Fact of the day

Surely you can talk about fictional/mythical characters in the present tense? When I comment on a character in a book or movie I don't use past? (I.e.: "Luke Skywalker is AWESOME!")

Where's Oliver?

It's not quite such a neat division, as there are fictional/mythical characters who both existed but were written about in fictionalised accounts. This is very tricky, for instance, in the case of the 'historical' and the 'literary' Socrates.