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Wash: So, two days in a hospital? That's awful. Don't you just hate doctors? Simon: Hey. Wash: I mean, present company excluded. Jayne: Let's not be excluding people. That'd be rude.

'Ariel'

We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good

Closed Threads

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."

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Typo Boy - Dec 08, 2003 5:33:02 pm PST #123 of 10002

Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Question for the literary hivemind. I'm trying to think of examples of really annoying excessively cheerful optimists from classic (or at least famous) literature. The two examples that spring to mind are Pollyanna and Pangloss. (I just realized I never actually read Pollyanna so maybe I'm being unfair to her.) I somehow managed to miss Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm too, so I don't know whether she qualifies. Any other examples people care to share?

Thanks

Gar

Steph L. - Dec 08, 2003 5:37:24 pm PST #124 of 10002

Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

Anne of Green Gables?

Typo Boy - Dec 08, 2003 5:39:40 pm PST #125 of 10002

Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Anne of Green Gables?

Teppy, definitely - thanks.

P.M. Marc - Dec 08, 2003 5:49:12 pm PST #126 of 10002

So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

Candide! (Though, of course, that was kind of the point.)

deborah grabien - Dec 08, 2003 6:21:16 pm PST #127 of 10002

It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

(brain curls up and dies slowly at thought of blitheringly optimistic people in classic lit)

(brain reaches out for "Crime and Punishment")

(brain realises Raskolnikov is really really boring and depressing and decides to go dancing instead)

Typo Boy - Dec 08, 2003 6:22:02 pm PST #128 of 10002

Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Hmm I chose Pangloss as being slightly more annoying than Candide. But yes, you are right - if I'm going to include Pangloss, there is no reason to omit the title character.

Thanks PMM.

P.M. Marc - Dec 08, 2003 8:54:51 pm PST #129 of 10002

So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

EVERYONE in Candide is annoying.

And yet, I have an irrational love for the thing.

beth b - Dec 08, 2003 9:01:34 pm PST #130 of 10002

oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!

for the 11 year old

the case of the Firecracker laurence yep-- he's written a bunch of mysteries about a girl in china town - he also does a bunch of other books and they won't push the child that likes the comfort of her boxcar children

Angus G - Dec 09, 2003 1:45:22 am PST #131 of 10002

Roguish Laird

I'm trying to think of examples of really annoying excessively cheerful optimists from classic (or at least famous) literature.

Miss Bates in Emma.

Mr Micawber in David Copperfield.

Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop.

(Hell, there's one in virtually every Dickens novel!)

Fred Pete - Dec 09, 2003 4:01:40 am PST #132 of 10002

Ann, that's a ferret.

For the advanced 11YO:

At 13, I had no trouble whatsoever with Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, and Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason). Could never figure out whodunit, but that didn't stop me.

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