la_marquise (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_marquise) wrote2010-05-20 10:30 am
la_marquise) wrote2010-05-20 10:30 am
Entry tags:
Cold Aramis
I've been thinking about characters and how we become invested in them -- and, indeed, how we become invested in other people's characters. On some level, it makes sense that I'm invested in Gracielis and Thiercelin and Jehan and Aude and Owain. They started out in my head. It is a delightful surprise when people not in my head like them too.
But I also invest hugely in other people's characters. I care about them, I want to spend time with them, I want to see them succeed and grow. Most of the time, this stays within sensible bounds, but every once in a while the irrational button goes off and that weird little inner voice says 'mine!'
I am all about Aramis. Those of you who've known me a while will know this. Aramis is my ur-hero, my archetype, my perfect fantasy. If Aramis is in it, I will read it (or watch it), even though I know that the only true fix will come from reading about him in the works of Dumas. I am possessive of him: when another person mentions investment in him, I can feel myself bristle. My Aramis (my> marquis!>). It's crazy. This is someone else's creation, built on a minor figure from French history about whom we know almost nothing. I don't want to share him. There is currently a series of mysteries featuring the Musketeers which I buy and read religiously even though the writer -- in my head -- has my Aramis all wrong. In my head, I know he's not mine, he's a character everyone can read about and think about. My adult self knows to play nicely, and is delighted when someone writes something or films something where they have him right (for my value of right). My child self wants to hang on to her things.
I'm not the only person who does this, I suspect. We can become extraordinarily attached to characters and react very badly when something happens to them, even in canon, that hurts them. In my head are various other places where certain characters did not die, did not leave, did not make choice X. This love for the fictional, this engagement, is clearly something we can all do. There is something about Aramis that just works for me, that resonates with me, that works with the way I work, something archetypical, perhaps, that slight, dark, dangerous thing.
So, here's my question: do you do this too? And why?
But I also invest hugely in other people's characters. I care about them, I want to spend time with them, I want to see them succeed and grow. Most of the time, this stays within sensible bounds, but every once in a while the irrational button goes off and that weird little inner voice says 'mine!'
I am all about Aramis. Those of you who've known me a while will know this. Aramis is my ur-hero, my archetype, my perfect fantasy. If Aramis is in it, I will read it (or watch it), even though I know that the only true fix will come from reading about him in the works of Dumas. I am possessive of him: when another person mentions investment in him, I can feel myself bristle. My Aramis (my> marquis!>). It's crazy. This is someone else's creation, built on a minor figure from French history about whom we know almost nothing. I don't want to share him. There is currently a series of mysteries featuring the Musketeers which I buy and read religiously even though the writer -- in my head -- has my Aramis all wrong. In my head, I know he's not mine, he's a character everyone can read about and think about. My adult self knows to play nicely, and is delighted when someone writes something or films something where they have him right (for my value of right). My child self wants to hang on to her things.
I'm not the only person who does this, I suspect. We can become extraordinarily attached to characters and react very badly when something happens to them, even in canon, that hurts them. In my head are various other places where certain characters did not die, did not leave, did not make choice X. This love for the fictional, this engagement, is clearly something we can all do. There is something about Aramis that just works for me, that resonates with me, that works with the way I work, something archetypical, perhaps, that slight, dark, dangerous thing.
So, here's my question: do you do this too? And why?
no subject
Of course. It's why people write fanfiction for thirty years about the same characters! It's why I won't read badly characterised fanfic about series I adore. It's why I stop reading certain comic book series for long periods and then leap on them with joy when another writer takes over or they are rebooted. It's why I don't much like TV series remakes and why I would never, ever watch certain film remakes. It's why, when a character I adore in a series of books starts going in the 'wrong' direction or does things that seem to me, in my little privileged bubble, distinctly out of character, I stop reading. (Looking at you, Katherine Kurtz.)
And, I am deeply invested in some of my own characters - indeed, the latest project started, a long time ago, on a 'how did X meet Y' basis. Changing them is so hard, even when its necessary.
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no subject
Was not happy about SEVERAL character developments in BtVS s6, either. If it wasn't for OMWF I'd say that not ending the show over the contract dispute after s5 was one of the worst things to happen in the history of TV-dom.
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