Dan KarlanKirja-arvosteluja

This was rather amusing all together. I'm giving it a three, because I'm much rougher and tougher on my non-fiction than I am on my Fiction. Fiction can get me so much more moved and passionate. (So think of this maybe as a 4 Star when only counting my Non-Fictions)

This was a glorious little romp through a whole lot of people I agree in large part did change or influence my life. I'd suggest it to anyone who wants to spend a good ninty percent of the books going "Oh, wow, I remember this" the whole way through. The history is wonderful as are the trite and glorious little in jokes and puns and literary lincences taken.

i have a feeling i'm going to hate this. the writers are waaay too big for their britches. but i'm curious enough about some of their choices to keep reading. for a little while ...

yeah, couldn't be bothered. i don't need to know about this particular set of people's ideas of who was and wasn't influential. this list is not objective at all, so it's just like being forced to listen to these people talk about things they like. they don't seem like the kind of people i want to listen to talk for very long. and their reasons for listing characters as influential are sometimes vague and include nothing more than the retelling of a story with no commentary. no thanks.

wish more time was spent on actual analysis - but with few exceptions the authors relied more on tongue-in-cheek delivery of recapping the stories of the 101 characters.

I have been looking forward to reading this one for quite some time. I expected to like it but thought that it might be a little dry in places. It exceeded my expectations. Each entry was of a fictional character, and the characters were grouped together into such topics as Folktales, Monsters, Literature, Movies, Commerce, Propaganda, etc. The background of the fictional character was discussed and why it was important. Lots of humor as well. I was familiar with 98% of the characters; here are a few: the Marlboro Man, Rosie the Riveter, Big Brother, Scrooge, HAL 9000, Godzilla. The book included a list of those that didn't make the list, and there were amusing interludes as to how the authors came up with the list, how they wrote the individual entries, etc.

I was very disappointed in this book. I loved the premise and the list itself, but found the description of each character to be more of a commentary on the author's opinion than less on the history of the character and almost none of how society has been shaped/impacted by the existence of the fictional person. I don't care that the myth of Cinderella should not be taught to our daughters and certainly find it horribly subjective to call Adam the "first male chauvinist pig."

There was much potential here, only to be squandered by a group of authors more interested in writing of an OpEd and less of an informative, non-emotional book.

Not recommended.

Subtitle: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History

I read this only because it was a book-club selection. The authors decided to put together a list of the most influential fictional characters/ icons from books, movies, television, and advertising. I don’t necessarily agree with their choices (No. 1 is The Marlboro Man), but more importantly, I really didn’t like how the book was organized and written. They spent far too many words trying to be cute and far too little time explaining how these characters influence America and Americans. There were a few interesting tidbits, for which I give it 1 star. Mostly, however, I was just bored.

Interesting concept. Pick 101 "people" and write up a page or two on their backstory. Very US Centric, some of the research a bit uneven, but overall a neat concept. I had no idea about the back story for several, some I wouldn't have included at all (Buffy the Vampire Slayer??), and some I remember as being a definite buzz word at the time (Who Shot J.R.?)

What a fun book! It has sparked several lunchroom conversations at work and prompted me to spend some time pondering fictional characters who have influenced me and my world.

As it is an arbitrary list created by the three authors, it is of course subject to criticism and disagreement, but for the most part I think the authors gave adequate rationalization for including the individuals they chose. It would be difficult to narrow down to a list of 100 individuals in any of the single categories they covered (literature, TV, movies, etc.), so narrowing to 101 for ALL the categories must have been difficult.

I don't remember the authors specifying this, but the list is certainly slanted to American culture.

A few characters I thought deserved to be included that weren't:
*Harry Potter
*Hawkeye Pierce (M*A*S*H)
*Homer Simpson (he made their also-ran list but I think the Simpsons have had phenomenal influence on culture, at least from the point of view of parody/criticism)
*Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show)
*Bilbo or Frodo Baggins (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings)
*Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia)

I questioned the authors' inclusion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I think they just added it because they are fans. I had never watched the show, however, so I am now Netflixing it and enjoying it, but I still don't see the immense cultural influence of the show...

Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable and informative, as well as thought-provoking read.½

Review: 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived
On the one hand, I’m thrilled that I’m finished with one book and actually reviewing it less than two days in to 2015. On the other hand, I’m tempted to call this book at least 91 people too long, although that’s probably not fair.
I once overheard someone I work with say that a website designed by a committee is a camel. I think the same can be said for a book about a subjective matter written by this many people. The more I think about it, I think “influential” might be the wrong word. To me, influence means they inspire people to act like them? Did some have an impact? Yes. But does anyone actually want to *be* Godzilla?
The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived by Allan Lazar, Dan Karlan, Jeremy Salter. A library book I started eagerly on December 31, 2014 and I finished today at the gym. Normally when I’m adding time to a workout it means I’m hooked into the book and want to finish it. This time I just wanted to finish it.

I was hooked from the beginning. Literally.

We believe so strongly in the characters of television, literature, and movies that we treat them as important people in our lives. We have to see the last episode of our favorite TV series every season; we’ve stood in line to see the latest movie sequel or remake. Legends, myths, theater, animation—it’s all the same. We identify with these characters, even if the story dates back thousands of years. We shed real tears over their setbacks and suffering.

Despite what I said above, I’m not sure if it’s that it was too long or just poorly organized. Despite explaining their process of whittling down the list in one of the book’s interludes, I felt that they were stretching it with some of these.

Cat in the Hat? Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I firmly agree with the person who reached out to them criticizing even the idea of going with Buffy but not Dracula. Without Dracula, there is no Buffy. Cat in the Hat’s campaign speech was pretty persuasive, however.
They pride themselves on bypassing Darth Vader but included Luke Skywalker?
No Wonder Woman (who would have fit perfectly among feminist icons) but Batman?
Plenty on roman and greek gods but nothing on, at least, the three monotheistic gods? Nothing on the Vikings?
While you can’t in good conscience skip Santa, I think way too much ink was spilled on the fairy tale princesses whose stories are fairly common knowledge.

Some notes and thoughts:

Some definitely belonged and I really enjoyed their write ups: King Arthur (but no Merlin even when they mentioned some of the other add ons to the Legend), Jim Crow, Ebenezer Scrooge, the American Cowboy, Rosie the Riveter, G.I.Joe (although now they’ve lost their “no one of importance named Joe” claim with Joe Biden) , Peter Pan, the Marlboro Man
Some probably didn’t belong, but I still enjoyed the write ups: specifically Loch Ness Monster, J.R. Ewing and Godzilla
Some were just bizarre: Buffy, Archie Bunker, Kermit.
Some bizarre in their omissions (more than that below with the near misses). Specifically: no one from the Harry Potter franchise, Frodo,
Some like William Tell I had no idea were fictional and some I really enjoyed learning about like the Wandering Jew.
While I do think they unnecessarily gave away some plots in tv/film/literature, I also liked that they did because some made me think “Yeah, I don’t need to see/read that”. It did make me realize how deficient I am in some of the “classics”. I read what I enjoy, this isn’t school anymore.
In the passage on Apollo and Dionysus where they wrote about the duo’s great personal strength and power, I couldn’t help but think of Spiderman “with great power comes great responsibility”.
Of their also rans/near misses I could have easily put the following in place of some who did make it: George Milton and Lenny Small, Holden Caulfield, Homer (eh),Lancelot, Uncle Remus

I think the biggest issue I had was the categorizations as many were so subjective or could fit within many. I think it would have read better as a 101-1 list without their interludes on process, especially that of the dog.

Between Chapters 13 and 14, they noted the following in their interlude:

The toughest part of this project is judging who is really fictional. First, we got complaints about characters people thought were real. Next, other people complained that we were using characters that were obviously fictional, as if we’d set out to debunk a few legends. How dare we include fictional characters? Others just wanted to argue. Sure, some stories are fictional, but King Arthur? Spock? This is not a scholarly work. You may have guessed from the low price, the absence of obscure characters, and the occasional bit of humor.

That pretty much nailed my feelings. If they’d had it in the intro, I might have passed on the book.

That said, the book’s reading list is an interesting one and I’ve added the following to my wishlist:

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael Hart.
Carroll, Willard. I Toto: The Autobiography of Terry, The Dog Who Was Toto

It is not accidental that Santa Claus is one of few characters associated with Western culture that were allowed to persist in Communist countries. Consider that both Santa Claus and Karl Marx have bushy white beards and believe in giving people what they want without regard for cost. And Santa Claus always wears a red outfit, the symbolic color of Communism. (40)

I was seriously disappointed with this book. It was another Half Price Books find, and I actually thought it sounded like a fantastic idea. Our society uses art as a means of expression, oftentimes hoping to incite change or even just bring attention to a particular social or political issue, so it would make sense that many of our "fictional" literary characters would be inspirational in that regard.

