Merry Christmas!!!

            Since yesterday was Christmas, I've decided to do a holiday-themed post this week. Get pumped. Anyway, although Christmas is an international holiday celebrated by people around the world, the customs and traditions involving Christmas vary from culture to culture. One of these is how people greet one another on Christmas. In most English-speaking countries, we exclaim “Merry Christmas!” to strangers, family, and friends during the Christmas season. Other cultures speak different languages though, and therefore have different ways and meaning behind the words they use to greet people during Christmas.

• “Mele Kalikimaka”—Hawaiian,
• “Joyeux Noel”—French
• “Feliz Navidad”—Spanish
• “Buone Feste Natalizie”—Italian
• “Kala Christouyenna”—Greek
• “God Jul” and “Gledelig Jul”—Norwegian
• “Melkin Yelidet Beaal”—Ethiopian

All of these greetings are different ways to say “Merry Christmas”. Some can be translated literally to say something that isn't exactly “Merry Christmas”, but another festive greeting. For example, the Italian greeting for “merry Christmas” literally translates to “good festival/celebration Christmas”, “Have a good celebration of Christmas”. Languages differ around the world so it is important to be able to understand the language in order to understand the culture. While it is important to know other languages if you wish to communicate with other cultures, sometimes it doesn't matter what language you say a greeting like “Merry Christmas” in, it’s the warmth behind the words that allow you to understand the meaning of those words. 

My thoughts on Barnes and Noble, Originality, and Vampire Books, or the section formerly known as Young Adult

Have you ever been to Barnes and Noble? Of course you have. Only people who live under rocks or who don’t like fun, magical places haven’t. Anyway, for me, Barnes and Noble is one of the happiest places on Earth, after Disney and before candy stores. Walking into this glorious place, I can peruse rows and rows of books to my heart’s desire. When I go to Barnes and Noble, the section I spend the majority of my time in is the Teen/Young Adult Section. A few years ago, this used to be a great place to find new, unique stories that I would buy and treasure forever after reading them over and over again. Flash forward a few years, and some days, I barely recognize the place anymore. This is just my opinion, but I have to now work extremely hard to find a book that looks like a good story and I’m not going to guess the entire plot just by reading the book jacket. It seems that nearly all of the books geared towards my demographic are all about the same thing. If it’s realistic fiction, the story is going to be about some normal, girl-next-door type who goes on an adventure/experience/revelation with some boy that she probably would never expect to fall for. Lovely. The same story is probably in twelve of the books in the realistic fiction section. If the book is a fantasy book for my demographic (aka females between the ages of 15 and 18), it’s some tale about a girl who is the only one (of course) who can save her kingdom/planet/race from total annihilation and again, she falls for the conveniently hot guy helping her along the way.

 

And don’t even get me started on “Paranormal Romance”. Thanks to the popularity of Twilight, a million authors just decided to write a story containing a vampire, werewolf, or other type of paranormal romance in order to become world famous as well.  Am I being too harsh on these authors and their stories? Maybe. Probably. Who knows? The point is, I feel like there is no such thing as originality any more. It feels like every story being published nowadays is basically the same story, just with different characters, settings, and cover designs. Think about it. There are very few stories being published today that I feel are truly original AND interesting. Again, this is merely my opinion. But when I look at all of these books with pretty much the same plot line, it makes me sad. Is all the originality gone from the world? Are story tellers destined to tell the same stories until the end of time? Humans have always told stories concerning the same themes: love, death, self-discovery, friendship, and good verse evil to name a few. As humans, we simply find these themes most relevant, interesting, and mysterious so naturally we are going to tell stories to try to make sense of the feelings we have for these subjects. But to me, that doesn’t mean one cannot be creative!!! I think that many authors today fall back on what they think will get them readers, and they jump on the bandwagon. When Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight became a success, you started seeing a ton of other books about vampires and werewolves. Maybe this is the publisher’s fault. The publishing company saw Meyer’s success, and decided to dig up all of those young adult books that involved vampires out of the waiting pile and publish them, regardless of the quality of writing and story. So maybe these authors were being original, and publishing houses are just trying to make a few bucks. Creativity is the key to a GREAT story, and I feel that many authors today are missing the creative element. They have a dream to be published and so I feel that many borrow qualities from stories we’ve already heard to create their own story. There is nothing wrong with this, but if you borrow too much, you eventually steal, and you’ve written the same story you borrowed from.

