Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Literary Character Dinner Party

Because when you're a stay at home mom to a young toddler, and you're in the middle of your tenth-plus rendition of the Itsy-Bitsy Spider for the morning, the mind tends to wander.

This week I've been thinking about which fictional characters I'd like to have over for a dinner party. I limited the guest list to five characters, and focused on book characters initially to keep things simpler. I chose my guests based on who would be the most fun to have over for dinner, not who I'd most like to meet. If you want to play along, feel free to come up with your own criteria for narrowing down the guest list! Warning: Super nerdy literary inside jokes ahead.

1 and 2. Queen Cimorene and King Mendanbar (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede): My favorite characters from my favorite books growing up, they were my immediate first choice for my guest list. Also they are smart and funny and relatively friendly as long as you are not a wizard. Which is fine, since I was unable to narrow down the giant cast of Harry Potter to only one or two people whom I wanted to invite so none of them are on the list.

3. Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen): She's an obvious choice, to be sure, but a perfect one. How fun would Lizzie be at a dinner party? So fun! Her husband is not invited. He might be handsome, but he's too shy and a poor conversationalist with strangers.

4. Thursday Next (the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde): She's an expert at navigating the confusing line between fiction and real life, so she's a useful choice as well as an interesting person in her own right. Also she'd have lots of fun anecdotes to share.

5. Theodore Laurence (Little Women by Louisa May Alcott): I needed another man to round out the party, and I bet he'd be funny and charming. He's allowed to come only on the condition that he not bring along Jo or Amy March, who are, respectively, socially awkward and generally insufferable.

Also specifically banned: Howard Roark and the entire cast of characters from any and all Ayn Rand novels.

Then I also threw together a list for television characters. I tried to do one for movie characters, but that just turned into choosing celebrities you like, and I've blogged my celebrity dinner party list before.

1 and 2. Sam Seaborn and CJ Cregg (The West Wing): Smart and funny. Hopefully we can get them to talk about something other than politics, though.

3. Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars): The grown-up, post-show version. Inviting her also guarantees that something scandalous or dramatic will take place at your dinner party. Instant infamy!

4. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly): He seems witty and fun in the few happy scenes of the Firefly crew hanging out together in non-stressful environments. Also he will have lots in common with my final guest,

5. The Doctor (Doctor Who): Because come on. It's the Doctor. Any of the most recent three regenerations is fine. Although his presence puts us all in grave danger, it will be worth it if I can wrangle a ride in the TARDIS.

Okay, now you play!

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