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The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History
Unavailable
The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History
Unavailable
The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History
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The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

From Santa Claus to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from Uncle Sam to Uncle Tom, here is a compelling, eye-opening, and endlessly entertaining compendium of fictional trendsetters and world-shakers who have helped shape our culture and our lives. The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived offers fascinating histories of our most beloved, hated, feared, and revered invented icons and the indelible marks they made on civilization, including:

# 28: Rosie the Riveter, the buff, blue-collar factory worker who helped jump-start the Women's Liberation movement

# 7: Siegfried, the legendary warrior-hero of Teutonic nationalism responsible for propelling Germany into two world wars

# 80: Icarus, the headstrong high-flyer who inspired the Wright brothers and humankind's dreams of defying gravity . . . while demonstrating the pressing need for flight insurance

# 58: Saint Valentine, the hapless, de-canonized loser who lost his heart and head at about the same time

# 43: Barbie, the bodacious plastic babe who became a role model for millions of little girls, setting an impossible standard for beauty and style

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateOct 13, 2009
ISBN9780061738135
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The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History
Author

Allan Lazar

Allan Lazar is a graduate of Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia and did post graduate work at the University of Chicago where he was also a member of the faculty. He has also served on the faculty of Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons as well as Fairleigh Dickinson University Dental School.

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Rating: 3.1769910867256637 out of 5 stars
3/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The 101 list is good but the book needed more elaboration and analysis of the influence of such characters on the society
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Terribly good book; it was very educational.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    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.?)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    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.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Review: 101 Most Influential People Who Never LivedOn 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 RemusI 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
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I thought this might be an interesting read, if it went into why and how these 'most influential people who never lived' have impacted us, but it turned out to be quite disappointing. The list is interesting in itself, but the essays on each character/story explain only who the character is and where they came from, rather than how (and even how much) they've influenced modern society. There's some interesting titbits, but it wasn't what I hoped it would be.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    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.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    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.