So this is kind of a long rant, but my point is is that creativity is lacking in the world of novels. So to any aspiring authors out there, myself included, be creative! Stretch your brain and don’t take the easy way out! It’s hard to be creative and different from other stories. You will inevitably have similarities to other great stories because you’re human, but go the extra mile into writing a book that’s unique and doesn’t become cliché. Again, these are just my opinions, but let’s try to solve the creativity crisis in the world today. Be original. Don’t be afraid to do so. Until that day originality graces the shelves of B&N once again though, beware the clones that sit upon the shelves of the Young Adult section.

My thoughts about words and vocabulary (this sounds really boring but I promise, it's more interesting than it sounds)

            I’ve always been obsessed with words. I love how people can use words to tell a story, convey their thoughts, feelings, and ideas, and change the world. I especially love crazy words though that nobody has probably ever heard of before, but that sum up a feeling or idea perfectly. Plus, a lot of them are fun to say. Here are some examples of some of my favorite ‘crazy words’:

·         Gumusservi—noun, Turkish, moonlight shining on water

 

 

·         Galeanthropy—noun, the belief that you are a cat

·         Brumous—adjective, French, of grey skies and winter days; filled with heavy clouds or fog; relating to winter or cold, sunless weather

·         Nefelibata—noun, Portuguese, ‘cloud walker’; one who lives in the clouds of their own imagination or dreams, or one who does not obey the conventions of society, literature, or art

·         Toska—noun, Russian, a dull ache of the soul, a sick pining, a spiritual anguish

·         Orphic—adjective, mysterious and entrancing; beyond ordinary understanding

·         Nemophilist—noun, a haunter of the woods; one who loves the forest and its beauty and solitude

·         Psithurism—noun, Greek, the sound of wind through trees

·         Drapetomania—noun, an overwhelming urge to run away

I love how these words describe ideas or feelings that one often wishes to describe but it’s hard to find the words to do so. For example, I’ve read many stories where authors try to describe the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, but it could be more accurate and efficient to use the word “psithurism” instead. I think that if people try to expand their vocabulary then we could all be much better communicators.

      Another thought I’ve had about words lately is words from different languages. If you take a look at the list above, many of those weird words come from different languages: Turkish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Greek…there are so many different languages in the world and they all have different words that may not be found in other languages. Not only could people become better communicators by expanding their vocabulary, but they can become better communicators by learning other languages as well. If you aren’t limited to one language, you can find more ways to express yourself and your feelings. I found the perfect example of this once when I was on Facebook incidentally. There’s this Facebook page called Humans of New York, which is a photo-blog formed by a man named Brandon Stanton. Every day, Stanton roams the streets of New York City, and looks for people that interest him. When he finds one of these interesting people, he goes up to them and asks if he can take their photograph, and then captions the photograph with something the individual said during an interview-like conversation from the 5-minute photo shoot. I remember scrolling on Facebook one day and coming across a HONY post. The picture was of a man, and the caption basically said that he spoke both English and Spanish. The man said he spoke English to explain technical stuff, and Spanish to explain his feelings. He said Latinos have a lot of feelings. The point is, is that different cultures place importance on different values and ways of thinking. By learning different languages, you can express your feelings more efficiently because somebody has already coined the words to explain how you feel. Words are one of our greatest tools, and in my opinion, if we expand our vocabulary, we expand our tool belt and can accomplish so much more

Reading the Book First vs. Seeing the Movie First, Female Heroines, and other Catching Fire related topics