However, about three pages into the book, I realized that, while a great idea, it was incredibly poorly executed. Let's start with the things that I liked, because there's really only one of them: I liked how the characters were split up into categories, like Myths, Legends, Americana, etc. I suppose if I had to pick one more thing that I enjoyed, it would be the initial explanation of the process for choosing the characters. While not essential to the book, it was great information to keep in mind while reading, especially when looking forward at the list and thinking, "Why did they consider that person influential?"

That being said, this election process was elaborated on several more times during what were called "Interludes," short chapters between the themes. These were not necessary or interesting to read. While painfully obvious that the authors were attempting to be humorous, in these interludes as well as throughout the rest of the book, these additions only served as annoyances and often lead to incredulity on my part. (See below with regard to specific quotes.)

The sad thing is, some of the actual historical information about the characters - Santa Claus, King Arthur, Cupid and Venus - I would have considered interesting and enlightening, but these small learning moments were overshadowed by the consistent irksome feeling I got from the commentary.

For example, the quote above - I read that and thought to myself, "Seriously?" And maybe it wasn't. Maybe I wasn't meant to take that seriously. Given the tone of the article, it definitely seemed to be an actual comparison. Yes, Karl Marx and Santa Claus are pretty much the same person. And communism is absolutely all about giving people whatever they want. If I recall correctly, those are the first lines of the Communist Manifesto. (In case you needed some guidance there, I was being sarcastic in those last few sentences. In fact, the comparison of Marx to Santa Claus is strained at best - Santa Claus is communist because he wears read, and communism is most certainly NOT about giving people whatever they want.)

Some of my other favourite what I call, "Um, what?!" moments:

Quote from article about Pandora: If Pandora were alive today, she would find herself served with countless lawsuits. No matter that she doesn't have deep pockets - or, for that matter, any pockets. Our penchant for accusing, blaming, and then suing someone for a problem for which we don't want to accept responsibility has become the stuff of future legends. (While I completely agree that our society, especially American society, has become entirely too litigious, this commentary has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with Pandora, or her importance as a literary/mythical character.)
The article about Buck from Jack London's Call of the Wild was written in the voice of one of the author's dogs. Hilarious - NOT.
The article about The Cat in the Hat: the authors were presumptuous enough to write in rhyme, attempting the style of the much-loved Dr. Seuss, alleging to have received said rhyme in a letter from the Cat in the Hat demanding addition to the list. It feel far short, and they should have known - you don't mess with Dr. Seuss and you don't try to imitate.

I think I would really enjoy this book were it to be constructed by other authors, perhaps ones who were inclined to write more academically.

A great idea, an interesting book, but it still disappoints on several levels. Firstly, there are several characters I had never heard of; the book is written by Americans, I am British, and in years gone by quite a bit of American culture did not make it across the pond. It made me feel a tad left out- surely I should have heard of characters who are ranked in importance alongside the protagonists of Greek myths, Shakespearean plays and classic films from the last century!

I am undecided on the ranking process. Some of the choices seem a little bit odd, but then I like the quirkiness of some of the others. This book would be a good choice for the bathroom library- great to dip into, learn an interesting fact about someone from our culture, and then put it down again. It is not a scholarly work, and is to be taken lightheartedly.

The authors present the 101 fictional characters that have had the most influence on our society, behavior, and ultimately our history. They explain in detail their process of inclusion on and elimination from the list. They also readily acknowledge there is room for disagreement in not only who did or did not make the list, but in how the characters were ranked on the list. They also point out that they left many popular characters off the list, because popular does not always translate into influential.

The idea for this book sprang from another book - The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael Hart.

Near the beginning of the book, the authors have listed the entire 101 characters in rank order. Prior to reading the entire book, you might find yourself questioning some of the rankings just as I had. However, after I finished the book and understood the authors’ methodology and reasoning, I no longer disagreed with as many of the ranking decisions the authors made. Keep in mind that the authors tried to rank each character’s overall influence, not the influence a particular character had on the authors’ personal lives.

The book also includes an appendix, which is an alphabetical list of twenty “also-rans and near misses.” Throughout the book, in the category/chapter introductions, and the interludes the reasons why some characters were left off the list are discussed.

I really enjoyed the way the characters were broken up into 17 different categories, with a corresponding chapter for each category (i.e. movies, folk tales, propaganda, stereotypes, legends, etc.) The authors readily admit that many of the characters could have easily fit in more than one category, but I think a good case is made for the final category placement of each character.

Each category is preceded by an introduction. There are also five “interludes,” in which the character selection and writing process of the book is further elaborated.

