Literary Crushing, Not Necessarily Hetero

In the comments on my Good Ways to Ruin Your Life for the Sake of Inspiration post, Popeye shared his appreciation of the character of Atticus Finch. I began a reply, then realized it would take a bit more than just a comment paragraph to respond. On my homepage, I have a list of (male) fictional characters I have lusted after. (I'd provide the link, but my homepage is all in one Flash file, and therefore I cannot currently link separate pages. I'd love for you to read it, though. It's under "Lists".) But I don't have a list of female characters. So without further ado...

Jill's Possible Same Sex Literary Crushes

1. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series was the first one to come to mind. She's a geek; she mothers her friends, well; she always knows where to find the information to help save their asses, and has put her own on the line more than a few times; she charmed the heck out of Viktor Krum, world-famous Quidditch star. Sure, maybe early on, her hair needed a deep-conditioning treatment, but I think she's learned to take care of that. Especially now that she's clearly got her heart set on the oh-so-oblivious Ron. This choice might make me a pedophile...but just a fictional one, right? At least I didn't say Lolita.

2. Next, I thought of Arwyn of Lord of the Rings fame. Except I don't think I actually have a crush on her. It's more like I want her immortality, or her man. Or both. She's not really fiesty enough for me. I'd love to slay her and take her place. Which is something Eowyn could have done. Now, there's a crush-worthy Tolkien woman.

3. Tinkerbell. Forget. Wendy.

At this point, this list becomes a truly informative exercise. Because, if I am limiting myself to literature...well, there aren't a whole heckuvalotof female characters that entice me. Let's examine Shakespeare. Lady Macbeth is trying to act out her own ambitions through her husband, Ophelia can't cope, Gertrude is either an adultress or too easily manipulated, Miranda is sheltered, Juliet is naive, as is poor Desdemona, Cleopatra is...Cleopatra, Cordelia is somewhat likable, though her sisters clearly aren't, the girls in Midsummer's are too simple (it is a romantic comedy, after all), but...

4. Beatrice. What a wit! And fiesty indeed.

5. Katharina. The Shrew. Taming, my ass.

6. Elphaba. From Wicked. I don't care if she's green. No, I haven't seen the musical. I may be the only person in New York, or that has visited New York in the past year or two, that hasn't. I'll get around to it.

7. Catherine, of the Pulitzer Prize-winning David Auburn play, Proof. Young but complex. Plagued by people making false assumptions about her. Some of them false, anyway. Deadpan humor. And brilliant.

8. Sabine. From Nick Bantock's Griffin & Sabine series. Bantock is an artist, illustrator, writer and creator of pop-up books. This series tells the story through the correspondence of the title characters. Each page--their letters, postcards, and the like--is an artwork. And Sabine is the mysterious woman who initiates it all. If you're the type of person who wanders through bookstores looking for things to touch, and flip through, and lose yourself in, sit down with these. The text is limited enough to read over one cup of tea, but you really won't want to leave without the book(s).

Literary crushes, anyone?