Good heavens!

[rabidsamfan]

I think the authors of this list have got their order quite bollixed.

http://www.theawl.com/2011/04/111-male-characters-of-british-literature-in-order-of-bangability

Sherlock Holmes at 19, while "Three Continents Watson" languishes at 96?

Comments

[piplover.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it depends. Are you a Watson or a Holmes girl? I personally would go for Holmes before Watson, lol, but that's just me. Poor boys! I think they should have been tied!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Watson. Definitely Watson.

[med_cat]

Ah, but look, Mr Rochester is #1...;)

It's the "tall, thin, and tortured" or Byronic heroes...:P

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I see the name "Rochester" and think of Jack Benny...

[med_cat]

LOL why? and yeah I see others in the top couple dozen are Darcy, Healthcliff, and Steerforth...*shakes head*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Anderson_%28comedian%29 I'm just old enough to have seen and heard Jack Benny and Rochester trading quips with each other.

[med_cat]

Ah I see, thanks for the explanation ;)

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

Yeah...

Actually... it was generally a very very wong list...

Because forget that Sherlock Holmes and sex just doen't really belong together.

WATSON WAS BEAT OUT BY PETER PAN!


AND FALSTAFF?

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

LONG JOHN SILVER?

KING OFF-YE-LENDINGS LEAR?

St. John Rivers--the most unsexy of all almost romantic heroes?

ASLAN!?!?!?!?!?!?!? *shivers*

However, I do applaud the high placing of Eugene Wrayburn... and I'm glad Mortimer Lightwood got on there. (Mortimer Lightwood is my top random-character-that-few-people-think-of crush.)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

It is an odd list. But a few names will have me scuttling off to read new sources.

[azur-infinie.livejournal.com]

That is a fascinating list! Tom Bombadil is where things get weird for me, but I actually get Aslan :/

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I almost get Tom -- he is kind of a fertility god, after all. And Goldberry seems pretty happy. But Aslan, no.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I've been a fan of dear old Watson since I was 11. (Much more approachable than his cold fish of a roomie - which is precisely why Doyle created such a robust, likeable Everychap as our conduit into the weird world of Sherlock Holmes' brain.)

Trouble is that Nigel Bruce's portrayal is so indelibly engraved in the public perception - appearing in such a popular series of films, in the heyday of filmgoing - that it's rather like trying to explain "No, really! Read the books! The Cowardly Lion is a brave, noble creature, not the whimpering sissy comic relief they made him in the movie!"

So people who haven't ever read the books but know the names think of the pair as That Dude in the Deerstalker and The Bumbling Sidekick.

Now my favorite Watson portrayal for a long time was Robert Duvall's, from The Seven Percent Solution (to date, the only Sherlock Holmes movie where the actor playing Watson got billing ABOVE the actor playing Holmes - Nicol Williamson.) He was only superceded in my heart when the first Granada productions made it to the States, and then my heart belonged to David Burke.

Now it's an embarrassment of riches. But Jude Law just might singlehandedly turn public perception, if the RDJude films become any kind of series.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Yay, another person who likes Robert Duvall! I remember seeing him in the movie theater and being so happy that he actually was something like the Watson I had in my head. Which Nigel Bruce, I'm afraid, has never been. (Although I like him better than I used to.)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I squealed a bit at your icon. "Don't look, Watson - the Queen wouldn't like it!"

[kathie-d.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think a list which also contains a child and an animal has a lot more to worry about...

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I will confess to not reading it very closely before I posted. Have to agree though. Peter Pan and Aslan would be automatically disqualified from any list of bangability I would create.

[kcscribbler]

What the heck. o_O

You know those people had to be influenced by every canon except the original bookverses in those lists, otherwise how in the world...?? Much as I liked Alan Breck Stewart and Long John Silver as a child, there's no way on earth they beat out Watson. Not to mention the disturbingness which is Peter Pan even being on the list, and halfway up to boot...

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Peter Pan would be fun to play with, if I were under the age of twelve. But he doesn't belong on this list.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

A world where Falstaff is more bangable than Watson (or Colonel Brandon, or Bertie Wooster, for that matter) is a world that confuses me very much indeed.

I am quite surprised that Eomer topped (pun sort of intended) Legolas, although I do agree with that choice. I just never thought he was more popular!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

It would be a lot easier to get Eomer's attention, I think!

[clevertoad.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would put Watson higher on the list than 96, and higher than Holmes.

Was pleased to see Inspector Alan Grant (Josephine Tey) on the list, astonished and pleased to see Simon from Wolves of Willoughby Chase, not surprised to see Justin Alastair (These Old Shades), and relieved to see Lord Peter high on the list. Many of the others I don't recognise and can't judge, but Aslan and Peter Pan? Definitely off the list!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I did love seeing Alan there. He's one of my favorite people in fiction.

ITA

[only-po.livejournal.com]

No kidding the order makes no sense! Frankenstein's monster actually MADE the list?! To say nothing of who they put at #1 -- Rochester was one of the most unappealing lead males I've had the misfortune of reading about. Sexist, selfish, creepy, and a would-be bigamist . . . oh yes, that has "shag me" written all over it.

Re: ITA

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Well, the play that the National did about Frankenstein may have put the monster on the list... :D

I'd have the list in a very different order -- and some of those names would drop right off!

Re: ITA

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

I think the list makes marginally more sense to me if I assume that whoever made it intended it as "a scale of 1 to 111" instead of "the top 111." The order remains deeply questionable, however.