# BHM in literature



## anybodys (Feb 19, 2008)

I have just started reading James Joyce's Ulysses and am quite fascinated by the character of "stately, plump" and deliciously offensive Buck Mulligan. Who's everybody's favorite literary BHM?


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## babette (Feb 19, 2008)

i remember reading some preeteen book when i was about eleven. it was about a boy trying to loose wieght. i remember reading how his bell got rounded after he overate himself. he was in love with a girl who suffered leukemia. at the end she beats illness, and tells him that is ok he is fat because fat people are nicer and happier. 


i don't have a favourite bhm in serious literature, i don't pay too much attention to descriptions of body figure


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## Ninja Glutton (Feb 19, 2008)

Piggy from Lord of the Flies... even though his head got smashed by a boulder lol


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## marquise (Feb 20, 2008)

anybodys said:


> I have just started reading James Joyce's Ulysses and am quite fascinated by the character of "stately, plump" and deliciously offensive Buck Mulligan. Who's everybody's favorite literary BHM?



Funny you should mention this; when I first read Ulysses I also developed quite a little crush on Mulligan and his blasphemous fantasism. A delicious character, though in reality an ex-friend of Joyce's (or Stephan's!) Dublin days he wished to defame. I recall a well-filled primrose waistcoat, with fondness. :wubu:

I'm always interested in finding new (or old) BHMs in fiction whose weight is shown as an asset, or simply general trait, rather than detriment to their characters--not only in literature (though, as a writer, this is paramount), but culturally. Gary Shteyngart's recent novel _Absurdistan_, which I was not to impressed with; nevertheless features Misha, a narrating 370 lb. oligarchic Russian exile who drifts wittily about escaping mobsters, gorging himself (!), chasing women and finding love with a sexy Bronx mami; getting, incidentally, lots of action. A fair amount goes into describing his pretty immense physicality. :eat2: There was a fat detective, I believe, in Michael Chabon's _Yiddish Policeman's Union_; but I read it months ago. There's always Rabelais's _Gargantua and Pantagruel_, with its glorification of size and appetites, & hmmm... Tolstoy; I remember _War & Peace_'s Pierre being described as rather fat, and the _bon vivant_ philanderer Stepan Arkadyevitch in _Anna Karenina_ as well-upholstered; unfortunately I just moved to another apartment and all my books are boxed! So, no way of searching further tonight. 

In my own working novel, one of two narrators is a significantly fat man--being one aspect of him, at least-- though you'll have to wait a year or so to read it. 
If I'm good on deadlines.


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## buscando (Feb 20, 2008)

Why can I only think about the spunky Wilbur in Charlotte's Web? For a children's book he was written as a pretty fleshed out character that had a lot of heart. If nothing else an anthropomorphic and fat protagonist we all rooted for.

At the same time, my twisted sense of humor now is giving me a sudden hankering for some bacon...:eat2:


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## Nerdzilla (Feb 20, 2008)

Last BHM I read in literature was the Soldier Son Trilogy where Nevarre grows extremely fat and is disgraced in human society but adored in Speck society (they have special "feeders" who care for their Great Ones).

Worth a read if you like fantasy novels.


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## butch (Feb 24, 2008)

Oh man, there are lots of BHMs in lit, how could we forget Falstaff, Sancho Panza, Nero Wole, Igantius J. Reilly, for starters?

In Junot Diaz's recent novel, The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Mr. Wao himself, the protagonist, is fat.

I think if you check out the main board, you can find an old, but longish, thread on fat characters/themes in literature. There are others I could name, but I don't want to go overboard .


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## marquise (Feb 25, 2008)

Yep, Sir John (Falstaff!) is pretty much the ultimate Fat Man of lit.


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## Fatgator (Feb 25, 2008)

babette said:


> i remember reading some preeteen book when i was about eleven. it was about a boy trying to loose wieght. i remember reading how his bell got rounded after he overate himself. he was in love with a girl who suffered leukemia. at the end she beats illness, and tells him that is ok he is fat because fat people are nicer and happier.
> 
> 
> i don't have a favourite bhm in serious literature, i don't pay too much attention to descriptions of body figure



Is the book your thinking of called "Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes"? It sounds like it, I actually read that one too. Good story.

