mrT said:
<< voting for one's favorite characters >>
then jim blue:
Welcome back, Mr. T, and thanks for
reminding us what we're about in this voting. "Best,"
whatever it might be designated under other circumstances,
clearly means at least a dozen different things in this
balloting, including
"favorites."
*******************************
you had posted a while back about what exactly we are voting
for, whether it just be our favorite characters, or the most
influential, and that gave me pause to think for a
while.
just like a child who can tell you his favorite meal is a
mcdonalds happy meal, i knew that i could do a list of
favorite characters. i also knew i was definitely not
qualified for the task of choosing the most influential...
there are way too many gaps in what i have read, such as
james cain, crumley, stark, goodis, and at least two dozen
others.
putting my list together was revealing. i had always thought
that strong and interesting characters were the main criteria
by which i determined a book "good", but when i looked for my
20 favorite characters, i found that some of my favorite
books
(like willeford's _burnt orange heresy_) didn't really have
any characters that really moved me, and, vice versa, some of
my favorite characters (like thompson's doc mccoy in _the
getaway_) were in books that i wouldn't put at the top of my
list.
miker
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