All cheap and debonair

[sovay]

Talk to me about supporting characters. When you're supposed to fall for the heroine, and instead it's the second spear-carrier from the left who turns out to have the thorniest moral dilemma or the most fascinating backstory. This happens to me all the time; I can't be the only one. So who are your scene-stealers? Movies, books, operas—your own work—which character roles do you remember long after you've forgotten who played the protagonist?

(This post brought to you courtesy of Eleanor Cameron and L.M. Montgomery.)

Comments

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

That's a rare kind of reaction to someone, the one that you describe here. It must be an even rarer sensation for Dean than for Emily, given how Dean is described. It's really no wonder that he wanted more. Especially since, I wonder, if he had a hard time holding on to the joy and wonder that Emily (I vaguely recall) appeared to spew.

Now, Emily was never my favorite set of books. But she is very emblematic of this sense of "how to live" that L.M.Montgomery tried to create in her books. I think -- Dean is a better character because he is a more accurate portrayal of an actual person. Emily is wishful thinking. She's a state of being/philosophy that L.M. Montgomery was aspiring to, and is therefore less interesting.

[sovay]

Now, Emily was never my favorite set of books.

They are mine, I think. And possibly this is because of Dean. I'll admit that I haven't re-read the Anne books in years, and there are some L.M. Montgomery novels I've never even seen—The Blue Castle, The Tangled Web—but of all her people, he's always felt the most real to me; perhaps because he's such a mess. It's the same reason he doesn't quite seem to fit into his plot arc. He has too many odd angles and corners and edges to smooth off into a recognizable type.

Which are yours?

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

For me, if Emily were my favorite set of books, it would be because of Emily. Because I bought into the wishful thinking that created her character. Pat of Silver Bush was my favorite, I think, because of Pat's generally stubborn and blind loyalty to whatever she had decided was hers. I saw it in much more flattering terms back then, but that's what it comes down to. I remember when I first read Anne of Green Gables, I read it seven times in a week; but I think that I'd assimilated Anne sufficiently after that and didn't need much else from her.