Meme: The Literary "I Spy" Meme

[athelind]

The Literary "I Spy" Meme

Comment on this post. I will give you a letter. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ.

snobahr gave me "U".

1. Ulysses. Or "Odysseus", if you prefer (I do). Smart and savvy, he prevailed by and large by outwitting his adversaries rather than out-muscling them. Julian Jaynes considered him the first truly conscious man.
   
2. Undine, the water nymph of Paracelsus. Not one of the Sirens against whom Ulysses strove.
   
3. Urizen, William Blake's "Ancient of Days", the God of Conventional Reason and Law embodied as as Malicious Constraint. While Ulysses is Reason as the Trickster, side-stepping the expectations of his adversaries, Urizen is the Binder, creating the stifling Order to crush the free spirits of the world.
   
4. Uriah Heep, from Dickens's David Copperfield. Uses his reason and his insincerity to blackmail and exploit his way into power. Lent his name to an English Prog-Metal band.
   
5. Ultra Boy: Jo Nah, of the Legion of Superheroes. He has all of Superboy's powers, but can only use one of them at a time. Lent his name to a game mechanic in Champions that gives a character similar restrictions. Ulysses connection? Got his powers after being swallowed by a sea space monster.