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http://www.amazon.com/Walter-Knight/e/B006ADF150
wrote this:
A hungry street kid puts a stale hot dog bun to his lips,
spots a starving puppy in the alley to his left,
and instead feeds the bun to the little dog.
Later at the park, he and his friends eat the puppy.
Hate the kid now?
Do you really have to like the main character, or can being interesting be enough?
For me as reader or writer,
I have to like the main character to want to spend hours or weeks with her or him in my mind.
Being decent doesn't have to be boring.
In fact, in this world, doing the right thing can get downright fiery:
Take one of my happy finds:
In Italian police inspector Aurelio Zen, Michael Dibdin has given the mystery field one of its most complex and compelling protagonists:
a man wearily trying to enforce the law in a society
where the law is constantly being bent by both the police and the government.
It has been my experience that the Good have always been outnumbered so they have to be smarter and more resourceful than the opposition.
The world is all too mean-spirited for me to want to invite unpleasant, though interesting, people into my mind.
I am drawn to humorous, fiesty, intelligent characters
who skate on thin ice in this world but whistle away their fears while doing it.
Are you drawn to cruel, selfish, dominating protagonists?
Have I become a dinosaur
in thinking there is still room in fiction for a protagonist
who, while imperfect,
tries to make her or his corner of the world
a better place in some small way?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Hi Roland. Actually I like puppies, although I once had one of my characters club and toss a baby seal to a throng of zombies in order for humans to escape. Desperate time require desperate actions.
ReplyDeleteI need to like my characters, too. I even need to like my author. For me a character can start out bad, but he has to get better. I recently was reading about an anti-military college kid who was contacted by aliens. hated him, wanting the aliens abduct, probe, and kill him. When it didn't happen, I had to stop reading.
As for someone who eats puppies, I'd have to read further to get more perspective. Love your blog.
Thanks, Walter:
ReplyDeleteI hope my putting up your Author Page Link got you a few looks and a few new sales you might not have gotten otherwise. :-)
Since one of my major villains believes he is Lucifer and has the sheer power and intellect to make many believe his delusion, I have characters do horrendous things too. Usually off-camera so to speak.
Although Victor Standish has the misfortune to be center-stage during some torturing moments.
Sounds like your anti-military kid you hated came from what I call a Treatise-Novel: the author has a sour outlook on something and writes a book to prove his point. I put them down, too. Thanks for visiting and commenting and for the nice words. :-)
In real life, clubbing a seal takes enough time for all the nonzombies to get eaten.
ReplyDelete