Voldemort! (A post on names)
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Not many good 'lords' in fiction these days, huh?
I’ve talked before about using Voldemort as a tongue-in-cheek stand-in for my old name, and how hearing my old name has an effect on me. Well, this past week it came up a few times, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how to handle it.
First, while teaching my high school class, they were coming up with improvised stories. I always love watching kids do this, particularly more advanced classes, because the things they come up with are inevitably ridiculous but often very engaging and enjoyable to watch. On this past Saturday, someone must have had my old name on their mind because it was used in two stories for the main character’s name.
I, of course, immediately began questioning myself: was one of the kids making fun of me? How would they even know? What were they giggling about? How self-conscious did I need to be? If I said something along the lines of, “Wow, that names popular today,” would they know why I said it?
Themocracy