A New Blog for 21st-Century Feminists and a Meme

All right, so the eloquent and smart Ms. Barton (as opposed to that notable-book-writing Ms. Barton) is going to take Bloglily up on her very kind offer of providing a place where all we eloquent and smart women (and men. I don't want to leave out you eloquent and smart men) can write about all things feminist whenever the mood (or horrible article, or TV ad, or book cover, or movie...) that leaves us feeling appalled hits us. It will be an open blog, so spread the word to your like-minded friends.

Meanwhile, my previous post got me so riled up, I needed something comforting to calm me down, so back to books and memes.

The Fictional Character Meme

1. Which fictional character frightens you the most?
Robert from James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. He's such an extraordinarily rationally evil person, and he does a much more brilliant job of turning religious dogma on its head than any other character I've come across thus far. The Tooth Fairy from Thomas Harris's Red Dragon is a very close second. The way he chooses and observes his victims is the stuff of my worst nightmares.

2. Which fictional parents do you most wish you had?
It's pretty hard to beat Pippi Longstockings's out-of-the-way parents, isn't it?

3. Which fictional character has the most balls?
I don't like him one bit, would have nothing to do with him if I ever met him, and find him utterly despicable, but he certainly has balls: Sammy Glick from Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run?

4. To which fictional character's home would you most like to be invited to dinner?
Stephanie Plum's mother's house from Janet Evanovich's series. Stephanie sometimes complains about putting on a few pounds here and there, but if I ate at her mother's as much as she does, I'd be about 100 pounds overweight. Still, an occasional meal there would be fabulous.

5. If you could invite three fictional couples to your own house for dinner, who would they be?
a. Adam and Eve. I'd cook them up the best feast ever and say to them, "If you're going to be the ones who cause the fall of all humankind, could you please at least do it over something like this rather than over some measly and boring unidentified piece of fruit?" I mean I just might have been able to sympathize if it had been raspberries and cream, but we all know that kind of fruit doesn't grow on trees.
b. Romeo and Juliet. I'd tell them I know they don't believe me, but they're young, things will change, and it really isn't worth their killing themselves over.
c. The Rochesters about fifteen years later. I want to see if his secrecy and inability to communicate is something she still finds fascinating or if she's now beginning to realize how he might have driven his first wife mad.

6. Which fictional character could probably entice you into his/her bed?
Oh, I'm so easily mesmerized, I would have been no contest for Dracula. I'd have been moving in and renovating his coffin for two before I even knew what hit me.

7. Which fictional character would most likely have broken your heart?
If he'd shown the least bit of interest and encouragement, I would have been the 20-year-old, completely naive student suckered in by the married Garp, and it would have ruined me for life, causing me to forever swear off men.

8. In which fictional character's home would you most like to live?
King Arthur's. I know it would have been cold and damp and scary, but I'd make sure the servants had the fire roaring wherever I was, and it would be worth it to get to be surrounded by all those dashing knights and all their exciting tales all the time. My second choice would be almost any home in which a Henry James character lived (one obvious exception being the one in Turn of the Screw).

Okay, nobody ever listens to me, but you're tagged again, if you're reading this. And add some more questions, if you'd like.