The Dresden Files > DF Reference Collection
The importance of Names.
Serack:
--- Quote from: Atunis on June 06, 2012, 10:55:57 AM ---Billy and Georgia cam from Ally McBeal, which Shannon watched a lot of while Jim was writing.
*looking for the WOJ now*
*I completely failed at finding the right WOJ. Help someone? Anyone? Help?*
--- End quote ---
Yah, that's right although I am having trouble finding it too. Jim didn't even realize it conciously at the time. I think it was years later when Shanon was watching reruns that he realized it.
The forum search engine is giving me a response full of nothing (what I call it when I get 25 hits without the actual search term in them). I thought it might be in the atlanta signing, but it isn't in the transcripts.
Maybe it was in one of the 2 audio interviews he did late last year. It was a rather recent WoJ
Second Aristh:
--- Quote from: Serack on June 06, 2012, 11:36:15 AM ---Yah, that's right although I am having trouble finding it too. Jim didn't even realize it conciously at the time. I think it was years later when Shanon was watching reruns that he realized it.
The forum search engine is giving me a response full of nothing (what I call it when I get 25 hits without the actual search term in them). I thought it might be in the atlanta signing, but it isn't in the transcripts.
Maybe it was in one of the 2 audio interviews he did late last year. It was a rather recent WoJ
--- End quote ---
I don't know about the audio interviews, but the WoJ is typed out explicitly here
http://www.orbitbooks.net/2011/04/26/something-borrowed/
ImpishMortal:
Yeah, it was definitely the intro blurb he included before "Something Borrowed" in Side Jobs. :)
Serack:
Ahh yes. Yaknow, I have been wanting to record each of those blerbs into the WoJ section. I've tried to work a request up the ladder for permission from Jim to write them down vertabatum but the closest I have got is the Admin staff saying "He's buisy, but it should be no problem"
The next time I do some WoJ work I will probably start a new topic quoting those intro's plus the intro to WTTJ, which also has some interesting tidbits.
It's frustrating when such a tantilizing WoJ escapes my being able to easily reference it because I don't have it in the WoJ section. I knew I had read it rather recently (I read most of Side Jobs earlier this year), and hadn't really been familiar with it before.
Thessaly:
--> Updated to here <--
Some nice work so far. I seemingly lost the bulk of some of my extrapolations (mostly in regards to the swords and their bearers) somewhere along the way and I'm rebuilding it from memory and researching information I did the first time around. Not to mention this little endeavour will let me savour re-reading the books in anticipation of Cold Days that much more.
--- Quote from: dimpwnc on June 06, 2012, 08:58:30 AM ---Here are the requested citations:
Example of "real mccoy" usage:
[Harry]:"Valmont duped the third party into taking a decoy. Then she grabbed the real McCoy and ran." (Ch. 14, Death Masks.)
I'm not sure what citations you want here; it's probably TMI, but it was fun skimming Morte. Feel free to pull out whatever you want, or leave it all here if it's too much speculative detail.
--- End quote ---
That's excellent. In the case of DF-specific information, as this is a spoiler zone, I'm not worried about spoiler information being displayed. In the meantime I'm condensing requested citations to book name and chapter number. In the case of non-DF information, it'll mostly be for information I can't verify myself at an earnest glance online, and the name of the source would be wonderful. (Book or movie title, author or director name, etc.) If it's on Wikipedia, that'll likely pop in a normal search I'll do to verify so I wouldn't worry much about that.
--- Quote from: dimpwnc on June 06, 2012, 08:58:30 AM ---One question--are you only interested in etymologies, not in popular culture references? If the goal is actually finding JB's inspiration/allusions, pop culture refs are probably significant/useful. Some names also clearly are pop culture refs, e.g. the tiny tinkerbell-fairy Elidee->LED, the WOJ that explained the origin of Harry Dresden's name, and another WOJ I remember stumbling across that said that Billy and Georgia's names came from a TV program (I did a brief check and couldn't find it....Serack, as resident WOJ rockstar, do you remember it?)
--- End quote ---
I'm not certain yet. I'd like to know of course, but I'm tempted not to re-compile that information. If there's a connection between why the name was chosen and who the character is, absolutely. Otherwise, if it only fills the object of trivia, I'd say mentioning it would be lovely but I won't compile it, preferring to leave it in the WoJ so it fills a purpose too.
To this end, I added a 'possible connection' tag to infer certain things not immediately found in the meaning of the names, but rather connections to popular culture or other books (or medium) unrelated to the Dresden Files. A wonderful example of this is that you (dimpwnc) edited your reply later (after I included it) to amend that Elaine also committed suicide in two of the Arthurian tales you read. That provided a connection with what the Skavis did to her and her near-suicide attempt in the DF books. That's definitely what I'd love to include; more of the same if you any of you fine and worldly folks can find it!
Jim's frequent use of paraphrasing movies and literature has always been one of the things that cemented the Dresden books for my fertile imagination. It makes them more real when you can think of them existing in the same place as your own. Recognising little tidbits, be it a quote or a similarity to another work, always gives me a good laugh and makes me feel closer to the author.
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