Buffistas

Fred: It's the pictures in my mind that are getting me. It's like being stuck in a really bad movie with those Clockwork Orange clampy things on my eyeballs. Wesley: Why imagine? Reality's disturbing enough.

'Shells'

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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Beverly - Jul 31, 2004 7:40:10 am PDT #5453 of 10002

Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.

When I try to fit him into US mythos, I think of Paul Bunyan or Bigfoot--because of the physical, naturally. But Bunyan accomplished something--his legend had a simple lesson, and Bigfoot of course has none that I can think of, except to be exotic and mysterious.

I can't think of a place in US lit where he would fit, can you? This may be only my own inability to separate him from the story in which I encountered him, so I'd be interested to see where you can place him.

Betsy HP - Jul 31, 2004 7:43:44 am PDT #5454 of 10002

If I only had a brain...

Honestly, the guy that leapt to mind? Jim in Huck Finn. Which sort of emphasizes ita's point.

§ ita § - Jul 31, 2004 7:49:13 am PDT #5455 of 10002

Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Any faithful retainer that needs to be rescued by those he works for, really. I can't think of any white ones right now, and I don't want to muddy the waters -- I don't mean magical.

I don't see what's Bunyanesque about him at all, honestly.

Anne W. - Jul 31, 2004 8:03:31 am PDT #5456 of 10002

The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.

Personally, I think that Hagrid kinda-sorta fits into the mold of several of Dickens' supporting characters. Good-hearted, mildly eccentric, a little doltish, not quite fitting with polite society, good for comic relief, and so on. There are quite a few Dickens characters who remind me of Hagrid in one way or another--Mr. Boffin, Polly Toodle, Joe Gargery, Captain Cuttle, and so on.

§ ita § - Jul 31, 2004 8:06:33 am PDT #5457 of 10002

Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I think that Hagrid kinda-sorta fits into the mold of several of Dickens' supporting characters.

In an exclusively British way, though?

Anne W. - Jul 31, 2004 8:10:00 am PDT #5458 of 10002

The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.

No, not exclusively British, since that kind of character also appears in Twain (Jim, as was noted). Maybe it's not that Hagrid is particularly British but that he's rooted in the 19th century.

§ ita § - Jul 31, 2004 8:13:36 am PDT #5459 of 10002

Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Maybe it's not that Hagrid is particularly British but that he's rooted in the 19th century.

I agree.

Scrappy - Jul 31, 2004 8:15:45 am PDT #5460 of 10002

Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Barkis came to my mind. He needs young David Copperfield to do his courting for him. English, though.

This may be a stretch, but what about Klinger in MASH? He isn't very good at his job, he's eccentric, he doesn't fit in, he's less educated than the people around him, and the "good" people accept him as he is.

erikaj - Jul 31, 2004 9:40:40 am PDT #5461 of 10002

Always Anti-fascist!

Yeah...except now I've got Hagrid in a dress running around in my brain, and well, I wish I didn't.

Matt the Bruins fan - Aug 01, 2004 5:12:55 am PDT #5462 of 10002

"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

Great, now I've got him in that little Eleanor Roosevelt hat that Klinger always wore....

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