The most influential people who NEVER lived

@dlowan,

All I come up with from children's books are Freddy the Pig and Scuffy the Tugboat. Neither quite makes the cut.

The little boy in The Carrot Seed. Denounced as part of the Communist takeover of America - The boy finds a carrot seed. It won't grow said everybody of consequence. But he planted the seed. And it grew for a number of pages until it became ginormously huge and large. Before the McCarthyites discovered it, my brother Sam and I had enjoyed and discussed it. Oh; it was subversive because the boy outdid his parents.

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@roger,

roger wrote:

All I come up with from children's books are Freddy the Pig and Scuffy the Tugboat. Neither quite makes the cut.

The Little Engine That Could!

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The Time magazine survey did not include Young Werther from Goethe's famous novel. The book led to "Werther Fever" in Europe with young men dressing like the character. Unfortunately, Werther also inspired copycat suicides among young men, causing the book to be banned.

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@wandeljw,

h

Quote:

e Time magazine survey did not include Young Werther from Goethe's famous novel. The book led to "Werther Fever" in Europe with young men dressing like the character. Unfortunately, Werther also inspired copycat suicides among young men, causing the book to be banned.

Amazing the idea of banning books for an American at least.

Once more thanks you founding fathers..........

In any case, it sound interesting enough after doing some fast research that I might picked up a copy.

Just download it off gutenberg.org and send it to my e-book reader now another question come to my mind ho in the hell do you ban a book now that there is an internet?

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Eloise.

I knew I wanted a dog, to ride elevators and to order room service once I'd read Eloise.

I still feel the same way.

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"The Dude," Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter--all in the top ten--make it clear that this is not actually a list of influential fictional characters, but currently popular fictional characters. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with that, just that they're popular rather than influential. One wonders if the respondents understand the word influential.

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@ehBeth,

Satan (From Milton's Paradise Lost)

Quote:

Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n

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@Setanta,

I thought the same thing. My guess is that some of them were nominated by people who really were influenced personally by those characters - like what we've all contributed here -- without regard to real influence.

I think if I had to pick a character with more universal influence I'd probably go with Scrooge since his name has become a shorthand to describe a particular set of qualities.

"Pollyanna" too.

I still sometimes call someone a "Goofus" which I suppose comes from the old "Goofus and Gallant" Hi-Lites feautre:

http://totalfratmove.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/a53108f7543b75adbb34afc035d4cdf61243092860.jpg

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I would not have thought of Scrooge, but that's a good nomination, because the "lesson" of the novel is still touted to this day.

"Many laughed to see this alteration in him, but he let them laugh and little heeded them, for he knew that no good thing in this world ever happened, at which some did not have their fill of laughter. His own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him. And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge."

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@boomerang,

God?

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@Olivier5,

Quote:

God?

Sorry that answer has been taken, on this thread by me, at least in regard to the one third of the christian god head Jesus..

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@boomerang,

Great thread boomer!

In terms of our lives, some of the names on the Time list are ludicrous:

The Dude? Hal9000? Homer Simpson?

In terms of my life:

Gandalf
Lucifer (Of Paradise Lost)
Atticus Finch
Conan the Barbarian
Judge Holden
Roy Rodgers

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@DrewDad,

I think I need to take you off ignore

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@BillRM,

Quote:

Sorry that answer has been taken, on this thread by me, at least in regard to the one third of the christian god head Jesus..

Jesus the God is an invention, but Jesus the man once lived.

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King Arthur. No one else comes close.

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@George,

A matter of opinion, no?

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@Olivier5,

Quote:

but Jesus the man once lived

There is zero evidence of such a man existing in that time period and we do have solid evidence of a great many men going back even further then the Jesus story but none of Jesus.

The odds seem 50/50 that there was a Jewish cult leader by that name but "he" could just as easier be a compound figure of a number of men.

Short of a time machine we will never know for sure one way or another.

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@BillRM,

Quote:

Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed

This from a Wikipedia article that can hardly be accused of perpetuating a Jesus mythos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

Your posting out of your ass.

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For once in his life, Bill is correct. There is zero evidence for an historic Jesus.

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The most influential people who NEVER lived

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