So if you’re a massive super-geek like I am, you know that there are only 10 more days until Catching Fire is in theaters! For those of you who live under a rock, Catching Fire is the second installment in the Hunger Games trilogy, and the movie adaptation with Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson will be out on November 22^nd.  So whenever a movie is released that’s based on a book, people are faced with an important, life altering decision: do you read the book first, or see the movie first? Here’s my take on the age old question. There are pros and cons to both options. If you read the book first, you’re able to form your own images of the characters in your head as well as the setting and see the story through your own eyes (this theory is slightly flawed though if you’re constantly being bombarded with trailers of the movie whenever you turn on the television though). By reading the book first, you interpret the story in your own unique way. If you see the movie first though, you won’t be prejudiced when you do see the movie. So many people complain after a book-inspired movie comes out, complaining that the whole film was ruing because the movie was missing one little part from the book.  Sometimes these people have every right to be angry because Hollywood butchered their story, but sometimes reading the book first can make you resentful to slight changes/artistic liberties the movie takes with the story.  In my opinion, I prefer to read the book first, because I’m inpatient and want to know the story as soon as possible and get pumped for the movie, and it’s easier to read the book before seeing the movie often. The point is though, your choice determines your first exposure to a story and how you interpret the story. Film and literature are different storytelling methods, and whichever one you choose changes how you see characters, setting, and the plot.



                Keeping on the subject of the Hunger Games, there was a lot of talk about female heroines when the Hunger Games came out last year. Many articles have been written about how the Hunger Games is paving the way for strong female leads in both books and movies. While I agree the Hunger Games has put strong female characters like Katniss in the spotlight, this isn’t a new phenomenon. While Hollywood is finally getting on track and bringing stories with strong female leads to light (Divergent, the Mortal Instruments, etc.) books have been doing it for years. I could make this post uber-long and list off all the books with strong female characters, but I won’t. I could also make a list of books with strong male characters, or strong animal characters, or strong alien characters. People need to stop focusing on the gender behind a character and just look at the character’s…well, character. I feel that gender, race, species, shouldn’t be the defining characteristic about a character’s story. It can be a quality that grabs your interest in a story, but ultimately, base your judgment of a character on their story and personality, not what’s on the outside.

                In conclusion, go see Catching Fire and appreciate Katniss for her intelligence and stubbornness and ninja skills, not just because she’s a chick with a weapon. Catching Fire comes on November 22^nd, and you can bet your bow and arrow that it’ll be awesome—regardless of if you read the book or see the movie first.

Why Dumbledore is Better than Gandalf

Anybody who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of Harry Potter. Fan doesn’t even begin to describe the manic obsession I have with Jo Rowling’s books and the Potterverse. Brianna Burley doesn’t have anything on me. Anyway, for those of you who aren’t that familiar with the world of Harry Potter, one of the major characters in the series is a brilliant old wizard, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Order of Merlin First Class, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. Dumbledore is considered the most brilliant wizard of the age in the wizarding world. In the universe of nerds and geeks though, there’s currently a fierce debate going on about whose more powerful and better in general: Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter, or Gandalf the Grey from Lord of the Rings. In this post, I shall debate this issue, supporting Albus Dumbledore, against my opponent Samm Ragone, who is supporting the side of Gandalf the Grey.

Death

He died for a noble cause, trying to protect Harry and thus protecting the entire wizarding world. There was no possible way he could return to life (“No spell can reawaken the dead Harry”—Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) making his sacrifice more meaningful. And think about it: if Gandalf is ‘resurected’, so to speak, as Gandalf the White, are Gandalf the Grey and the White the same person? It seems to me that when Gandalf comes back to life to ‘complete his life’s task’, he’s like a shadow of the person he was when he was alive, a ghost come back to complete his quest to be at peace, so the fact Gandalf comes back to life can’t even be a contending factor here.

Magical Abilities

            Dumbledore has a more extensive magical library compared to Gandalf. Gandalf and Dumbledore have different ways they use magic. Gandalf uses a staff while Dumbledore uses a wand, but while they both use spells, Dumbledore is a more able wizard because there are more spells in the wizarding world. There are over 135 spells in the world of Harry Potter, according to Wikapedia, and numerous ways witches and wizards can use their wands. They use magic in other ways as well, like potions and use of magical creatures. Magic in Harry Potter is like technology in the muggle world. It’s constantly developing and changing, new spells being created and discovered. In Middle Earth, many of the spells are performed without words, and there are very few spoken spells. Not everybody is a wizard in Middle Earth too, so progress to develop new magical methods, making Gandalf’s magical arsenal more limited.

