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HelpRe: Wednesday
in reply to a message by Ludwig
Steve is a jerk's name. Everyone knows Stan is where it's at. I even like Wednesday, in theory, though not as much as Sunday through Tuesday.
I'm kind of baffled by this guy, to be honest. How big could the Addams Family be in anyone's life? It was a one-panel comic and a campy, 30-minute TV show. That's like saying Pez dispensers made you who you are or that Mickey Mouse shaped your character. Really? It's like he's either shallow or wants you to think he is.
Anyway, all of his girl name options, with their pop culture and celebrity references, look like deliberate attempts to get attention and provoke strong reactions. It's funny how knowing someone's naming rational can make you wonder about other parts of his life. I wonder if he's honest, professionally, when he claims he doesn't want to force his audience to feel anything. I imagine he wants them to feel impressed.
I'm strangely irritated with this fellow I don't know and will never meet. Maybe he would be a good Steve.
eta: I re-read this, and I was pretty harsh, particularly since you openly admire him, and he's a stranger to me. I apologize, and I'm sure he's full of Stan-ish qualities.
I'm kind of baffled by this guy, to be honest. How big could the Addams Family be in anyone's life? It was a one-panel comic and a campy, 30-minute TV show. That's like saying Pez dispensers made you who you are or that Mickey Mouse shaped your character. Really? It's like he's either shallow or wants you to think he is.
Anyway, all of his girl name options, with their pop culture and celebrity references, look like deliberate attempts to get attention and provoke strong reactions. It's funny how knowing someone's naming rational can make you wonder about other parts of his life. I wonder if he's honest, professionally, when he claims he doesn't want to force his audience to feel anything. I imagine he wants them to feel impressed.
I'm strangely irritated with this fellow I don't know and will never meet. Maybe he would be a good Steve.
eta: I re-read this, and I was pretty harsh, particularly since you openly admire him, and he's a stranger to me. I apologize, and I'm sure he's full of Stan-ish qualities.
This message was edited 2/15/2012, 8:00 AM
Archived Thread - replies disabled
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Replies
hah. It's okay! I don't really think it would bother him what some strangers on the internet would think of him based on his name choices.
Still, I might have portrayed him a little unfairly... His wife is also a professor, and I was in her class when someone asked her about her daughter's name. When she said "after the Addams family character," I was like, oh come on, BS, you just wanted an edgy name. But, since I like both of them a whole lot, I considered that an unfair judgment. I've been taking one-on-one lessons from her husband this semester so we've had lots of actual conversations. It turns out the Addams family actually was a big part of his life! He says when he came home from school his family was never there and he'd watch them on TV. "Campy TV show" it may be, but it was one of the first instances of a group of ab-normal people he was exposed to and it formed some kind of kernel in his head. He's said several times that Wednesday was like the little sister he always wanted but never had.
I feel like I would be similarly justified in naming a kid Jack after Jack Skellington. It's a hip little name but Nightmare Before Christmas was actually and truly a huge part of my life. I don't have the same orientation towards pop culture as my prof, though. For him it's like an escape, and "honoring" pop culture is much more important to him than honoring family, which he describes as mostly arbitrary. Friendship and taste are more important to him. I don't agree but I think I "get" it and I don't see it as phony at all.
Anyway, he is self-consciously Not Normal, which... I mean, I think it's fine. No worse than being self-consciously normal, and definitely more interesting. He dresses kind of weird, and people snicker about it. I don't think he would be bothered by people thinking he's a poser or attention-seeking or whatever. He's pretty calm and unflappable. I just think he feels particularly bored/oppressed by Normalcy and -- perhaps unfairly -- used his daughter's name as a tool of escapism. His music is somewhat of a different question...
Still, I might have portrayed him a little unfairly... His wife is also a professor, and I was in her class when someone asked her about her daughter's name. When she said "after the Addams family character," I was like, oh come on, BS, you just wanted an edgy name. But, since I like both of them a whole lot, I considered that an unfair judgment. I've been taking one-on-one lessons from her husband this semester so we've had lots of actual conversations. It turns out the Addams family actually was a big part of his life! He says when he came home from school his family was never there and he'd watch them on TV. "Campy TV show" it may be, but it was one of the first instances of a group of ab-normal people he was exposed to and it formed some kind of kernel in his head. He's said several times that Wednesday was like the little sister he always wanted but never had.
I feel like I would be similarly justified in naming a kid Jack after Jack Skellington. It's a hip little name but Nightmare Before Christmas was actually and truly a huge part of my life. I don't have the same orientation towards pop culture as my prof, though. For him it's like an escape, and "honoring" pop culture is much more important to him than honoring family, which he describes as mostly arbitrary. Friendship and taste are more important to him. I don't agree but I think I "get" it and I don't see it as phony at all.
Anyway, he is self-consciously Not Normal, which... I mean, I think it's fine. No worse than being self-consciously normal, and definitely more interesting. He dresses kind of weird, and people snicker about it. I don't think he would be bothered by people thinking he's a poser or attention-seeking or whatever. He's pretty calm and unflappable. I just think he feels particularly bored/oppressed by Normalcy and -- perhaps unfairly -- used his daughter's name as a tool of escapism. His music is somewhat of a different question...
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I'm kinda surprised at how personally threatened some people are by descriptions of your professor! I totally believe that a TV show could be a huge part of someone's life and be full of meaning for them. Why not? Why the hell not. Stuff like that can have enormous symbolism to people. Some of my favourite names are from a children's picture book about dinosaurs for chrissakes, but because they are "more serious" names (less creative I think - I actually disliked them for years) than Wednesday and Lyra, I would come across as a more mature or less attention-whoring for using them? That's BS because anyone who knows me knows that I also crave and admire escapism and find normalcy to be like a form of cowardice and I WISH I had the courage to be a proper attention whore.
DON'T WORRY STAN I UNDERSTAND YOU
DON'T WORRY STAN I UNDERSTAND YOU
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It's a leap from feeling irritated to feeling threatened unless you think I'm worried I might roll my eyes so hard they'll fall out of my head.
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lol! I just think making statements about what kind of person someone is based on their personal aesthetic choices is evidence that something about them makes the critical person feel insecure, that's all. That's why they find it irritating, as opposed to not caring at all.
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understand
heh heh heh
No yeah, it would be more fun, right? Being a proper attention whore. I think you and my prof would probs get along.
heh heh heh
No yeah, it would be more fun, right? Being a proper attention whore. I think you and my prof would probs get along.
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