Also, has anyone read a book called "One Fat Summer"? It's one of my favorite books. I've only read it once but I enjoy it. It's basically about this fat kid who gets ridiculed all summer, even when he tries to get a job in the beginning of the summer, he mows some guys lawn who makes comments about his weight. There are some cruel, vivid scenes that show some guys with their girls making fun of him (including a scene they leave him nude on some small island near them). It sounds a bit harsh I guess, but I loved the authors detailed description of how fat he is and how the others around him felt about him. I recommend it.


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## stefanie (Feb 25, 2008)

On Valentine's Day I put this on my own website:

I finally got ahold of a copy of Helen Dunsmore's _Love of Fat Men_. It was a bit disappointing because it wasn't really about fat men at all. Instead, it followed the non-synchronous meanderings of a young Finnish woman, Ulli; her life history, etc. I'm old fashioned, I suppose, in expecting a novel's title to actually reflect its contents.

However, there was this lovely small passage,

_... She likes fat men ... fleshy men with no deceptive hollows. Men with thick, springy flesh which makes space for her, folds her away, eases her bones. Men who are so heavy on top of her that her breath is crushed to the top of her lungs. Men whose flesh she can wallow in, playing and swimming ...

Fat men asleep give out heat like furnaces all night. And often they wheeze a little, so that whatever time you wake, however sick and singing your head feels, you know you have company. All night the mattress gives way under their weight and you roll against the elastic warmth of their sides. You know you cannot roll off and away into space. Whatever the bed advertisements say, Ulli knows that there is nothing as sleep-giving as the shoulder and breast of a fat man ..._

(end cross-posting here.)

I have read the first two books of Robin Hobb's _Soldier Son_ trilogy, and am waiting for the third, not so much because I was enthralled by it (I wasn't), but because I'm insanely curious to see if she resolves the story by making Nevare lose weight as a result of his magical abilities. (Whenever Nevare does some serious magic, he slims down a bit.) 

Nevare in SST is absolutely delicious, but since the story is told in first person, and because he has enough self-loathing to fuel an army of weight-loss programs, it's pretty dreary. Even when he gets laid, he doesn't seem to have that much fun. I think a lot of erotic potential in the writing was lost because the author has him repeating ad nauseum, "I'm fat! I'm getting fatter! O NOEZ TEH FATZ!!!1!" etc.


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## Tad (Feb 25, 2008)

stefanie said:


> I have read the first two books of Robin Hobb's _Soldier Son_ trilogy, and am waiting for the third, not so much because I was enthralled by it (I wasn't), but because I'm insanely curious to see if she resolves the story by making Nevare lose weight as a result of his magical abilities. (Whenever Nevare does some serious magic, he slims down a bit.)
> 
> Nevare in SST is absolutely delicious, but since the story is told in first person, and because he has enough self-loathing to fuel an army of weight-loss programs, it's pretty dreary. Even when he gets laid, he doesn't seem to have that much fun. I think a lot of erotic potential in the writing was lost because the author has him repeating ad nauseum, "I'm fat! I'm getting fatter! O NOEZ TEH FATZ!!!1!" etc.



I'll have to read those.

Have you read Lois McMaster Bujold's "Myles" books? Besides being brilliant there is some interesting fat stuff in there. They are disguised as military science-fiction, but are actually some of the best character studies I've ever read, as far as watching people discover themselves. I avoided them for years because I'm not a fan of military science fiction, but once I gave them a chance I loved them, so don't be put off by the trappings. 

In the latter books in the series there are some real FA type sub-themes, and one major secondary character (who gets first person character time) who ends up fat.....well, I won't say more just now, but it is pretty interesting (and honestly, made me realize a number of things about myself). You might want to read the early books for background and because they are good, but these themes start showing up in "Mirror Dance." (Oh, and there are both male and female FA-ness, never really overt, but it is there).

Her fantasy novels have not so far had FA related bits to them, but in their own way they are all about breaking taboos.


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## Isla620 (Mar 15, 2010)

I've just finished reading "Me and the Fat Man" by Julie Myerson. It has lots of titillating description of the passionate affair between the narrator and a BHM (if you can get past the tragic, heart-rending plot twists). There's one fantastic passage where the narrator's estranged husband spitefully mentions that he's been seeing someone thinner than her, and when she responds by announcing she's leaving him "for a much fatter man," the look on his face is priceless.

