One of the most important ingredients of fiction is its characters. Think
of any memorable book, play or movie and you'll recall its people--from
protagonist (and deuteragonist and tritagonist and ...) to antagonist are
folks one can feel, relate to, though not necessarily always agree with.
These are the people with depths, they are not cardboard characters or
people who live a 2D life, to use the publishing jargon. These multifaceted
people come alive on the pages of a book, on the stage of a theater, or on
the screen of a movie theater with all their foibles, follies and victories.
Perhaps the ultimate sign of their character is that they live on on the
pages of dictionaries. This week's AWAD focuses on a few of these fictional
persons who came alive and added a bit more color to our language.