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

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Oh that’s beautiful. Thanks! And Stephen Dedalus, did they name the grandson for the grandfather that way?

[ann1962]

James' son Georgio's reason's for this aren't spelled out clearly. According to Wikipedia, Stephen Daedalus was James Joyce's early pen name. St. Stephen was also the first Christian martyr something that would have attracted James. Stephen's Green being the place where James and friends hung out in college. This name kept coming back to Joyce in his life.

I am not certain why Georgio named his son Stephen other than to be noticed by his father. I think an attempt to become the son he always wanted to be, to be noticed by his father. His marriage to Stephen's mother caused much consternation in the family. She was older and a friend of Nora's. The friendship ended and was repaired after the birth of Stephen. Georgio was considered a gigolo by many for his lack of ambition. Joyce never raised his children to consider a career or a life other than Joyce's own. I think the naming of the grandson was an attempt to connect. And Stephen grew up to be very very protective of his grandfather's name and work.