            Besides the number of spells Dumbledore has at his disposal, he’s also the most powerful wizard in the wizarding world. He defeated an army of Inferi (dead bodies enchanted by dark wizards) single handedly, and weakened by a potion he needed to drink in order to retrieve a Horcrux to defeat the most powerful dark wizard in the world, Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore discovered the 12 uses for dragon’s blood, one of the most influential discoveries of the 20^th century.  He also is skilled in fun, quirky, simple magic as well, showing that Dumbledore is a renaissance man, skilled in all areas of magic and has defeated powerful enemies as well. He was the only one Lord Voldemort ever feared, after all. Sauron and Sauramon didn’t exactly fear Gandalf. While you don’t need your enemies to fear you, there’s something to be said for the most powerful dark wizard ever fearing his old Transfiguration teacher.

Personality and General Awesome Qualities

            Dumbledore was a man who was loved by nearly all, even by races that were seen as reclusive, proud, or savage, like mer-people and centaurs, both of whom honored Dumbledore at his funeral. He was the most beloved headmaster Hogwarts ever had, and devoted his entire life to teaching and helping young wizards, even though he could have had more ‘prestigious’ positions of power, like Minister of Magic, who is basically the president of all the wizards in Britain in Harry Potter. He was on a Chocolate Frog Card for crying out loud! That’s like the equivalent of being on a baseball card in the muggle world! Dumbledore devoted his life to taking down Lord Voldemort and believed that love would conquer all up until the very end. He was a champion of Muggles and Muggle-borns alike in his lifetime, two groups of people who are often discriminated against in the wizarding world. But besides being one of the wizarding world’s ultimate champions for good and love, Dumbledore realized his weaknesses. He was human and made mistakes as a youth and understood where his temptations lie.

            All in all, this is my argument why Dumbledore is better than Gandalf. However, I can try an argue this until the cows come home, but in the end, you’re going to have your own opinion based on which story you fell in love with more, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. I can list all the reasons why I think Dumbledore is the better wizard, but they’re pretty equal when it comes to personality and magical ability. But this argument just shows the impact stories have on our lives. Here you have two seventeen year old girls arguing about which imaginary wizard is better. Both of their lives have been influenced so much by these separate stories, the characters feel real enough that the girls have to defend their honor. These characters have a prominent place in our thoughts and minds, all because the story they came from found a way to connect with us and come alive in our minds. And these authors, my friends, are the TRUE wizards.

 

P.S. To hear Samm's side of the debate, visit her blog, The Road Goes Ever On and On at http://kcacsammwise.blogspot.com/

 

 

"Harry Potter" Names and Etymology: Or, the brilliance of J.K. Rowling

Seeing that it’s 10:35 PM and I’m just starting to write my blog post, I figure it’s okay to pull a backup topic out of my brain pocket. Because when I’m this tired, the only thing I know how to be insightful about is Harry Potter. To me, one of the coolest things about J.K. Rowling’s world is how she has a backstory for nearly everything in the ‘Potterverse’. This includes Rowling’s names for characters, spells, and places in the world of Harry Potter. The behind-the-scenes components of Rowling’s world are extremely complex. Let’s start off with the etymology behind the spells in Harry Potter. First off, nearly all of the spells in Harry Potter are in Latin, or sometimes in an obscure foreign language. Depending on what the spell is supposed to accomplish depends on what the incantation is for said spell. For instance, the incantation for a charm to summon an object is “Accio”. In Latin, “accio” means “I call” or “I summon”—which is the purpose of the spell. Other examples of incantations and their meanings are “Alohomora” (a spell used to unlock doors) which means “friendly to thieves” in a West African Sidiki dialect, “Crucio”, or the Cruciatus Curse (used to physically torture victims) literally means “I torture” in Latin; and “Avada Kedavra”. Avada Kedavra is the worst of the three Unforgivable Curses (Imperio, Crucio, and Avada Kedavra) in the Harry Potter books and it’s also known as the Killing Curse. This was the curse Lord Voldemort tried to use on Harry when he was only a baby, and it backfired on Voldemort himself. Rowling says that the “Avada Kedavra” comes from an ancient spell in Aramaic, the origins of abracadabra which literally translates to “let the thing be destroyed”.

