Tempus Fugit

[davywavy]

After chatting to robinbloke about Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books the other day I was inspired to go back and read them again, as they're tremendous fun. Whilst reading them I was reminded that the first time I started reading them when I was about 11 just how much I wanted to be Slippery Jim diGriz.
I think this is a phase everyone goes through when they're little - wanting to grow up to be a character from their favourite books. With me it was Slippery Jim, or Shasta from The horse and his boy, or possibly Gimli, son of Gloin*.
As I got older, I wanted to be Ming the Merciless. I still do.

When you were little, which fictional character(s) did you want to be when you grew up?

^{*An ambition cruelly scuppered by my brother.}

Comments

[the-mendicant.livejournal.com]

Well, I never was a little boy, though I've been a little horse on occasion :P

Sticking with the tolkein theme, I always saw myself as a dryad, so I could hang around with elf boys.

Failing that, Jayne Eyre perhaps, though I don't think I'd have been such a doormat.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

And how old were you when you wanted to hang out with elf boys?

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Aravis from the Horse and his Boy, actually.

Amongst others, but you've just reminded me of my absolute love for her.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I fancied Aravis something rotten. Mainly because she was argumentative.
The line which goes something like "They argued all the time, and eventually got married so they could continue to argue more conveniently" always struck me as a good summary of the perfect relationship.

Horse and his boy was my absolute favourite book for many years - I could finish it, turn to the front and start reading it again.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, that fetish goes way back to a pre-sexual time, I've just embelished it along the way, just need to get robin some ears....

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

I have some, or did, in an old LARP box...

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

I always wanted to be Rodger the Dodger :)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Mr Spock :o)

Neighbour's kid and I used to play Enterprise in their barn which was full of junk that could be made into perfect props. We had a science station (using an old broken slide viewer as Spock's monitor thingy), a transporter room (I have no idea where those sheetmetal discs came from but they were there), a captain's chair (old swivel armchair with an old calculator glued to the armrest), modified toy guns that almost looked like the old style Type II phasers and so on.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I forgot Mr. Spock. The reason I can raise one eyebrow is because I practised doing so in front of a mirror. Because Mr. Spock could do it and I wanted to be cool, like him.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I never managed to do the eyebrow thing (not having eyebrows didn't help) but I can do the greeting perfectly well and that took some practice, too. :o)

[godzuki.livejournal.com]

I remember thinking Elric would be cool to be, I dont think I quite got the horrific slaughter of all he loved angle on the character and concentrated on the cool sword and the mass destruction.

I remember thinking the Fantastic Mr Fox was pretty cool too...that explains alot.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm. No real fictional characters. I always wanted to be John Kennedy. And then, when I figured out that I'd never have the right parts and women in politics were rarely idolized as much as JFK, I wanted to be Jackie.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

*looks guilty* Same here...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Be off with you, you furry deviant!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Surely JFK, as the public saw him, was a fiction?

[omentide.livejournal.com]

The question is, how little?

Achilles, probably.

[godzuki.livejournal.com]

You cant say that to me on my birthday! *cries*

DHRAMA!

Hmm I am pretty sure I would be a deviant even if I wasnt a furry, just like you =p

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Is it your birthday?
Happy birthday!

You can't have my ring.

[mrmmarc.livejournal.com]

LOL! Stainless Steel Rat? Haven't read them in AGES!!!!

Ok- when i was young I wanted to be... well, its a mixture of things, as fads changed and waxed and waned.

Certainly I wanted to be Legolas. This was in younger, pre-Jackson days, when for some reason in my head, Tolkiens Elves were much less gay.
I wanted to be one of the kids in Wyndham's "The Crysalis"- so I could do cool telepathic stuff!
Briefly wanted to be Superman- but that was because he had X-Ray vision and I was a pervert.
Mostly however I just wanted to be me...

Doing wild and dangerous things! Like fighting aliens! Or devloping mind control powers! Or rescuing pretty girls from burning buildings!

Looking back I feel such affinity for Tenacious D!

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Good point. No one knew the lopsided hunchback he really was....

[godzuki.livejournal.com]

Yes its my birthday! And thanks :)

I have no interest in anyones ring, despite you trying to play hard to get. Take your ring and shove it...ah nm..

But we are well overdue to see each other again ya know.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Gods this is embarrasing.

I wanted to be Lessa, Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr.

I shall go and hide now.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten about Piemur's thrilling adventures on the Southern Continent. I hankered after them, so it's not like you are alone in your shame.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Oh, also I *still* want to be Galadriel.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

You mean you're not?