Thursday, April 04, 2013

The 10 greatest personality tests in sci-fi & fantasy

At io9 Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders came up with the ten greatest personality tests in science fiction and fantasy.

One entry on the list:
Harry Potter

The Sorting Hat is a talking, walking (okay, not really), personality test. Every year, the Sorting Hat sings a song which breaks down the four possible results first years can get. First years put the hat on, and it basically looks at your whole personality and picks out characteristics it thinks are important to decide where and with whom students will live for seven years. It essentially shakes out as bravery gets Gryffindor, loyal gets Hufflepuff, intelligent get Ravenclaw, and ambition gets Slytherin. Thanks for the singing, judgmental hat, Godric Gryffindor. If you sign up for Pottermore, you can take an actual personality test that will place you in a house.
Read about another entry on the list.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone also appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best owls in literature, ten of the best scars in fiction and ten of the best motorbikes in literature, and Charlie Higson's top 10 list of fantasy books for children, Justin Scroggie's top ten list of books with secret signs as well as Charlie Jane Anders and Michael Ann Dobbs's list of well-known and beloved science fiction and fantasy novels that publishers didn't want to touch. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire made John Mullan's list of ten best graveyard scenes in fiction.

The Harry Potter books made Cressida Cowell's list of ten notable mythical creatures and Alison Flood's list of the top 10 most frequently stolen books.

Dolores Umbridge is among Emerald Fennell's top ten villainesses in literature and Derek Landy's top 10 villains in children's books. The Burrow is one of Elizabeth Wilhide's nine most memorable manors in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue