Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Why I need to learn some German...

Originally I had titled this post "Top 10 Literary Mean Girls" and as soon as I typed that title I got the song "Rich Girl" by Hall and Oats stuck in my head, with "bitch" replacing "rich". Of course I only know the opening lines of that song so super, that's gonna be in there all day. This week's Broke and the Bookish Top Ten Tuesday topic is mean girls in literature, those snotty girls you just want to punch. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble coming up with...well really any characters other than the ones below. I can think of characters I didn't like but they don't quite fit the snotty, nice-to-your face, back handedness this topic really calls for.  I thought I'd expand the meaning to refer to anyone with a backfeifengesicht, which (according to Cracked anyway) is German for "a face badly in need of a fist" and if I could even begin to pronounce that I would use it every day.  Even that hasn't really helped me come up with more characters. So why am I even bothering to post? I really like that word backfeifengesicht and wanted to make sure more people know it.

Here are the only 2 I could honestly come up with that fit either definition. I've hated other characters or thought they were evil villains and whatnot, but they've never elicited the reaction this topic calls for.

Caroline Bingley from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - She is perfect for this list. The little remarks, the backhanded compliments, fawning over Darcy while pretending to care about Jane. As soon as I heard the topic I came up with her instantly and thought the rest of the list would be just as easy. Oh how wrong I was.

Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling - She's really borderline for this list and only because she pretends to be nice at times, with her smiles and those weird kitten decorations and all the pink does she get considered. She makes it because every time she did that little cough I wanted someone, anyone to smack her. Or hand her a cough drop or something.

That is all I've got. I hope you guys were more successful in this list. Now I'm going to go Google a pronunciation guide for backfeifengesicht.