So spells and their incantations have fun little backstories according to what language they derive from and how they are being used. Instead of just making up nonsense words, or relying solely on Latin (because some fantasy authors do), Rowling uses a variety of languages to make up the incantations for her spells, and sometimes the meaning of the incantation has an interesting translation, like “Alohomora”. Rowling doesn’t just stop at spells though. In Harry Potter, each witch or wizard needs a wand in order to perform magic. These wands can be purchased at a wand shop or from a wand maker, like the acclaimed wand maker Ollivander. Wands have four main characteristics: length, consistency, core, and wood type. Wands usually have a core of unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, or phoenix tail feather, and their consistency can vary from springy, rigid, swishy, or supple. But what’s interesting about the wands in Harry Potter is the type of wood they’re made of, and how that relates to the character that possesses the wand. Rowling uses the Celtic tree calendar when assigning characters a wand. The Celtic tree calendar is based on the idea that certain parts of the year match up with a certain type of tree, and those born in that time bracket have certain characteristics. It’s basically a form of astrology. While Rowling doesn’t go so far as to say her characters’ birth dates determine their personality, when she is giving a character a wand, the type of wood used in their wand often correlates with when their birth day is. For example, Hermione Granger’s birthday is September 19^th, and her wand is 10 ¾ inches, vine wood, with a dragon heartstring core. Vine is the tree that matches up with dates between September 2^nd and September 29^th. Sometimes, the type of wood used for a character’s wand symbolizes something about their personality or their story as well. For example, Lord Voldemort’s wand is made out of Yew. Yew is a tree that is associated with power, mystery, and longevity, making it appropriate for the mysterious, power-hungry, death-obsessed Lord Voldemort.

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/celtic-tree-astrology.html

Finally, the names of characters all have a type of etymology or back story in the wonderful world of Harry Potter. In the world of fantasy, names and their meanings are extremely important. A name can tell you so much about a character. For instance, Harry’s godfather is a man named Sirius Black. He was in Azkaban prison for twelve years and was James Potter’s (Harry’s dad’s) best friend. Sirius is an unusual wizard because he is an unregistered Animagus—a wizard who can turn him or herself into an animal at will. Sirius can turn into a large, shaggy black dog, which is vital in helping him escape from Azkaban. The name ‘Sirius’ comes from the Sirius constellation, the dog constellation, a gesture to Sirius’ abilities as an Animagus. Like in Sirius Black’s case, Rowling often uses names to reveal certain traits in a character or about a place. For instance, the name “Dumbledore”, the last name of the brilliant yet quirky headmaster of Hogwarts, means “buzzing bee” or “bumblebee” in Old English. Rowling said that she imagined Professor Dumbledore buzzing around like a bumblebee throughout Hogwarts. The list goes on and on for the etymology behind Rowling’s names for her characters. She also uses this same system when naming places, creatures, and more. For example, “Animagus” combines the Latin words for animal and “magus” to mean “animal wizard”, and Rowling uses a pun when naming Sirius Black’s mother’s dirty old house, Grimmauld Place: phonetically, it sounds like “grim old place”.

Professor McGonagall in her Animagus form, the cat

And because Harry Potter trumps Twilight any day of the week...

 

 

 

SO WHAT????

When authors create a fantasy world, they need it to be based in reality; otherwise it’s more difficult for people to relate to that world and the story that takes place within it. By using the roots of ancient language and other allusions when naming characters, spells, and places, J. K. Rowling gives her readers a way to relate the fantastical to reality. Besides giving her fantasy world logic though, the etymology and backstories behind the names and words for things in Harry Potter engages the reader. When an author does this, it’s like their little way of leaving clues for the readers clever enough to pick up on it—a foreshadowing technique that authors can use to give the reader insight into a character’s backstory or their fate, what the tone of the setting is, and more. Like my comment on Samm’s post on Tolkien etymology, when authors use this foreshadowing technique, it makes the experience much more interesting for the reader. It shows the reader that the author didn’t take any aspect of their story lightly, including the names. When the author becomes so invested into the story, it promotes the reader to become more invested in the story as well.

