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If I had written this question instead of the OP, I probably would have said "of books" to avoid the dangers of it being a historical figure (or a character claimed to be a historical figure). Thankfully, Richard was wise enough to avoid these pitfalls.
I also want to try to dodge "from books". Because e.g., James Bond is originally from books but his fame is almost-exclusively from the movies.
I think that additional caveat ends up blocking a bunch of my gut instinct answers:
- Sun Wukong
- Lu Bu
- Sherlock Holmes
- Batman
- Frankenstein
I then fall onto famous book characters even if people haven't read the books:
- Jane Eyre
- Rodian Raskolnokov
- [A third name I'd come up with if it wasn't midnight]
And that brings me to my actual guess:
- The Little Prince
obviously I'm tilted because Sherlock Holmes was my answer and I've been arbitrarily rules-lawyered out here but it brings to the fore a crucial aspect to the question: How would you get an answer?
"The most famous character in [or 'of'] books [and other representations don't count]" presents a particularly tricky scenario because you can't show someone a picture of the character and say "who is this?"
Would you instead ask "name a character from a book"? If so, I still stand by my answer and assert "Sherlock Holmes" reigns supreme.
I think Sherlock Holmes is a good answer and Joel is right to be annoyed that I have rules-laywered a world where he can't be
I feel like Sun Wukong is touching on the right answer but my gut feeling tells me it's actually Xuanzang who is also rules-lawyered out and I'm mad, red and nude about this. Anyway if it's Just Books then I'm voting for Don Quixote.
What's a book?
Is a manga a book?
Is fame related to how many people recognise you, and do they need to always be able to?
Consider: Son Goku is globally recognisable and there are eight billion people alive. Almost everywhere, people recognise Son Goku. Same with Superman, right? And there are about 109 billion people who've ever existed, but how many of them ever truly shared media? We know who Gilgamesh is, but that was through finding archaeological ruins after literally centuries of silence from that franchise.
But also what does remix matter? Does Son Goku have the line of continuity through his childhood forms and adult forms and so on?
And if so, does he get to inherit the fact that he's definitely still Sun Wukong?
I don't have answers here, just questions.
