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?

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I’ve read Chapter 8. I tried starting it lots of times and lots of different ways (as the Buffybot would say). Now it sits at the end of the bookshelf waiting for retirement or when the kids leave home.

The Chinese thing sounds a good idea. Names change their associations so fast. Who’d have thought 20 years ago that Kevin and Kylie would become so middle class and common?