Story: The Musical

There are many different methods of storytelling: novels, films, comics, television, oral, even the news can be considered storytelling. However, one method of storytelling that has become quite underrated is the musical. Throughout history, the musical has actually been a prominent way to tell stories. Just think of the theaters of ancient Greece when plays such as Oedipus the King and Antigone would tell stories and legends of the Greek culture. These plays were the earliest musicals—they utilized a chorus that sang refrains to the characters in the performance and had all the other components of a musical we still use today.  

                The musical has evolved from the ancient Greek plays to the Broadway hits that exist today. When you think about it, the musical has been around longer than the novel (which came around in the 17^th or 18^th century) which is interesting since most people regard books and novels as the primary method of storytelling today. There are several reasons the novel has survived this long. First of all, musicals have all the components that make a good story just like movies and books. They have relatable characters, vivid scenery, and a plot that includes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and a conclusion. This is just the skeleton of any basic story though. The reason musicals didn’t crumble though is not what makes them similar to other story telling methods—it’s what sets them apart. Musicals are able to convey profound emotion and stories in two to three hour periods, while books convey this emotion in hundreds of pages. People have short attention spans unfortunately and if they can experience a story in two hours rather than the two days it would take them to read a book, they’re most likely going to pick the two hour option—the musical. Unfortunately due to cost and transportation issues, musicals are less popular than movies. Yet they can often convey the type of insightful emotion seen in books better than movies since musicals use the component of song. Songs are powerful tools in the storytelling world because they can fit a world of emotion and character development in a three to five minute time span. In a musical, relatable lyrics joined with the performer’s intonation and the excitement in the music makes for a powerful combination. In one song, you can learn the context of a scene, a character’s backstory, the love between two characters, and more. For example, think of the Disney movie-musicals you watched as a kid. In Beauty and the Beast, the opening song gives the audience so much information in a short period of time. The scene is set: the movie takes place in a tiny French village where everybody knows everybody. The characters are established: we learn that Belle is the most beautiful girl in town, loves to read, and is thought to be weird; Gaston is arrogant, vain, and self-centered; and the village people are old-fashioned, normal people who live a routine life. The song also sets up the general plot of the story; it’s the ‘exposition’: Belle is sick of this village life and wants more from life; Gaston plans to marry her, etc. etc. Or how about Belle’s reprise of the opening song, the audience learns how she desperately wants to be free and get out of her little village and how she yearns for somebody to understand her and not think she’s strange. Through the song you can feel the desperation and passion in her voice. Other storytelling methods don’t have this tool. Musicals allow the audience to understand the context of the story and to empathize with the characters through song.

 

                Another reason musicals are unique is the fact that they’re live. When you read a book or watch a movie over and over again, the story becomes predictable. Eventually, the audience doesn’t become active participants in the story. But with musicals, the audience members always have to be active participants. With live events, there’s an element of unpredictability that keeps the audience on their feet.  There’s the possibility actors could drop a line and have to improvise, or a prop or piece of scenery wouldn’t make it out on stage on time, or the company of the show could plan to do something different for a special show or something. Point is, is that when you go see a musical, there’s always the possibility that the story can be changed. Unpredictability is exciting. It keeps the audience alert and at the ready. Sometimes, audience members even like it when an actor drops a line—it’s like a little game of who knows the show better, whether you can catch the line dropped or not.

                All in all, musicals are a unique way of storytelling that unfortunately many people glance over when they want a story. Most people gravitate towards books and movies as their storytelling method of choice, but the musical allows for a story to be told in a unique way, through song and dance as well as dialogue. Funny enough, many hit Broadway musicals were based on books. Wicked, Les Miserables, Rent, Matilda, the Color Purple, Mame…all of these famous musicals were based on a book. Musicals are a new way of looking at a story and allow us to participate actively in the story through live shows, music, and dance. Like the playwright Arthur Miller said, “the theater is so endlessly fascinating is because it’s so accidental. It’s so much like life.”  Musicals are a method of storytelling that are just as good as more popular methods of storytelling. So go to the theater, see your school’s spring musical, watch Les Miz when it comes on TV, and experience the magic of a musical.

