"If Charles Dickens were alive today, he might have made Gradgrind not a schoolmaster but an influencer. Perhaps he’d have a Substack"
Gradgrind's fellow teacher, Wackford Squeers from "Nicholas Nickelby", would be an even better influencer candidate. Dude was stone in love with himself and wasn't afraid of pimping his supposed "mad skills" as a teacher for money, and also not afraid of anyone who gave him sass.
Try Thomas Pynchon for a writer to match Dickens in the Name Game. My personal fave? With TP so many are minor characters in his novels and short stories and my own fave Name Game winner is country blues crooner Dewey Gland....
Competition is fierce and I may lean more towards the main character, Tyrone Slothrop and his family line given any particular mood or News of the World...
"While Pynchon's smackdown is devastating, I can't help but feel that he would have written a better one in later years. Actually it would be better if he had simply stopped at "that is another problem entirely". "Perhaps more psychiatric than literary" is clever, but at that point he's bludgeoning."
(Piling on is much of the fun of names a la 3 Stooges slapstick. As with names that are deployed by crafty and clever fiction spinners and weavers like TP. Witness the only film made from a TP written work: INHERENT VICE and the visualization of the character that Hollywood star Josh Brolin plays, bull-headed hard charging cop named named "Bigfoot Bjornsen": Josh Brolin ... Lt. Det. Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen
A close runner-up would be expert Film\Stage\TV actor, comedienne and mimic Maya Rudolph's similarly brilliant if understated role as TP's audaciously lovely yet spacey name: Maya Rudolph ... as if not embodying Petunia Leeway ).
"Pynchon’s Indicative Naming: Onomatomania? Onomatophobia? Or, None of the Above?
Charles Hollander
p. 17-41
Detailed outline
Full text
"In June 1953, when Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. graduated from Oyster Bay High School, the yearbook editor noted Pynchon had the largest vocabulary in the class. By age fifteen our boy-author was already a noticeable onomatophile, or, from the Greek, a lover of words. We don’t have any evidence, but based on his earliest available writing we don’t think he suffered from the medical definition of onomatomania; “an abnormal impulse to dwell upon certain words and their supposed significance.” Nor was there any mention anywhere in our reading that Pynchon might be an onomatophobe, or one suffering from an “abnormal dread of certain words or names.” Maybe he was just a kid interested in onomastics, “the study of forms and origins of proper names.” These medical-sounding definitions come from Stedman’s Medical Dictionary...."
"...In the less formal Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, onomatomania is merely “the preoccupation with words and names;” while onomatophobia is “the fear of hearing a certain word or name.” These descriptors may or may not wiggle themselves into the lexicon of words about Pynchon’s vocabulary and use of proper nouns. Since his earliest efforts, Pynchon has displayed a highly disciplined control over his choice of words, use of words, use of escalating or diminishing rhetorical registers, and rhetorical devices from the obvious hyperbole to the subtler enthymeme (a syllogism with one of the premises implicitly, or purposefully withheld for the reader to infer; for example, “All men must die: Socrates is a man; therefore. . .”) etc. All this started with his high-school newspaper “columns” (1952-53),1 and his collegiate short stories, especially “Entropy” (1960), and “The Secret Integration” (1964)."
Another part of Naming Game not mentioned here is the creativity of fiction writers in naming fictitious locales and places. There too, TP excels as in the Crying of Lot 49 his novella that bought him time to complete his hefty masterwork Gravity's Rainbow and his deft use in Lot 49 (itself like his novel Inherent Vice a found funny name of book or film by drawing on a term of art used either in Legal Profession or other specialized field) of So Cal locales and settings, or corporate names of going concerns especially the short stories he published back during his Cornell college years and just after his globetrotting stint in U.S. Navy (although not as cute as musical theater creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in such stage plays as IN THE HEIGHTS set in way uptown 'hood of Washington Heights NYC) : where the book writer of the musical play Quiara Alegría Hudes names or ponders the strange beyond ethnicity character named Usnavi. Spoiler alert by referencing Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Heights
It’s incredible. I wish I’d read Copperfield more recently. I actually read it in high school — so like 40- plus years ago. I did do a bit of googling to refresh my memory about a few characters. Tommy Traddles is the same. Most characters’ names and characteristics are subtly changed. Kingsolver did an amazing job. Move it up your list — I promise you won’t regret it.
I read a few classics last year and was struck how little progress has been made on issues of class and poverty over more than 100 years. I also read Demon Copperhead. It seems there has been a lot of emphasis on the opioids problem it described but I thought the early part of the book from the perspective of a poor kid in the foster child program was even more heartbreaking.