All that, and the cover photo is a topless BHM in boxer shorts. :eat2:


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## NYC_FFA (Mar 16, 2010)

Fatgator said:


> Is the book your thinking of called "Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes"? It sounds like it, I actually read that one too. Good story.
> 
> Also, has anyone read a book called "One Fat Summer"? It's one of my favorite books. I've only read it once but I enjoy it. It's basically about this fat kid who gets ridiculed all summer, even when he tries to get a job in the beginning of the summer, he mows some guys lawn who makes comments about his weight. There are some cruel, vivid scenes that show some guys with their girls making fun of him (including a scene they leave him nude on some small island near them). It sounds a bit harsh I guess, but I loved the authors detailed description of how fat he is and how the others around him felt about him. I recommend it.



I own "One Fat Summer," and I'm working on a screenplay adaptation. Hopefully if it turns out well, I can try to get the rights to get it produced.


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## xxeell (Mar 16, 2010)

There's also a book called "The Fat Boy Chronicles" it's about a highschool student who is obese and has to deal with the hassels of his everyday high school life. I haven't read it yet but I want to.


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## Buffetbelly (Mar 24, 2010)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0803221835/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

This book reviews and comments on a number of BHM's in literature and mythology.


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## Qit el-Remel (Mar 29, 2010)

Fatgator said:


> Is the book your thinking of called "Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes"? It sounds like it, I actually read that one too. Good story.


That's not _Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes_.

Warning!

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

!

You have been warned.

Jody wasn't a leukemia survivor. She'd been impregnated by a very preachy, religious boy who'd hypocritically coerced her into having an abortion. And although she and Eric ended up dating, she was never explicitly identified as a FFA.

And as for the _Soldier Son_ series? From what I've heard, it's not worth compromising my integrity by reading a Robin Hobb novel. I don't want to contribute to her income.


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## RVGleason (Mar 29, 2010)

marquise said:


> Yep, Sir John (Falstaff!) is pretty much the ultimate Fat Man of lit.



There's also Sir Toby Belch from 'Twelfth Night', modeled after Falstaff. I'll be playing Sir Toby in a production of 'Twelfth Night' in NYC this coming summer. If folks in the area are interested in seeing it, let me know. 

RV :eat1:


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## NYC_FFA (Mar 30, 2010)

RVGleason said:


> There's also Sir Toby Belch from 'Twelfth Night', modeled after Falstaff. I'll be playing Sir Toby in a production of 'Twelfth Night' in NYC this coming summer. If folks in the area are interested in seeing it, let me know.
> 
> RV :eat1:



I'm interested! When and where?


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## RVGleason (Mar 30, 2010)

NYC_FFA said:


> I'm interested! When and where?



It'll be at the 89th Street Community Garden between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenue in NYC, dates are late July into August on the weekends. As the dates get closer I'll post more information on the show.


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## Serpentyna (Apr 5, 2010)

babette said:


> i remember reading some preeteen book when i was about eleven. it was about a boy trying to loose wieght. i remember reading how his bell got rounded after he overate himself. he was in love with a girl who suffered leukemia. at the end she beats illness, and tells him that is ok he is fat because fat people are nicer and happier.




i think ive read that! did he end up cutting his neighbor's lawn or something like that...:-/ maybe its not the same one... haha idk it just sounded familiar


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## NYC_FFA (Apr 6, 2010)

Serpentyna said:


> i think ive read that! did he end up cutting his neighbor's lawn or something like that...:-/ maybe its not the same one... haha idk it just sounded familiar



I think you're thinking of "One Fat Summer." In the book, Robert mows Dr. Kahn's lawn.


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## Qit el-Remel (Apr 6, 2010)

Baltazar Casaubon, one of Mary Gentle's recurring characters. Tall, fat, big-framed, redheaded nerd who's also strong as hell—_hawt_. (Well, aside from being rather arrogant, rather oblivious, and something of a slob, anyway.)


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## Zowie (Apr 6, 2010)

Eehhh, not literature, but I don't know if anyone read recent Amazing Spiderman.
Alecsei and Oksana. He's the former Rhino, and he totally falls for this little woman, who loves him right back. It's pretty great.


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## ogie (Apr 6, 2010)

bionic_eggplant said:


> Eehhh, not literature, but I don't know if anyone read recent Amazing Spiderman.
> Alecsei and Oksana. He's the former Rhino, and he totally falls for this little woman, who loves him right back. It's pretty great.



wait wait wait.... so you like big guys and comics? :smitten:


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## FishCharming (Apr 6, 2010)

ogie said:


> wait wait wait.... so you like big guys and comics? :smitten:



i totally saw her first!!!!


