I've been thinking about this on and off since the movies started coming out; catnip's an excellent summary. Specifically, it's catnip to the developing geek mind. Input. Need input. Need things to put together in as many combinations and complex relationships as possible.
I was much better at that in fourth grade, and had a lot more deadly patience for it, than I do now. I probably couldn't make myself get through Tolkein for the first time at this point in my life. Fourth grade was long before I started my copious online alias collection. There may be a correlation, however. It may just go the other direction. Would geeks be as comfortable with eight nuanced aliases if Tolkein hadn't modeled the behavior for us?
Birth name/Mimble/Gement/Mana/ferretgirl/Pip/Robin/RPG names ad nauseum
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I was much better at that in fourth grade, and had a lot more deadly patience for it, than I do now. I probably couldn't make myself get through Tolkein for the first time at this point in my life. Fourth grade was long before I started my copious online alias collection. There may be a correlation, however. It may just go the other direction. Would geeks be as comfortable with eight nuanced aliases if Tolkein hadn't modeled the behavior for us?
Birth name/Mimble/Gement/Mana/ferretgirl/Pip/Robin/RPG names ad nauseum