1. Daydream

    Daydream Contributor Contributor

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    Which novel would you live out?

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Daydream, Feb 23, 2012.

    Thought this might be an interesting idea to get everyone thinking and discussing! Basically - if you could live out the story of any novel; which novel would you choose? The scenaro is: You choose the story you want to live out, then get instantly transported to that world, meaning you would have to leave behind your current life. Also you can be any character you choose! So...fantasise away....

    Oh and...I know alot of people probably want to live out Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but maybe try come up with some other ideas :) Also please explain your choices since not everyone may know about your choice!
     
  2. munkyphile

    munkyphile New Member

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    Jane Eyre. ( I really am obsessed with that one)

    Or (sounds weird) one of the dogs from Where the Red Fern Grows. Yes, they both died in the end, but during their lives they were probably a couple of the happiest, most loved dogs ever.
     
  3. JPGriffin

    JPGriffin New Member

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    I loved reading that book. Probably one of the saddest endings I've read, or at least the most memorable one.

    I'd go with Dr. Watson, from the world-renowned series Sherlock Holmes. Why not Sherlock? Well, as clever of a mind he has, I'd still come close to calling him crazy. But now that I think about it, Moriarty (Sherlock's evil counterpart) probably has an interesting life. Tough...
     
  4. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    none...

    thing is, i've led [and, at 73, am still living] such an amazingly eclectic and exciting life that i can't think of a single novel out of the many thousands i've read that could even come close to equalling my 'real thing'!
     
  5. prettyprettyprettygood

    prettyprettyprettygood Active Member

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    Frankenstein, I'd like to be anyone who encounters the monster so I could be nice to him! The amount of rejection that chap endures still upsets me years after reading it... What a sap I am. Oh, but Dr Watson is a great choice too!
     
  6. mugen shiyo

    mugen shiyo New Member

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    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanne Clark.
     
  7. Mordred

    Mordred New Member

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    Tops on my list are Conan (The Tower of the Elephant) by Robert E. Howard or Elric from Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series.

    They are kind of polar opposites... One is a burly, sword-swing, panther-like barbarian who disdains magic and the other is an anemic, cultured skinny albino sorcerer of unparalleled power.

    ~Mordred
     
  8. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

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    Count of Monte Cristo, as Edmond Dantes. I am pretty tough, so I think I'd be able to stick it out in that dungeon, but later, oh, the jewels, the money, the revenge! Delectable :D
     
  9. Daydream

    Daydream Contributor Contributor

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    Oh come on, there must've been some novel you read which had you thinking - what would it be like to live this out? To be part of a world saving adventure or something?! :p

    Anyway, I didn't give my choice which is to live out as Axis in the Axis Trilogy by Sara Douglass. Always loved epic fantasy with the prophecies, magic and magical creatures. Hes basically a hero who saves his world by leading all its races to salvation and saving it from Gorgraeland his evil army. Sounds abit generic, but I've read alot of epic fantasy and this is definitely in my top 3!
     
  10. Felipe

    Felipe Active Member

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    It may sound arrogant, but actually I'd like to be the main character in my last book "Goldfish".
     
  11. Protar

    Protar Active Member

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    You've saved the world before? :p
     
  12. Yoshiko

    Yoshiko Contributor Contributor

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    None! They're all too dramatic for my liking.

    I'm happy with my life as it is: having fun, constantly meeting new people, seeing as much of the world as I can, slowly achieving my goals, not rich but getting by and learning as much as I can everyday. I'd rather work harder in my own life than give it up for a storybook scenario.
     
  13. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Write your autobiography. It will obviously outshine everything else ever written! ;) (Just restating what you said - don't get mad!)

    I'd like to be Atreyu in The NeverEnding Story. He's young, strong, goes far, does lots, saves his world, survives. That's enough for one life.
     
  14. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Off the top of my head, I'd like to live out Ringworld as Louis Wu. Odysseus would have decided his own adventures were humdrum in comparison.
     
  15. Gonissa

    Gonissa New Member

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    I pick Azumanga Daioh. It's close enough to reality but still has bizarre things happening all the time. And the characters seem cool to hang out with.
     
  16. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    nope!

    no... but then, i wouldn't want to save it, given the state it's in, thanks to the human race... now, if you'd point me to a novel in which the heroine eradicates humanity and replaces it with a non-violent, caring species, i might just be tempted to live out that one!

    i'm not mad... but i didn't even intimate that my life would 'outshine everything else ever written' did i?... what i was referring to is that there's nothing in any of those many thousands of novels i'd have wanted to do that i haven't already experienced/done...

    and, btw, i did start an auto-bio that i see no good reason to finish, since i don't need to be rich or famous [or infamous, as the case may be]... you can browse the bits i did churn out on my website, with the title 'a weird life' in the 'other works' section of 'writings'... they don't get up to the really weird stuff, though...
     
  17. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    None. Really. I suppose Haruki Murakami's world might be interesting, but only for a visit. And we have his novels for that.

    I like living in our own, real world enough to not truly want anything more. It's nice and varied, and it seems there is enough possible good, or enough to possibly enjoy, for me to say that despite faults this is the only world we can truly posses and shape up. What literature does, or good literature anyway, is show something of a truth. Take heed of it.
     
  18. Snap228

    Snap228 New Member

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    That's awesome. I really hope that's how I feel when I'm your age. :)
     
  19. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

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    Wow :eek: That's just about the most violent concept I read in a long time. Let's hope nobody gets to live out that one, then.
     
  20. JPGriffin

    JPGriffin New Member

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    Now, now, let's not get hasty. The purging of all of society as we know it is something we fear because we know nothing else. Eradicating humanity? In that case, dig a huge tunnel and start a society there, waiting out the genocide (Sort of like The City of Ember, now that I think of it). Just for laughs, I'd like to see how I'd do in an apocalyptic scenario, be it through zombies, nuclear warfare, or anything short of destruction of the planet. Personally, I think I'd do fine for a while, and who knows? Maybe I can recreate society as it once was (maybe better)?
     
  21. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Actually, I have to agree with jazzabel on this one. Sorry Maia.

    If I'm permitted, at least one bad James Bond film (Moonraker) was based on a megalomaniac attempting to wipe out the human race to establish a perfect peaceful world.

    Sorry, my friend, but for someone so opposed to violence, your dream seems to me to be quite horrific.
     
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  22. art

    art Contributor Contributor

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    I suppose it might depend on how Mammamaia's heroine goes about the business of eradication. Stabbing seven billion folk would be pretty violent (and time consuming) and would involve quite a lot of human suffering... but eradicating the entire race, in one moment, with a click of fingers, well, perhaps that isn't so bad.

    Quite fun to be Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair.
     
  23. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    So if the heroine tampered with time to painlessly erase the human race, that would be copacetic?

    Helen Cutter tried that in the third series of Primeval.
     
  24. Zappy

    Zappy New Member

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    Harry Potter.

    Flying wizards, kids with control over ancient forces, noseless evil characters, sounds like my style.
     
  25. Daydream

    Daydream Contributor Contributor

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    I agree with Maia in the sense that this world cannot be saved anymore. We've just gone to far by ruining the planet with our resourcee gluttony and wars. Also frankly the new generation is abit useless :p The main reason I would choose to live out a different life, is because I dont like how this world has turned out. I like my life but not this world! Would it not be cool to run around in a magical world with no technology?! Oooh I could go on about this forever!

    George Martin's quote actually had me thinking about the whole thing - A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.
     

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