• she/her

Recently appeared on this plane. Last seen: Posting (in a serif font) and/or casting spells. my icon and header image are turned around on purpose actually its not like i dont know how to fix it or anything. my age is private information but if you feel the need to know it presume i'm somewhere between 18 and the age you are and treat me accordingly


tsiro
@tsiro
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bcj
@bcj

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

boodoo
@boodoo

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.


bcj
@bcj

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


whit
@whit

now which of any of these characters is more famous than Goku


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in reply to @bcj's post:

Hmm yeah, fair. I was already thinking that the answers were pretty anglocentric. There could be some foundational work of Chinese or Indian literature that’s not well-known in the west but that would still win on numbers

in reply to @whit's post: