Tolkien

[gfish]

I've had a theory about Tolkien and geeks brewing for some time. I think it all comes down to names. Every proper noun in Tolkien all has at least two different names, sometimes three or four. This is commonly sited as a problem for people new to the universe. My theory is that geeks are naturally more inclined to take this in stride, because most of us have several aliases ourselves. I'm down to only two these days, but in high school I was regularly called by four completely different names. Five if you count the LARP persona. Strider, Aragorn, Elessar and Estel are all the same person? Sure, okay. No problem.

Comments

[talamh-sidhe.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting thought, Jude. ;) I never made the connection between my many names and Tolkien, though. *ponders* I'm still known by a few of the old names, but I swear I'll hit the guy that started calling me Kiki (and still does, to this day)....

-George (aka.. aka.. aka...)
(just out of curiosity, what was the other name? curse my horrible memory!)

[gfish.livejournal.com]

My handle on the Spokane boards was Speaker For The Dead. It has been a very long time since anyone has called me Speaker, though.

[talamh-sidhe.livejournal.com]

ah yes, forgot that one. I think I've got a copy of the Declaration of Ignorance lying around here somewhere.... :) you'll always be Jude to me.

hey jude...

[missraederle.livejournal.com]

... man were those the days lol :) days of what, now thats a ponderable question.
'Paul'

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

An interesting theory, but I'm not sure I buy it. One thing you can say about geeks is that we're detail-oriented. Tolkien hallucinated an entire universe in rococo detail, which is catnip to the geek mind. I once read a short story by him, "Leaf by Niggle", about a main who paints leaves in exquisite detail but can't seem to paint a whole tree. I think he was writing about himself. One Of Us.

[gement.livejournal.com]

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

[shadowblue.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty much dead-on, at least to me. Things to put into combinations and relationships. Little things that fit together, and big things that fit together, and all sorts of crazy complexity.

Unfortunately I think I have less patience for that sort of thing, now, too. But I'm probably faster at it -- it just isn't a precisely inverse relationship, so the overall amount of Stuff has gone down.

Maybe I should work on that.

Actually, I think now that I learn much more towards 'real life' complexities. Global politics and crap like that. I should be a spy.

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

I must be an atypical geek...I've never been known by aliases. Even now, although I have an lj handle, no-one refers to me by that name except on lj itself.

My response to the "If you call me..." meme notwithstanding, I've always pretty much been just Blake to virtually everyone.

It may have something to do with having had what was always a fairly unusual name to begin with (although that's becoming less true about my name -- a development I don't much like). There's pretty much always just one Blake in any environment I'm in, so the need for alternative monikers hasn't arisen.

[rowtree.livejournal.com]

Same with me. Any other names tend to be just variations on my real name, like Rowie, Row, ...actually, I think that is about it. Hmm.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I never had nicknames and such as a child. I was always Mike, and I have been a Tolkien fan since the age of five. I wanted nicknames, but no one ever went along with it. Now that I don't really care, I am sometimes called DOOM! It pleases me.