I'm very interested in the connection between names and identity. Why, for example, did I choose “LRNs” as my screen name? Why is my sister's blog name “Cat's?” And then there's my college roommate who named himself “nothingknew.” Each name has a history or a reason. Nothingknew seems simple. It connects with his blog name “There Is Nothing New Under The Sun: and I Aim To Prove It.”
Names have power:
The Hebrews do not say the name of God. The characters in the fantasy books “EarthSea” have two names: their name and their true name. If you know someone's true name, you have power over them. Perhaps that's why a number of bloggers and online people don't use their real name.
Masks create a new identity:
Online I am known as LRNs and as Beroth. In some ways those names are like masks enabling me to be someone else. Bruce Wayne took on the persona of the Batman. This enabled him to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies and to protect his real life from his enemies.
Who is LRNs? The history of a name.
If you're still with me, great! I would have tuned out by now. The story of LRNs is actually kind of interesting. It all started with a really long movie: Lawrence of Arabia. My best friend (and sometimes girlfriend) in high school took me to a reshowing once. I was hooked from that moment on. The idea of not fitting in, but suddenly being transformed into a “hero” connected with me. probably connected with a lot of 16 year old boys (who actually sat through the movie.) The character has survived with me to this day by becoming one of my signature D&D characters and eventually LRNs, my simple screen name.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the bonus post from the man with insomnia.
1 comment:
I see that you changed the design a little. Looks good. I am preferential to 3-column design but I haven't taken the time to set it up on either of my blogs....although the for-profit one would do much better if I had two columns on the sides for ads.
Anyway, names, just to let you know...I don't consider my handle (how's that for old school?) to be nothingKnew. I just needed a wordpress account name that no one else had (and that I could get a gmail account for). I really wanted nothingNew but freaking blogspot and worpress.com already had that name taken by defunct bloggers.
My online persona that I don't associate with my real name, nor my blog name, is the same as it has been since the BBS days in HS. I won't discuss it here since that would be associating it with my blog name. But suffice to say, I meant it as an homage to a favorite comic book character and these days it is seen as an indication that I participate in a DSM-IV defined act of self-hate. Oh well...I still like it.
I always find it interesting to see how people choose their online names. Mostly it is off the cuff...and the feeling I am getting is that these days kids aren't holding onto them as long as we all did. Although I don't know how they build up reputation then....perhaps it isn't as important to them that they do. Reputation was everything online when I started.
Thanks for the shout out.
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