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A friend asked me, “Who is your favourite character in a book, Jim?
“Oh dear, that’s like choosing which child is your favourite. But let me see, there is Bruno in Striped Pyjamas, and Aslan in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, There is Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and there is Joe in Great Expectations…”
“Your favourite, Jim?”
“Okay, Prince Myshkin.”
“Prince who?”
“Prince Myshkin. Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.”
“Why him?”
“He was too good for this world.”
*****
All my life I’ve been captivated by stories that highlight kind characters. Perhaps because they have qualities that I aspire to but have failed many times. This is why I like this word Tattimbet in the language of Kazakhstan. It embodies not just being a nice human but being a source of comfort to others. I grasp onto the word because we have no equivalent word in English that has that depth. Go back and consider the books I mentioned; all the protagonists embodied this quality. We could add many more: Beth in Little Women. Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings, Miss Honey in Matilda, Jean Valjean from Les Misérables, Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and who couldn’t forget Ann Shirley in Anne of Green Gables.
Don’t you think it strange that if we are in a universe that is aimless, we are drawn to kindness? Kindness, love and self-sacrifice have no place in an evolutionary world, but contrary to majority opinion, The ark of the universe bends towards goodness.
So, tell me your books that capture the spirit of Tattimbe?