If you could have a conversation with any fictional character who would it be?

@Navaneeta: Oft have I wondered what is it about Pip’s story that is so extraordinary and irresistably fascinating…that it managed to etch itself so prominently in my memory that I cannot help stepping into his world every now and then.

I guess my reasons to continue being in love with Great Expectations, as the story I hold dearest of all I have read through my own humble journey as a reader, have varied from one slice of time to the other.

Roots of it all, mayhap, lie in the time and my own personal circumstances at the time when I first read it. Pip’s pains and gains somehow felt more comforting to my own imagination, not posing a lethal challenge to its pulmonary capabilities, instead, rather, nourishing it with such a well-rounded, grounded story of his life.

Wow! You really had me thinking there. I have never had much of a cause or the occasion to explain it before.

In my years since I read it first, I have had many a great and most memorable conversations with several Pips across the board – with li’l Pip in the churchyard (that “small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry”), at the Gargerys’ (living under constant threat of Mrs. Gargey’s wrath and her Tickler), at Miss Havisham’s (having received that cold reception from her ward and not any better from Miss Havisham herself); young Pip making his way into the world; with grown up Pip coming to terms with his life…even with an aged Pip, after it all, a concoction of my imagination’s refusal to let the story end where it ended – and, to my best self-analysis, what I really connected with was his very believable vulnerability set against the cold world not with the least warmth or inclination to comfort. He doesn’t to bad for himself, but, still, one cannot help seeing mortality of one’s own Great Expectations in his story.

I know this is not the most satisfactory explanation (nor a complete one I’m afraid), but it’s all I can word at the moment. 🙂

🙂 I have ignored him for length of time often for my share of others, but I keep bumping into him here and there. He has featured more consistently in my imagination than any other character, even though some have done a decent job of catching up. The longivity and frequency of his occurences make him my most memorable…not to mention the fact that I have always found that I could reflect in him more clearly than in any others.