Thursday, May 22, 2008

Is Theodor Herzl the New Severus Snape?*




Look at that spooky, surly, maladjusted man.  An enormously significant historical figure whose private life, as I am not at all surprised to learn, was completely ravaged: an apparent mother-fixation and a failed marriage which produced three children and one grandchild, all of whom went mad and/or killed themselves.  But those hooded eyes, that beard.  He's just dead sexy, is what he is.

J.K. Rowling said "girls, stop going for the bad guy.  Go for a nice man in the first place."   This in response to fans professing their love for Snape and Draco Malfoy...what's a "nice man," anyway? And if he did exist, who could stand him and his intolerably cheerful and optimistic ways? 

There are problems with the bad boy beyond the obvious, however.  I've been fond of a number of them (and I mean in real life, not just in my overactive Potions-addled imagination).  And I can tell you that, to my chagrin, once you get to know them, you find most often that they're quite childish, and in the end, what could be less appealing than a petulant bad boy? Now when you meet that rare delight, one who's also mature and serious, well, that could be a fatal attraction...

So now that I've made the acquaintance of Mr. Herzl, which will be the object of my false affections? Two bad boys: one, a dead fictional character, the other a dead historical figure.  Both intense, brooding, and apparently morally conflicted (my favorite attribute), serious, and single-minded (always a challenge). Hmmm...


*...or, When a Post a Day Becomes Untenable...

4 comments:

kylie said...

no way is a post a day untenable....youre doing great and theres only 9 days left...10 over there? i should look at the date on the post but that would be logical.....did i tell you i'm blonde on the inside?
x

muralimanohar said...

I'm totally failing at post a day...I'll be happy to make it out of the month with a few more posts under the belt. :p

And I married a bad boy...who turned out to be a good boy...which did absolutely nothing for my predilection for bad boys. :p

INNER VOICES said...

hmmmm... bad boys, theres bad and there is just bad... does that make sense. "ooohhh hes a bad boy, look at his hair/car/attitude/whatever" is generally not a bad boy, just an idiot. true bad boys are good boys who know how to be "bad"... fun post!

Leah said...

Hey, IV--yeah, good boys who know how to be bad! That's so right--and I know for a fact you know whereof you speak, you bad good boy you (ditto my own Sarge).

Muralimanohar--I can't help it, I've always loved 'em. Sgt. Pepper has a good bit of "good bad" that I really appreciate more and more as I exit my extended girlhood...

Kylie--I love it! I'm blonde inside too!!!! And you're right, I can make it another 10 days...no matter how unbearably weird and/or dull the posts get, by golly I'm posting 'em!!!

xoxo