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## Zowie (Apr 6, 2010)

I tend to drift more towards artsy-weirdo graphic novels, but yeah  I work in a newsstand and we get all the DC/Marvels weekly, and I read those when I get a chance.


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## ogie (Apr 7, 2010)

bionic_eggplant said:


> I tend to drift more towards artsy-weirdo graphic novels, but yeah  I work in a newsstand and we get all the DC/Marvels weekly, and I read those when I get a chance.



that's cool as long as you aren't talking about the weird hentai tentacle porn ones lol.


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## Zowie (Apr 7, 2010)

ogie said:


> that's cool as long as you aren't talking about the weird hentai tentacle porn ones lol.



Nope, I gotta look those up on the 'net.


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## ogie (Apr 7, 2010)

bionic_eggplant said:


> Nope, I gotta look those up on the 'net.



well played, well played indeed. soooo BHM's in comics..well marvel at least i never really read any DC.

the blob
kingpin
puck(alpha flight)
dum dum dugan
Demolition Man
rhino
juggernaut 
beast
Strong Guy
Volstagg .. from Thor
Doctor Octopus 
The thing


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## Zowie (Apr 7, 2010)

ogie said:


> well played, well played indeed. soooo BHM's in comics..well marvel at least i never really read any DC.
> 
> the blob
> kingpin
> ...



Haha, I came up with 9 of those, not bad for a girl  It also depends on who is drawing the comics, for example Doc Oc looks chubby in some versions but fit in others.
And am I the only one who was dissapointed at the version of the Blob in the recent Wolverine movie? >.< Seriously, they could have done better.


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## Hozay J Garseeya (Apr 7, 2010)

ogie said:


> well played, well played indeed. soooo BHM's in comics..well marvel at least i never really read any DC.
> 
> the blob
> kingpin
> ...


When was dum dum dugan fat?


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## FishCharming (Apr 8, 2010)

bionic_eggplant said:


> I tend to drift more towards artsy-weirdo graphic novels, but yeah  I work in a newsstand and we get all the DC/Marvels weekly, and I read those when I get a chance.



oo, oo, like which ones?

my faves, in order:

Fables
The Walking Dead
Transmetropolitan
Lucifer
The Sandman
Y: The Last Man
The Boys
Preacher
Top 10
and a whole crapload more...


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## LovesBigMen (Apr 8, 2010)

I believe the only book that I can remember having a BHM in it was a book called I think Happy Buddah not sure but around there it was little but I liked it.


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## Zowie (Apr 8, 2010)

Fish: I know Fable and the Sandman loosely from sitting around bookstores, but I usually get chased off for not buying anything. One of my all time favourites would be Love and Rockets by Jaime Hernandez. I'm currently (finally) finishing up Watchmen, I really enjoy Spiderman and whatever old-school X-men I can find. There's also a whole bunch of French and Belgian comics that I love.
But as I said, I rarely buy and shopkeepers don't like me standing around for too long. So, minimal knowledge.


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## FishCharming (Apr 8, 2010)

bionic_eggplant said:


> Fish: I know Fable and the Sandman loosely from sitting around bookstores, but I usually get chased off for not buying anything. One of my all time favourites would be Love and Rockets by Jaime Hernandez. I'm currently (finally) finishing up Watchmen, I really enjoy Spiderman and whatever old-school X-men I can find. There's also a whole bunch of French and Belgian comics that I love.
> But as I said, I rarely buy and shopkeepers don't like me standing around for too long. So, minimal knowledge.



Fables is soooooooooo good, totally worth heading to a barnes and nobles and camping out (you have those in the great white north, right?). and yeah, they are definitely pricey. books have always been a passion of mine and i've blown many a paycheck on collecting the ones i thought great (only to lose them). If you like the superhero stuff i'd recommend Top 10 or Powers or pretty much anything by J Michael Strazynski. or Planetary!!! (Warren Ellis is a comic god, just don't ever talk to him if you get the chance, it'll totally ruin it for you)

haha, see? passion at work and there i go...


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## ogie (Apr 8, 2010)

Hozay J Garseeya said:


> When was dum dum dugan fat?









then, again you have to go with who was drawing the books. Some drew him jacked up and others portly like above.


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