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Saturday, May 22, 2010
Who was your first literary crush?
I admit it: I am a HUGE bookworm. I was learning to read before I started kindergarten, I was in special reading classes in my early elementary years, I devoured the Scholastic book order catalogs that came home from school, and I pursued and completed the English degree program at Wright State - plenty of reading to be had.
I recently picked up the Walt Disney movie version of one of my all-time favorite novels, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, which I first read when I was maybe 9 or 10. (And I even found the edition that I first read here on Amazon.)
It’s been awhile since the last time I flipped through the book. The movie was surprisingly true to the story, re-introducing me to L’Engle’s characters - my old friends.
This included Calvin O’Keefe, somewhat of an auxiliary male character in the book and played by Gregory Smith in the movie. And while Smith didn’t particularly catch my eye, watching the movie brought to mind how much I adored Calvin even when I was barely old enough to know what a crush was.
It’s not completely unheard of to “fall in love” with a literary character. Literary love is the force working behind this whole Twilight phenomenon, and arguably Harry Potter, too.
And it’s not just limited to kids, tweens and teens: Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook had huge appeal to female readers of all ages thanks to its male lead, the devoted Noah.
Calvin O’Keefe was probably the earliest literary crush I had - which could very well be because Wrinkle was one of the first serious novels I read as a child. (While I certainly loved Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit, I wouldn’t call it a crush.)
I can think of a few others off the top of my head, including Holden Caulfield from A Catcher in the Rye by the late J.D. Salinger; Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde; and Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Which male (or female, for that matter) literary characters captured your heart, as a child or as an adult?
