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Word to my Namesake Ok, I'm not going to completely out my legal name on here, but I do want to discuss the books. Its pretty easy to figure out, if you have the mind for it, but if not the generic references will have to suffice. I recently finished reading the six books that were the basis of my legal name. I have no idea why my dad chose the character he did to name me after. I'll admit she's beautiful, a nudist, and with some lovely traditional values, but for most of the series she's a set piece. She doesn't have much action, and even less character development. Like most damsels in distress, she's constantly being kidnapped by someone, taken by someone else, imprisoned, etc. for her hero to rescue her. Her hero, who has the awesome nothing name of John Carter, is a Virgina military man whose Earth muscles make him nearly invincible on Mars. His narration is great throughout the story, and he does stay in his masculine character very well, but the lack of a dynamic female character, especially the one I'm named after is saddening. There is one upshot though. My daughter in the last two novels does have some personality. She mostly serves as a plot device, like her mother, but there are times when you can see an independent spirit about her. Why I wasn't named after her, I'll never know, but I do dislike the fact that I'm named after a very feminine and undeveloped character in the series. It is nice that she is a princess of an important region on Mars, but the lack of character development just made me rather sad. The books themselves are good reads, however. They're action SF, your basic page turner with lots of Bug Eyed Monsters and fighting scenes, so they're both easy and entertaining to read. I read most of them at work, so they're also easy to pick up and put down, if needed. The plots and variety of the Martian people are interesting, though the characters tend to fall into very masculine or feminine stereotypes. That's rather annoying, but you must consider these were written around the turn of the century, so its not modern SF by any means. I would recommend them, however, as engaging reading without a lot of depth. As for other names, I will admit the sad list of choices my family came up with. I was named by my father, who got most of the say in the process. There is a family tradition on his side of naming the first born with some literary character's name. His was based on Pooh, my great grandmother's and her aunts on the Little Women novel. Me, he decided to use SF for a guide. My alter ego, whose book made her out to be daring and adventerous, would've been Podkayne of Mars, but her nickname was Poddy, which he thought was too close to potty. (Why he didn't forsee the nickname everyone gives me now is beyond me!) If I was a boy, I was slated to be named Mars Kadar (some other SF hero), William Arthur (as my last name starts with an R and that would spell WAR), or Agamemnon (Yay Homer!). My mother claims she prayed I was a girl. Her choice for my name, which was a concession to Dad as it was based on Nancy Drew, was Nancy Ann, but I don't think that would've worked out at all. So, I got the name I have and it works for me, so far. I will add one tidbit here before I go. The books my name is based off are slated to become a movie to be released in 2007. After reading all of them, I can see why. They lend themselves well to either an action movie adaptation or a good video game with lots of killing. The problem here is everyone, minus the black folks who have weird misspellings of names similiar to mine, will start naming their kids with my (until now) totally unique name. I won't mind people actually being able to pronounce it, for once, but having gone through the shit of having an SF name for so long, I'm going to hate hearing it on everyone's lips. I also have a feeling that I'll start screaming "I was ----- before it was cool!" Guess you can call me indie SF princess. Sidenote: They appear to be shooting the movie without going through the proper estate's channels. Usually this means the movie will be nothing like the book. Hopefully, this will not be the case. There's a lot of material to work with, but not a lot needs editing. I just hope they don't ruin it. After realizing how many pulp books are slated to become movies over the next year or so, I'm disgusted with the studio system. They can't seem to find any new ideas for movies, so they either rely on doing sequels or using pre fabricated ideas from previously written fiction. I wish this wasn't the case because I'm tired of seeing my best books ruined. Screenwriters, please stick to the screen and stop doing these fucked up adaptations. Thank you. Vas is all for today. Daphne |