One of my biggest flaws is my ability to quickly I can fall in love with something or someone, and I know I'm not the only one that struggles with this problem. I could fall in love with anything.
From a painting I've met in person, or a dog named Cody who I had a brief encounter with on a hike while in Boulder, Colorado (He was such a good boy). There is always something new that has a hold on my heart, and fictional characters aren't excluded. Especially when they're characters from a new book I've just bought.
You know the feeling. You snuggle up in a small sofa, look at the cover of your new book, read the summary over and over again to get you ready, and then you dive into a whole new world. You become a part of the text as much as it becomes a part of you. You go from chapter to chapter to get to know the characters of the story as well as if you had known them all your life.
The most recent character I've fallen in love with is Basilton (Baz) Grimm-Pitch from Rainbow Rowell's "Carry On." Baz is a villain. He is a vampire. He is a pain in the ass, sarcastic, unbearable, loving piece of trash (and I say that in the most loving way possible) that I have had the pleasure to meet. He's a gay vampire wizard who is in love with someone that he thinks he has zero chance with (his enemy).
If this isn't a form of conflict that at least one of us has not faced then I don't know what to say to you, other than you're probably lying. Even reading the first chapter where he appears, I feel like I am him. You would understand why I love him so much if you read the book. When he first appears, he basically makes a "grand entrance" to the eating hall and everyone is looking at him wondering where the heck he's been.
But it's not just him. Baz is one of many characters that I have met and although I know I love them I will always be faced with the simple fact that they will never get the chance to meet me (us), or love me (us) the way that I (we) love them.
These characters are written so beautifully -- Harry Potter, Basilton Grimm-Pitch, Jude and Noah - that we can't even imagine a world without them, yet we live in a world without them. They exist simply because a book of words is arranged in such a perfect way that they gave birth to some of our best friends. And the only solace that I have is knowing that they could never leave me. They will always be waiting there behind the pages that were crafted by a master.
I like to believe that these people that we have only met because of our ability to read would love us just as much as we love them. We can relate to these characters because although they are kindhearted, they also have flaws. They are insecure and are able to feel jealousy, hate, regret, and disappointment. We see ourselves in their kindness, in their jealousy, in their regret.
However, when we see that they can overcome their downfalls or realize the mistakes they have made we see that we can do the same. The best thing about loving fictional characters is that, although they aren't as real as we want them to be, they are real enough to inspire us and motivate us into becoming better human beings. We can better ourselves to make our best fictional character friends proud. Someone that is worthy of being their friend.
Like Baz says to his lover at the end of the story, "Carry on, Simon." We too can carry on in our daily lives to become the person that we have always wanted to be.