I bought and am reading Demon Copperhead because my people come from
Appalachian roots and Kingsolver mentioning the rise and fall of tobacco farming, and the connections to carpet bagging corporations and wealthy eating up the land, and using opioids way too prolifically for people low on medical choices, etc is so true. The abandonment of the people and the land by coal mining industry, the sad selection of jobs, etc is also tied in. The voice feels authentic and real. I know some people who are VERY similar to the characters she created. And she rounds them out so they aren’t stereotypes.
I didn't know that about Demon Copperhead. I'm going to check it out, as well as David Copperfield. Ah forget it, I'm adding all these books to my list 😅😅. It's been a few years since I read hard times, thanks for raising that book and it's theme.
I suggest viewing the movie “1900” directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. It was released two years after the best seller “Winning Through Intimidation“, and preceded Trump’s “The art of the Deal” by about ten years.
Man! Now i want to read Dickens today. + i had goosebumps, and tears in eye, reading u talking of our french god Hugo, moreover Les misérables, moreover JEAN VALJEAN. <3 Thanks, have a good and take great care of you.
"If Charles Dickens were alive today, he might have made Gradgrind not a schoolmaster but an influencer. Perhaps he’d have a Substack"
Gradgrind's fellow teacher, Wackford Squeers from "Nicholas Nickelby", would be an even better influencer candidate. Dude was stone in love with himself and wasn't afraid of pimping his supposed "mad skills" as a teacher for money, and also not afraid of anyone who gave him sass.
.
Nobody can come up with names like Dickens did! But yes.
Try Thomas Pynchon for a writer to match Dickens in the Name Game. My personal fave? With TP so many are minor characters in his novels and short stories and my own fave Name Game winner is country blues crooner Dewey Gland....
Competition is fierce and I may lean more towards the main character, Tyrone Slothrop and his family line given any particular mood or News of the World...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11061742
"What Kind of Name Is That? How to Name Fictional Characters (theparisreview.org)
82 points by samclemens on Feb 9, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 53 comments"
"
tlb on Feb 9, 2016 | prev | next [–]
'Absurdonym' is my favorite new word. It will come in handy when discussing startup names.
"cgh on Feb 9, 2016 | prev | next [–]
"Thomas Pynchon is a great inventor of names. From "The Crying of Lot 49" alone, we have:
Oedipa Maas
Wendell "Mucho" Maas
John Nefastis
Stanley Koteks
Mike Fallopian
...and so forth. Granted, the humour in "Lot 49" is a little more juvenile than, say, "Against the Day".
"dang on Feb 9, 2016 | parent | next [–]
"He is indeed a brilliant namer. I love Reverend Cherrycoke from Mason & Dixon. It's so perfectly 18th century a name.
But if we're talking about The Crying of Lot 49 let's not forget Genghis Cohen, subject of a public spat at the time!"
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/thomas_pynchon_punctures_...
"While Pynchon's smackdown is devastating, I can't help but feel that he would have written a better one in later years. Actually it would be better if he had simply stopped at "that is another problem entirely". "Perhaps more psychiatric than literary" is clever, but at that point he's bludgeoning."
(Piling on is much of the fun of names a la 3 Stooges slapstick. As with names that are deployed by crafty and clever fiction spinners and weavers like TP. Witness the only film made from a TP written work: INHERENT VICE and the visualization of the character that Hollywood star Josh Brolin plays, bull-headed hard charging cop named named "Bigfoot Bjornsen": Josh Brolin ... Lt. Det. Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1791528/fullcredits
A close runner-up would be expert Film\Stage\TV actor, comedienne and mimic Maya Rudolph's similarly brilliant if understated role as TP's audaciously lovely yet spacey name: Maya Rudolph ... as if not embodying Petunia Leeway ).
https://books.openedition.org/pulm/13933?lang=en
"Pynchon’s Indicative Naming: Onomatomania? Onomatophobia? Or, None of the Above?
Charles Hollander
p. 17-41
Detailed outline
Full text
"In June 1953, when Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. graduated from Oyster Bay High School, the yearbook editor noted Pynchon had the largest vocabulary in the class. By age fifteen our boy-author was already a noticeable onomatophile, or, from the Greek, a lover of words. We don’t have any evidence, but based on his earliest available writing we don’t think he suffered from the medical definition of onomatomania; “an abnormal impulse to dwell upon certain words and their supposed significance.” Nor was there any mention anywhere in our reading that Pynchon might be an onomatophobe, or one suffering from an “abnormal dread of certain words or names.” Maybe he was just a kid interested in onomastics, “the study of forms and origins of proper names.” These medical-sounding definitions come from Stedman’s Medical Dictionary...."
