.  Because as Bob is my witness.  No wait.  Because tomorrow is another day, baby. If I had a dime for every time I've repeated that line to myself, I wouldn't be sweating the unemployment thing.

9.  Anais Nin.  I mean, I realize she's not really a character, or was she?

10.  Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby.  What an idiot.

11.  Harry, Alan Rickman's character in Love Actually.  Another dillhole who made Emma Thompson cry to some Joni Mitchell.  Although I speak more like the Annie character and dance more like the Prime Minister.

12.  Emma from the Jane Austen novel of the same name.  I lack her confidence and those nifty empire waist dresses, but I understand her desire to hook people up.  We're Noah standing at the foot of the Ark's gangplank pairing up the creatures so that they might live on.......or I'm just an incurable romantic and matchmaker.

13.  Geraldine Granger from The Vicar of Dibley.   I'm not a vicar nor do I play one on TV, but I've worked in a situation like hers, with a cast of characters like that.  Except they weren't as funny or interesting or British.  However, the rest of us were certain that one of us was indeed diddling farm animals.

14.  Bella from Twilight.  I know what it's like to love an Edward.  Bella needs a good therapist.

15.  Hercule Poirot.  Everytime he gets his OCD freak on by straightening a picture on a wall or lining up the items on a desk, a table or a mantle, I think "Oh, yes.  Right there.  Mmmmmm."

Your turn.  What fifteen characters have stayed with you?