Literary Crushes: Part IV

How was everyone’s weekend? Mine was super, thanks for asking. I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and ran a 4 mile race with the best pace time I’ve had in 7 months.

So I am uncharacteristically cheerful on this Monday morning, and what better way to continue in this happy vein than another installment of the Literary Crushes series? This one is a bit unusual in that this type of crush in that there is no real Ur-Character that spawned crushes on similar sorts. It’s probably because he’s a bit hard to pin down, and that it’s only in retrospect can I attribute a crush to him.

Dominic Cooper as Will Parry from the stage adaptation of HIS DARK MATERIALS.

A perfect example of this character is Will Parry from Philip Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS. I had liked Will from the start, but never crushed on him because, let’s be honest, the series’ crushworthy character is totally Mrs. Coulter. (SHUT UP. Mrs. Coulter and her ilk will get a separate post anyway.) But the more I read this book, the more I find myself loving Will: loving his keen sense of justice, his steadiness, and his quiet passion. Loving, not crushing.

Will–and others like him–are what I call Diamonds in the Rough.

It’s hard for me to summarize Diamonds in the Rough as I did the other character types because by nature they are necessarily different on the outside. Unlike the other character types, they aren’t WYSIWYG. Er, What You See Is What You Get (ah, old school computer terms!). Often, Diamonds in the Rough are indistinct upon first glance–Will Parry doesn’t have any sharply attractive characteristics, unlike The Honourable Thief and The Cross-Dresser.

But polish away the possibly bland and/or boring exterior, you have a real gem beneath. He might not be flashy, but he’s steadfast. He may not even have an obvious sense of humor (and you all know how important a sense of humor is to me), but he’s certainly not dour. He takes himself seriously, it’s true, but he can laugh and when he does, it’s sweet.

(You probably have all guessed by now which category Teddy Bear falls into. Yes, he is a Diamond in the Rough.)

These sorts of characters always sneak up on me. My love for them might not be as passionate or as vocal as my crush on the others, but it’s a bond that’s enduring.

Here’s another Diamond in the Rough.

Yep. Harry Potter.

I love Harry, I really do. Of the Trio, he was always the one with whom I empathized the most, when in fact I was probably the most like Hermione. Still, it was always Harry who had my heart. I know tons of girls who loved Ron, but he never did much for me. I found him too emotional and too insecure for my tastes. What I love most about Harry is the same thing I love about Will and Teddy Bear: his keen sense of justice, as well as his compassion. Dobby’s funeral scene in DEATHLY HALLOWS is a perfect illustration of the qualities I love about Harry and all other Diamonds in the Rough.

A more literal example of a Diamond in the Rough is The Beast from any retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Strangely enough, most of my celebrity crushes are Diamonds in the Rough as well. Carl Barât, Daniel Radcliffe, Elijah Wood, etc. My celebrity crushes tend me to make people look at me weird, and for the most part, they can’t understand why I esteem these people so. And the key word here is “esteem”. For me, love is so very much intricately tied up with esteem and respect and admiration, not infatuation.

This is probably why I have a hard time with obviously romantic novels. Most Diamonds in the Rough read as “boring”.

Still, these characters are the closest to my heart and the closest to Real Life. What about the rest of you? Do you find Diamonds in the Rough, or do you pass over most of them because of their exterior blandness?

EDITED TO ADD: Er, I just realized that physically speaking, all these characters/actors are dark haired, with intensely dark eyebrows, and the majority of them have light eyes. I might actually have a physical type after all!

Like? Share!

• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•