"...In the less formal Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, onomatomania is merely “the preoccupation with words and names;” while onomatophobia is “the fear of hearing a certain word or name.” These descriptors may or may not wiggle themselves into the lexicon of words about Pynchon’s vocabulary and use of proper nouns. Since his earliest efforts, Pynchon has displayed a highly disciplined control over his choice of words, use of words, use of escalating or diminishing rhetorical registers, and rhetorical devices from the obvious hyperbole to the subtler enthymeme (a syllogism with one of the premises implicitly, or purposefully withheld for the reader to infer; for example, “All men must die: Socrates is a man; therefore. . .”) etc. All this started with his high-school newspaper “columns” (1952-53),1 and his collegiate short stories, especially “Entropy” (1960), and “The Secret Integration” (1964)."
Another part of Naming Game not mentioned here is the creativity of fiction writers in naming fictitious locales and places. There too, TP excels as in the Crying of Lot 49 his novella that bought him time to complete his hefty masterwork Gravity's Rainbow and his deft use in Lot 49 (itself like his novel Inherent Vice a found funny name of book or film by drawing on a term of art used either in Legal Profession or other specialized field) of So Cal locales and settings, or corporate names of going concerns especially the short stories he published back during his Cornell college years and just after his globetrotting stint in U.S. Navy (although not as cute as musical theater creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in such stage plays as IN THE HEIGHTS set in way uptown 'hood of Washington Heights NYC) : where the book writer of the musical play Quiara Alegría Hudes names or ponders the strange beyond ethnicity character named Usnavi. Spoiler alert by referencing Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Heights
Anchors Aweigh or Anchors Away
Health and balance in this New Year
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
Dickens is a rich source of material for social justice.
He was so good at highlighting issues of injustice. I don't think anyone questions that he had a profound influence on Victorian society's reforms.
We could use another like him. Well, Barbara Kingsolver definitely did him proud. Have you read “Copperhead”?
Not yet. It’s on my list TBR.
It’s incredible. I wish I’d read Copperfield more recently. I actually read it in high school — so like 40- plus years ago. I did do a bit of googling to refresh my memory about a few characters. Tommy Traddles is the same. Most characters’ names and characteristics are subtly changed. Kingsolver did an amazing job. Move it up your list — I promise you won’t regret it.
I read a few classics last year and was struck how little progress has been made on issues of class and poverty over more than 100 years. I also read Demon Copperhead. It seems there has been a lot of emphasis on the opioids problem it described but I thought the early part of the book from the perspective of a poor kid in the foster child program was even more heartbreaking.
The whole thing was heartbreaking. Because even though it’s fictional… it’s also very true.
I bought and am reading Demon Copperhead because my people come from
Appalachian roots and Kingsolver mentioning the rise and fall of tobacco farming, and the connections to carpet bagging corporations and wealthy eating up the land, and using opioids way too prolifically for people low on medical choices, etc is so true. The abandonment of the people and the land by coal mining industry, the sad selection of jobs, etc is also tied in. The voice feels authentic and real. I know some people who are VERY similar to the characters she created. And she rounds them out so they aren’t stereotypes.
She lives there and knows the people well. I’m not from Appalachia, but I do come from a poor rural area and everything rings true.
I didn't know that about Demon Copperhead. I'm going to check it out, as well as David Copperfield. Ah forget it, I'm adding all these books to my list 😅😅. It's been a few years since I read hard times, thanks for raising that book and it's theme.
"Bootstrapping!" omg, it all becomes clear . . .
Are you referring to my book blurb?!? I hope so! Yes, it was a lightbulb moment for me, too.
Yes -- it made me realized I hadn't really considered that phrase---the irony of it. Thanks for posting this and for writing the book!
Thank you, and you’re welcome!
I suggest viewing the movie “1900” directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. It was released two years after the best seller “Winning Through Intimidation“, and preceded Trump’s “The art of the Deal” by about ten years.
I looked it up and it sounds very interesting, but I don't have access to that.
i can download it for you, i'm a g33k + piratebayDOTparty rocks :D
Wonderful post…I wrote about Mr. Dickens today. Hope you enjoy it..https://johnnogowski.substack.com/p/did-dickens-recognize-his-breakthrough
Man! Now i want to read Dickens today. + i had goosebumps, and tears in eye, reading u talking of our french god Hugo, moreover Les misérables, moreover JEAN VALJEAN. <3 Thanks, have a good and take great care of you.
It’s always a good time to read Dickens and Hugo!