Using Surnames as Forenames

Getting to know you…

Harry Winston: Been meaning to ask why do you go by Oliver when your first name’s William?
William Oliver: Well. In southern Georgia, it’s not uncommon. Folks often use their middle or last names. A way of feeling closer, more familiar.
Harry Winston: Interesting. In England, especially at boarding school, everyone was called by their surname. Even your closest friend was “Hawthorne” or “Bennett.” First names were practically reserved for your mum or your cat.
William Oliver: Your cat?
Harry Winston: You wouldn’t call a cat “Mr. Tibbles” every time you fed him. You’d say “Tibs” or “you little menace.” Names soften with affection.
William Oliver: That’s true. My grandma had a cat named “General Lee,” but she just called him “Gen.” Unless he knocked over the vase, then it was something else.
Harry Winston: Exactly. So when you say Oliver, it’s about intimacy?
William Oliver: Right. It’s like saying, “This is who I am to my people.” William’s on the paperwork, but Oliver’s who I am in conversation, in community.
Harry Winston: Fascinating. For us, surnames were a kind of equalizer. Everyone was “Winston” or “Thompson,” regardless of status. It was oddly democratic. Not everywhere.
William Oliver: Same in the South. Some folks go by nicknames, some by initials. I’ve got a cousin named James Earl who goes by “Bubba.” No one’s quite sure why.
Harry Winston: Ah, nicknames. The great equalizer. I had a friend named “Badger.” Never knew his real name until his wedding.
William Oliver: That’s the charm of it, isn’t it? Names aren’t just labels, they’re stories. They tell you where someone’s from, how they want to be seen.
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Voice-over
Names as equalizers, as a social identity to include acquaintances. And surname use is a kind of back-take on that.

White Rabbit becomes Snoopy

If the goggles fit,
you can fly a Sopwith Camel.

Being a White Rabbit sometimes gets a little routine.

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Entering an alternative persona can help.

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WHITE RABBIT WHITE RABBIT WHITE RABBIT

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“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” 

Albert Einstein.

...

White Rabbit Identity

March Hare: About once a month, always on the first day, I get this funny feeling.

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Counsellor: Yes…

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March Hare: I feel like I’m turning into a… a…

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Counsellor: Go on…

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March Hare: A white rabbit.

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Counsellor: Hmm.

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March Hare: And then I go, "WHITE RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT.”

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Counsellor: Saying it sometimes makes it so.

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Why Dazai?

Shizuko finds out that Osamu is reading No Longer Human, Dazai’s last work.

...

Shizuko: Dazai? Why Dazai?

Osamu: Everyone’s reading him.

Shizuko: For what? He was so negative. All he talked about was dying. He’s dead.

Osamu: I can relate to his ideas. When he writes something like “The cold half pint of milk I drank each morning was the only thing that gave me a certain peculiar sense of the joy in life.” Dark, yes, but funny too.

Shizuko: Are you sure you’re not just identifying with him because you live only a hundred meters from where he drowned?

Osamu: Geography’s a factor, mm. But mainly I feel my life has no depth, no direction.

 

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Voice-over

Young people identifying with Dazai Osamu? That one so driven to self-destruction could write so clearly and powerfully. And influence a generation fifty years later.

Have Japanese young people lost their sense of mission?  Where has their sense of purpose in life gone? Can a limping economy and rising unemployment cripple the national identity?

Ironical that the Tamagawa Josui is scarcely a foot deep much of the time.

...

Identity and media

Mary is a little worried about Alexander’s presentation at next month's conference.
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Mary: You’re going to talk about what?

Alexander: Identity.

Mary: But it’s a media conference. Bit off-topic, wouldn’t you think? What’s identity got to do with media?

Alexander: Well, some people who are not normally aggressive, get quite insulting when they’re emailing or texting someone they don’t know, never met before. Others make up multiple identities, and seem to gain confidence. Media changes the concept of identity.

Mary: Hmm.

Alexander: And it might lead to a book. Even a documentary film. “Talk. We can all do it better.”

Mary: Use media and find a new you?

Alexander: I think you are making fun of the idea.

Mary (peels into peals of laughter): Oh, no. Oh no. Alexander, never.
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Voiceover

Topics for discussion at conferences often cover a broad range of subjects. Perspectives from scholars in slightly removed fields of study can throw light in dark corners. Putting it another way, burrow too deeply into a subject, and you can end up not being able to see the wood for the trees.

But Mary, who writes a popular geek blog, doesn’t quite appreciate Alexander’s poetic approach.
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Corrugated iron gumboot

Entering Taihape, Enid is struck by a gumboot.

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Enid: Is that a...?
Nobby: A gumboot, yes. What else could it be?
Enid: It's made of ...?
Nobby: Corrugated iron.
Enid: It's a symbol!
Nobby: Dead right. It's Taihape's identity. Everything is made of corrugated iron and everyone gets around in gumboots.
Enid: Don't they, well, care?
Nobby: About how they look? The impression they make? They're proud of it. Rome has its Collosseum, Sydney has its opera house, and Taihape, well, Taihape has its corrugated iron gumboot.

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Voiceover

Cultural identity may arise from historical events, people, activities, or artifacts. Taihape, in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand, doesn’t have such a long history, being established in 1894, and a current population of about 2000 people. Despite being a pretty country town set in picturesque scenery, the name "Taihape" has connotations of being the archetypal remote, rural New Zealand community. Some citizens decided not to react defensively to such attitudes, rather in fact to glorify its identity which is now enshrined in gumboot “sculptures” and an annual “Gumboot Day” being held since 1985 on the first Tuesday after Easter.

Gumboots as identity? The chorus of Fred Dagg’s Gumboot song still reverberates in my head from the 1970s:

“If it weren't for your gumboots, where would ya be?

You'd be in the hospital or infirmary

'coz you would have a dose of the 'flu, or even pleurisy

If ya didn't have yer feet in yer gumboots.”

...

WYSIWYG

Charlie, who wants an identity, declares he is going public to his friend Venezia, who prefers to remain anonymous.

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Venezia: I can’t understand why. The internet’s a dangerous place. You put your real name up there on your blog and someone might steal it.

Charlie: If I were younger than 50, and had a career at stake, that might deter me. The way I see it, is if you feel confident about yourself, you go ahead and tell the world. This is who I am.

Venezia: I am who I am?

Charlie: Exactly. What you see is what you get. The young don’t want to be older than they are. And old people, mostly, they don’t go around stealing identities. And anyway, people are tiring of avatars and getting more interested in real people.

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Voiceover

Identity is an issue which constantly arises throughout life. Where did I come from? Who am I now? What will I be in the future?

In real life, and in cyberlife (cyber life? cyber-life? CyberLife?) a single person (or a double person?) can have multiple identities. Charlie finds that too complicated. He prefers a single persona.

Yet in real life (real-life? RealLife?) this may be an illusion that we can exist so simply. We exist in relation to other people. Child to parent. Parent to child. Friend to friend. Employee to boss. SportsPerson to competitor.

Who we are speaking to and which identity we inhabit determines what we say and how we speak.

…