I really enjoyed the humor the authors used throughout the book, some of which is very obvious and some is much more subtle.

Initially, I was disappointed that the characters were not discussed in rank order (101 to one), but after I got into the first chapter, I really enjoyed the way the characters were grouped into categories. This makes it easier to compare similarly influential characters.

I learned a lot from this book, including some things I was surprised I did not already know. (How on earth did I not know that Dashiell Hammett was a victim of the Hollywood blacklist?!) Connections between characters and the events they arose from and/or affected also became clearer to me.

While some readers may not draw the same conclusions on whether a given character’s influence was good or bad, I found myself sharing many of the same opinions as the authors. I was actually relieved in some cases to discover, “Hey! I’m not the only person who thinks this character send a good/bad message.” I’m talking to you Cinderella!

If you are a history nerd and/or trivia junkie like I am, I really believe you will enjoy this book.

A very neat idea, but by the end I was really wishing it had been written by someone other than this team of McSweeney's wannabes. The zany asides tried way too hard and the shorter snarky jokes were simply never clever. There were also fervent strident political asides that were just out of place and distracting, and that's even despite being views I agree with. Poor execution with a tin ear for context. All that said, there were some really interesting choices on the list and plenty of obscure background details. A few selections weren't actually influential, just favorites of the authors, and that was clear from their essays (they're really neat! and so popular!). But most made a lot of sense and could provoke good discussion. A particularly interesting tidbit for me was the fact that the original version of Bambi, written by an Austrian, was translated for the American market by Whittaker Chambers.

Good read, covers authors' opinions of the 101 most influential fictional characters. You won't agree with all of them, but you should enjoy.

This was such a neat concept and could have been done with such depth and intelligence. It's unfortunate that the authors were so flippant and politically biased. (To be fair, I don't think all the authors were--some of the individual essays were excellent.) I did give it three stars because it makes a really great bathroom book--short, cutesy essays, sort of like a Reader's Digest.

The idea of this book is fantastic. The excecution? Not so much. I was expecting a book by people who had researched how various characters had influenced Western society. With, you know, actual research and credentials and stuff. Not a couple guys sitting around trying to think up who they thought were the most influential fictional characters. I was extremely disappointed by this book.

Very entertaining, although it starts dragging towards the end.

When I got this book, I expected to find educated views about the historical/cultural significance of each of the "people" that never lived. Why and how would they consider these particular characters the most influential? Amazingly, this book doesn't even discuss the influence of the characters on society throughout history or why they have so much staying power in our hearts and imaginations. Instead, the authors provide boring summaries of what the characters "did," or how they were created and by whom. Then they proceed to give self-righteous and condescending opinions about whether the message(s) in the story or the actions of the character(s) are appropriate in today's times. Gee, I thought that's what readers/viewers were supposed to do for themselves!!

For example, we shouldn't read Cinderella to our little girls because it creates a sense of false hope that you don't have to do anything to solve your problems (fairy godmother), and that men will only want to marry you if you're beautiful. Perhaps that's true, but last time I read the story, Cinderella was hard-working, lived a difficult life without complaint, and did not resort to treating people badly even when that was the way she herself was being treated. The problem with these compilation-type books is that they can so easily oversimplify and fall into the trite.

Of course I was not expecting objectivity. The very nature of a book of this type is one person's biased viewpoint (or in this case two people). I did, however, expect a literary and cultural analysis, as well as perhaps some humor or interesting perspectives. NOT!

This book seemed to me like a brazen attempt for the authors to cash in on the success of books like the 1001 series. My advice: save your money on this one.½

The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived was written by three guys who apparently know each other somehow (I don't think they mentioned exactly how in the book). They got together and hashed out what they consider the 101 most influential characters from movies, television, mythology, folktales, and other sources. An interesting concept, for sure. Books like this are fun for me because I get to learn new things, which enriches my mind; and it's in a list format, which pleases my love of the methodical.

From the Marlboro Man (#1) to Paul Bunyan (#101), many characters have made an impact on our culture and our lives, whether you realize it or not. There were lots of tidbits I didn't know, such as:

Santa Claus is ranked as number one on the Forbes Fictional Fifteen list as the richest person in the U.S., having "infinite wealth."

The name of the NASA space shuttle Enterprise was inspired by Star Trek and its famous starship.

Possessing a copy of the novel Lady Chatterly's Lover in China was once punishable by a life sentence in prison.

Kermit the Frog was born in a swamp in Georgia.½

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