Question of the Week: Becoming a Character
by Jenners • 05/24/2010 • Book Talk • 16 Comments
This week’s question comes from Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog who asks:
If you could be a character from any book, who would you be?
You mean aside from being Bella and having hot vampire sex with Edward Cullen?
Well, the very first person who popped into my head is Lisbeth Salander … AKA The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. (All written by Steig Larsson. And I was lucky enough to score an ARC of the last book and just finished it and IT ROCKS!!!!)
I would want to be Lisbeth because:
- She kicks serious ass.
- She weighs about 90 pounds.
- She is amazingly smart.
- She is good at math.
- She is rich beyond imagination (well, after the end of the first book).
- She inspires faith and loyalty in good people despite her best efforts to alienate them.
- She isn’t afraid to be alone.
- She has a clear sense of what is right.
- She is not afraid of anybody.
- She knows what she wants and she gets it.
- She can take care of herself.
- She can take a bullet to the head and survive.
- She is mysterious and tough yet vulnerable.
- She is good with computers.
- She protects those she cares about despite the cost to herself.
- She has a unique fashion sense.
- She lived through hell but survived and thrived.
- She never deviates from her moral code.
In short, Lisbeth Salander is pretty much my polar opposite … as I weigh significantly more, can’t hack a computer to save my life, suck at math, fear high schoolers, can be read like an open book, dress like a colorblind retiree, would crumble under interrogation, cooperate with the police, and would probably leave you in a lurch if my life was threatened. And I’m almost 100% sure I would die if shot in the head.
In other words, Lisbeth Salander is the kind of woman I fantasize about being. If I had even a tenth of her strength, conviction and intelligence, I’d be a force to be reckoned with.
I’ve always wanted to be a bad-ass, and Lisbeth Salander is about as bad-ass as they come.
In honor of my bad-ass inner Lisbeth and the release of the third book in the Millennium Trilogy tomorrow, I hereby declare it Steig Larsson Week on Find Your Next Book Here! The “events” include:
- Tuesday: My review of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest
- Wednesday: A poem that celebrates Lisbeth Salander (either one I can find or one I will write … subject to cancellation if I can’t come up with anything)
- Thursday: A review of the movie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
- Friday: A giveaway of the first two books in the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire
I hope you’ll join in and celebrate with me. (Of course, half of the book blogging world is at BEA right now but what can you do?)
So what about you? Is there is a book character you would want to become? Do you long to have an bad-ass alter ego like me or would you want to become someone a little less wild?
Lisbeth does sound like a great choice! I like that she is a "don't mess with me" kind of gal
Great list of reasons, Jenners!
i have yet to read these books–i know, i know, i'm terrible!
i think i'd opt for a character like hermoine granger or kay scarpetta, maybe.
I still haven't read any of these, hard to believe, right?
I love your reasoning! And oh yes, Lisbeth does most definitely kick some serious ass!!! I'm with you on choosing her as my alternate ego!
Lisbeth surely is an amazing character.. amazing choice and I loved your reasonings as well. So apt!
Interesting choice. Are the super-heroics worth the adolescence rife with brutal, systematic psychological and physical abuse? The inability to relate to other human beings that leads to her being described by everyone who knows her as "the most lonely person I've ever known"? Wheee!
I think Lisbeth is a great choice!! There are times I've thought it would be fun to be Stephanie Plum, too. (especially when Ranger is around!) I also like Helena from the Lindsey Davis 'Falco' books.
Looking forward to all your posts!
you had me at her having a boatload of money…at least after book one.
As to the NYT article, I am not at all sure I want to see a fourth book. I am content in how the third ended, and if the 4th is only 3/4 finished, I fear what might be done with it by…whoever.
I want to be Mary Malone from Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy; She is adventurous and resourceful and intelligent, she goes to another world and learns to live with and communicate with another intelligent species, and knows Will and Lyra, and helps save the whole of existence:-)
thanks for sharing
martine
Great choice. She's a serious badass and I love that. Though I would definitely not want to have gone through some of the stuff she's experienced.
(Pumps fist in the air) Yes! I want to be Lisbeth too! I want to weigh 90 pounds and kick ass! I want to hack computers and steal lots of money away from corporate sleezebags! I am sitting here, being antsy and waiting for my audio to show up from the library. I sure hope those two people that got in front of me upload QUICK!
They are having that contest right now where you can dress up like her! Hosted by the publisher…they keep sending all the pics via Facebook. Pretty tough competition but I think you'd pull it off.
Popped in from Lady bloggers to say hi! I've read an article about this woman before and she sounds amazing!
You might like this article from yesterday's NY Times Mag on the real life Stieg Larsson AND a possible 4th book!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23Larsson-t.html?ref=magazine
I love your choice!!!! Lisbeth just blows me away…of course, I love her. I just finished the second book in anticipation of Hornet's Nest, which will be here tomorrow but agonizingly, I will be out of town working until Friday. ARGHHHH. I'm consoling myself with a little De Mille's John Corey. It makes up for it, just a little.
Sounds like a great week! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been on my reading list forever, but I still haven't read it!
All the characters I'm thinking about have issues, like Sunny Randall and her ex, but Sunny is one tough detective. I like to think I'm tough, but I'm a big ol' marshmallow!