Influential People Who Never Lived

"The figments of our imaginations, the creatures we push out of our minds into the real world are fully capable of pushing back with surprising consequences."

I love the above quote from author Jeremy Salter in a Reuters story about his co-authored book The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived. I love this quote too, from Allan Lazar, another of the three book authors:

"The idea came to us that influential characters didn't have to exist, that fictional characters were just as important in our lives, even in maybe some cases more so than real people."

Who's on this list of most influential people who never lived? According to the BBC, the Top 10 are:

1 The Marlboro Man
2 Big Brother
3 King Arthur
4 Santa Claus
5 Hamlet
6 Dr Frankenstein's Monster
7 Siegfried
8 Sherlock Holmes
9 Romeo and Juliet
10 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The reviews on Amazon for this book look good. I'll have to check it out. And I'll have to put some thought into what fictional characters I've found most influential.

Any thoughts?

Kyle? What about the Flu Fairy?