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

[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.