Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ruth Leonard


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   no consensus.  MBisanz  talk 22:17, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Ruth Leonard

 * ( [ delete] ) – (View AfD) (View log)

Article about a character in John Updike's Rabbit, Run. It has a merge tag on it since June 2008 and all the info (which there is not much of) is already in the main article. It is not to be expected that the article will be expanded in the future. Ruth Leonard is certainly not notable outside the context of the book. Gunnar Hendrich (talk) 23:14, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Speedily redirect. We can't delete an article after it's been merged, so this AFD is procedurally invalid. Pburka (talk) 00:15, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment: The article has not actually been merged. It is rather a content fork, since a version of Rabbit, Run created before Ruth Leonard had exactly the same to say about her. But I guess a redirect would be okay. Gunnar Hendrich (talk) 01:47, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment: I don't see a rationale for the notability of Ruth Leonard, especially because of the lack of references in the article and the absence of articles for the series' other principal characters. I don't see much worth in making Ruth Leonard a notable article, either, since anything that can be said about her could be said in the Rabbit, Run et al. articles. Grunge6910 (talk) 02:02, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Delete or redirect per basically every policy and guideline on fiction. – sgeureka t•c 15:46, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
 * keep. There is currently no policy or guideline on fiction, except that the overall coverage of a fictional work in wikipedia should include more than the plot. The article is only a stub, but there is no reason to delete it. We do not delete stubs, and that's the relevant policy. A major character in a major fiction will be discussed in the criticism. His recent death should bring some more attention here, and the importance of his works can be expected to grow. An    That the other characters don't have articles is one of the classic irrelevant arguments. Of course they should, but we have to start somewhere.  I find it disturbing that after the almost-agreement of guidelines was disrupted, people now start claiming that we have them, and that they are what they would have liked them to be. There was no agreement precisely because the discussion was not turning out as some of the more extreme people wanted it to be. DGG (talk) 02:16, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment while there may be no policy on fiction, it is difficult to see how this article could develop without becoming a (possibly Ruth-centred) synopsis of the novel she appears in. There is information here that is not currently in Rabbit, Run but not much, maybe a couple of sentences. There is a merge discussion underway and I think that is the way to go. pablo hablo. 22:43, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
 * apparently this is your personal view for the article, but I do not see why it should inhibit anyone else from developing the article in whatever way the sources prove to indicate. The discussion of the motivation and relationships of characters is one of the basic methods of literary analysis,and to call it all plot is perhaps a little reductionist. DGG (talk) 07:46, 1 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Whose view should it be? I don't want to 'inhibit' anyone from editing the article (or Rabbit, Run, or any other article) in any way they see fit. pablo hablo. 09:21, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Keep This is a pivotal character in an important work by a major author. I realise that this looks like a whole lot of inherited notability, but the article as it is is a valid literature stub; if expanded, it will improve. If not, it provides information and links to relevant pages for the reader's further investigation. pablo hablo. 19:37, 2 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.