/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15687241]

Which authors can compete with dickens in the skill of inventing colorful characters?

[Anonymous No.15687257]

>>15687241
Most classical ones.

Dickens is far from the best.

[Anonymous No.15687271]

>>15687241
Dosto and Tolstoy

[Anonymous No.15687298]

>>15687257
>>15687271
I don't need midwit "I read /lit/-core books and I know everything about literature" opinions, I asked about particular ability to write literary caricatures.

[Anonymous No.15687338]

>>15687241
"Approach me again, you-you-you HEEP of infamy, and if your head is human, I'll break it. Come on, come on!"

Nah fucking Heep is such a revolting character, when he gets fuckin BTFO of at the end iss a fucking banger. Also when the aunt starts having a go cause he's fuckin squirming about like a spastic, also fucking banging.

Really need to read more Dickens, David Copperfield is all I've read so far.

[Anonymous No.15687368]

>>15687241
all you need is a date of birth, then you apply astrology and voila there are your character traits
t. ballsac

[Anonymous No.15687407]

>>15687241
Proust, I should think. His pastiche on certain figures of the fin-de-siécle society are hilarious.

[Anonymous No.15687409]

>>15687241
Sheakspeare? Dickens loved him, also good shout anon really need to read more Dickens. Virginia Woolf has a wide range of characters and the waves is really good at showing them intertwine.

[Anonymous No.15687417]

>>15687241

Dickens had a strong imagination but his characters are mostly caricatures. They're about as fully-rounded as the animals in Aesop, or the figures in Grimm's Fairy Tales.

Creating "colourful" characters of this depth isn't so difficult. Terry Pratchett is certainly Dickens' equal, in my opinion. Ian Fleming also produces a good number in the Bond books - think of all the villains, henchmen, Bond girls, etc.

[Anonymous No.15687432]

>>15687409
Shit just remembered Wilde's plays full of character and wit.

[Anonymous No.15687459]

>>15687417
Can I ask what characters you do consider well rounded.

[Anonymous No.15687529]

>>15687459

I think a good test is to try to imagine the character in a range of situations, very different from the ones in the work, and see if we instinctively know how he would behave, and if he remains convincing. A couple of good examples are Falstaff and Raskolnikov.

I think they should also be kinda realistic - many very striking figures do appear to transcend their works but are more archetypes than real people. For example Hannibal Lecter, Don Quixote, maybe Sherlock Holmes.

I said Dickens *mostly* created caricatures. There are many exceptions - Sydney Carton, for example.

[Anonymous No.15687569]

>>15687241
Imma rustle some jimmies and say JK Rowling 200%.

[Anonymous No.15687669]

>>15687298
And you had your answer
Dickens characters are caricatures which clearly suits your level of reading
Any one of the greats have created complex, credible characters, that are colorful yet credible past the early reading stage

[Anonymous No.15687697]

>>15687669
>I don't need midwit "I read /lit/-core books and I know everything about literature" opinions
What is in this phrase you don't understand sweety?

[Anonymous No.15688033]

>>15687241

[Anonymous No.15688125]

>>15687241
quentin tarantino

[Anonymous No.15688225]

>>15687241
I think Dickens is superior to Nietzsche.

[Anonymous No.15688237]

>>15687669
>imagine not liking Dickens as an adult
He's caricatures only get better with age and simplicity does not mean stupidity or childishness, it is rather in the motific whole of the work quite complex in its spiritual innocence.

[Anonymous No.15688265]

>Mr. Stryver
this is a colorful, memorable character?

[Anonymous No.15688620]

>>15688265
Colorful in somewhat bland novel

[Anonymous No.15689103]

>>15688237
There are plenty of better English authors than Dickens.

[Anonymous No.15689936]

>>15689103
Fuck off