 

P.S. And just for fun, here's a parody of the song 'Belle' from Beauty and the Beast.

 

Character Connection

Books and stories hold special places in our hearts when the characters in the story create a connection with the reader. But often we don’t know how this connection is made or why we’re so drawn to a certain character. Even characters that seem to have no redeeming qualities may be found appealing by readers—but the reader has no idea why they like this character. What makes these reader-character relationships so strong, and why do we feel this way about people who don’t even exist?

                Depending on what appeals to the reader depends on if they’re able to make that connection with the character. For instance, girls who are fascinated by mysterious people are often the girls who become infatuated with Mr. Darcy if they read Pride and Prejudice. You never know exactly what Mr. Darcy’s intentions are when you start Pride and Prejudice. He seems like this stuffy, proper, strict man—and then he proclaims he is in love with the adventurous, opinionated, and free-spirited Elizabeth Bennet. Not only does he confess his love for her, but he manages to flatter her and insult her at the same time as he speaks of his opinion of her family’s low social class. Readers who are drawn to enigmas and who like solving puzzles such as Mr. Darcy find that they love him as a character. The same goes for people who find the classic ‘heroic’ qualities appealing. People who admire qualities such as bravery, honesty, fairness, kindness, and chivalry are more likely to be drawn to the hero/heroine rather than the villain. A reader’s personal taste has a large role in whether they make a connection with a character or not.

 

                Characters are the people that both the writer and the reader want to be, but they have enough flaws and quirks to make them human and relatable. Often, through my experience as a reader, I find that my favorite characters are the ones I wish I was more like, or I wish I had in my life. For example, Hermione Granger has always been my favorite character in the Harry Potter series. She’s a girl who is brilliant, first of all, is confident in her abilities, and doesn’t change herself to fit in with other people. I wish I was more like her—I want to be smarter, I want to have the conviction and determination she has, and I want to have her ability to speak my mind no matter what. Characters like this can be role models; they encourage us to strive towards the person we hope to be. Our favorite characters are also the ones who we see a bit of ourselves in. Reading a book is a way of knowing you aren’t alone—somebody has felt the same way you have felt, or has the same problem you have, or the same dream. I find that the characters I have grown to love are the ones I relate to most. When you can relate and empathize with a character, it’s like finding a friend. You see a part of yourself in this imaginary person, and you want to root for them, cry for them, and protect them—because it’s like rooting for, crying for, and protecting a piece of yourself. It’s interesting to speculate that reading or story in general could be a way for the audience to understand themselves. When you find a character that reminds you of yourself, you can live vicariously through that character. By seeing how they respond to situations and other characters allows the reader to look at themselves more objectively, whether they’re aware of it or not. Even relationships with characters we don’t like shed light on what we’re like are as a character. Finding a certain character’s action’s despicable or annoying can shed light on what we value as a person.

 

                Forming a connection with a character is like making a friend. You watch your new friend, you listen to them, and you interact with them and other people, and you inevitably judge them through these interactions.  The more you interact with this new friend, the more you get to know who they are and appreciate their good qualities, but their flaws as well. ‘Falling in love’ with a character works the same way, which is why we can love a character even if they aren’t perfect. As we keep reading we learn more about them and their back story which allows us to empathize with them, and forgive them for their mistakes. Forming connections with characters is interesting because through a reader’s ability to empathize, envision, and use their emotions while reading truly does allow a person who exists only through words to come alive. It’s interesting how real these characters can be, how we feel like they’re our friends and we know them so well—and yet they technically don’t exist. It’s fascinating how the brain allows us to feel for people it knows do not physically exist. Our personal taste, our empathy and our ideals combined with imagination give people the ability to form relationships with people who live inside our heads, which is both bizarre and amazing at the same time.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

Albus Dumbledore