Kevin???
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Kevin???
is it just me or does kevin's name seem a bit outta place?? every1 else has some pretty cool fantasy-type name, and then you have kevin... that's always struck me as being weird, and its my only real complaint with TCTC. ok, so its not a big thing, but i thought i'd comment on it...
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Now that you mention it Kevin does sound a bit strange. It reminds me of "Tim the Enchanter" from Holy Grail. I suppose we should all giggle when we hear "Kevin the Landwaster" in the midst of so many high sounding and exotic fantasy names.
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I have 2 thoughts on this, not necessarily consistent with each other.
First, the very "real-worldishness" of Kevin's name seems to me consistent with Donaldson's other naming practices: all over the mythos there's a sort of patchwork of exotic/invented names right beside co-opted real-world names. Even some of the most exotic words, e.g. metheglin, turn out to be earthly words from different languages. Donaldson is something of a lexical magpie (I mean this affectionately; as a child I drove my elders bonkers by making up new meanings for common words, and it takes one lexical magpie to know another one).
Second, perhaps Kevin's very common name underscores him as an Everyman figure. Not even "There but for the grace of the Creator or whomever go I," but "Every Tom, Dick, and Harry of this fallible race has the risk of Desecration inside him."
First, the very "real-worldishness" of Kevin's name seems to me consistent with Donaldson's other naming practices: all over the mythos there's a sort of patchwork of exotic/invented names right beside co-opted real-world names. Even some of the most exotic words, e.g. metheglin, turn out to be earthly words from different languages. Donaldson is something of a lexical magpie (I mean this affectionately; as a child I drove my elders bonkers by making up new meanings for common words, and it takes one lexical magpie to know another one).
Second, perhaps Kevin's very common name underscores him as an Everyman figure. Not even "There but for the grace of the Creator or whomever go I," but "Every Tom, Dick, and Harry of this fallible race has the risk of Desecration inside him."
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That seemed very odd to me for a significant chunk of Lord Foul's Bane, but it seemed to fit with the way SRD names... eg Lord Foul, Revelstone... As I've mentioned before, they are quite simple names, often descriptive too.
I seem to recall reading that SRD named Kevin after a real person though, a specific Kevin.
I seem to recall reading that SRD named Kevin after a real person though, a specific Kevin.
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What about Lord Trevor? That always struck me as much wierder for some reason.
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I was about to mention that. I'd say Kevin and Trevor seem about as out of place as each other. I think I found it strangest when I first came across the names. It was hard not to imagine Lord Trevor as my friend with a pierced eyebrow and the Union Jack dyed into his hair.
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I never really noticed lord trevor, i have to admit, just cause he had a fairly small role in comparison to the others. Lena, Elena and Hyrim are names I've never heard in our world, i obviously lead a sheltered life, lol. and i would really hate to be the kevin that kevin was based upon, although the implications are quite interesting, like what sort of thing could someone have done in our world to have a character like the desecrator based upon?
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Put someone, or many someones, in a position where the most objectively disloyal choice they could make was the choice of being loyal to one's expressed wishes? There are various ways of doing that in RL...krycek wrote:what sort of thing could someone have done in our world to have a character like the desecrator based upon?
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Hyram is a Jewish name. Fairly common.
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