Names and Stuff

[hazelk]

Re-watching the Firefly episode Jaynestown and thinking about the thematic similarities between it and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance it suddenly strikes me that J-ayne is a contraction of J-(ohn W)-ayne. As well as being almost as girly a name as Marion.

Other names. Inara/Inanna, the goddess of love who descends to the underworld. Pretty literal. Book, now a man of the book but with hints of a previous non-biblical allegiance. Mal means bad as River points out but what kind of a hippy name is River from parents who called their first-born Simon? Parental name choices may often seem crazy but there’s method in their madness. This is like Dermot and Moon Unit.

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay…

The only chapter of Finnegan’s Wake I’ve ever felt I understood was the eighth with Anna Livia Plurabelle, the Riverness of Allwoman, being gossiped over by two washerwomen on the banks of the Liffey. Kitty Pryde – Willow – Fred. It seems Whedon’s Allwoman is a crazy teenage girl with superpowers and a genius IQ. For and in herself perhaps, River is well named.

Comments

[elisi]

You've read 'Finnegan's Wake'? I am beyond impressed! And I always assumed that 'River' was somehow linked to the whole Chinese thing - it's probably a very normal name in China?

[ann1962]

OMG, I was going to quote that line this morning. Joyce was playing name games here too. He put his grandson's name in this first line.

riverrun, pa[st Eve an]d Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay…

Stephen was his grandson's name. Some researcher in the 60's noticed this and it is a lovely tribute to both his wife as Eve, and his grandson!

I haven't started reading this yet. Still thinking about it.

[fishsanwitt]

I didn't know *any* of this! Thanks :)

[executrix.livejournal.com]

It's personal fanon, but I convinced myself that in fact River is officially named Rebecca; Grandma called her Rivkele and Little!Simon heard that as River and it stuck.

But I'm also convinced that Simon and River are twins who were thawed out at different times, a la Podkayne of Mars.

[yourlibrarian]

Clever you -- that never occured to me, but I'm sure you're right!