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!)

[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.

[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.

[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.