i already wish i had spent the time it took to type this on something else.

[elapses]

Things I should be doing instead of writing up this post:
- finishing my last paper of the semester
- studying for Chem tomorrow
- writing my yuletide
- UM, ANYTHING?

So I kind of want to talk about Harry Potter again (sooooooorry) and how I think the epilogue is so much better when you're not a) reading it for the first time and b) interpreting "all was well" as "happily ever after". Because it isn't happily ever after-- they lost so many. It's about how if the survivors cannot enjoy life, what was the sacrifice of the dead for?

OKAY BUT YOU GUYS! I feel like between this and my drunken confession to reading Next Gen fanfic last weekend I am coming off as some weird psychopath (...because who else reads Next Gen fanfic? I MEAN REALLY? All I wanted was stories about 11-year-olds discovering hoggy warty Hogwarts and having dumb adventures, but all there is is like... a bunch of people who can't let go of their Draco/__________ pairing continuing it on with Draco/[child of __________] porn). I MEAN, I DON'T KNOW, I am having fun with my mini-Harry Potter phase, because like, I haven't felt this way since Deathly Hallows came out and even thaaaaaat was pretty much just excitement stretching from the OotP movie to the discussion superskittles76 and I had over Tex-Mex a couple of days after the book was released. I totally used to write Harry Potter fanfic, and once it was done it actually felt like I was totally over it. Like actually completely forever only passingly interested in Harry Potter. But silly self, you don't get over these things for good.

ANYWAY WHAT THIS POST IS ACTUALLY ABOUT IS THE POTTER FAMILY NAMES-- James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna, because I HATE THEM LIKE BURNING. Part of that is maybe me being neurotic, because it actually drives me a little batty that like, every baby ever born in fiction is named after someone. LIFE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY, friends. And I would like to demonstrate that with a poll!

I know a lot of you actively think about what you would name your kids (captaincatapult and goldenmelisande did their own polling to this effect pretty recently): is that because you think they're beautiful names, or is it because you want to honor someone in your life?


[Poll #1316344]

I... don't mean to belittle anyone that does want to name someone after someone. I think it is a lovely, lovely way to honor someone important to you (I found out recently that my favorite Aunt Monti is named for a Professor Montague that my Nana was especially affected by, which I think is so lovely), what I take issue with is the frequency with which it happens in fiction. It's like anytime anyone pops a kid out it has to be named for someone, they cannot be bothered to come up with their own names. (It is lovely, though, in the West Wing when Toby calls his baby girl Molly after the dead secret service agent.)

I guess the other thing is that they're all Harry's names he wants to give to honor all the dead in his life, and it just... doesn't sound like Ginny had much input at allllll in what to name them. You know? She lost family too, but the scope of people represented in the little Potter's names is all Harry. Something about that really kind of bothers me. (BUT, on the other hand, I think a legitimate argument can be made that Ginny recognizes that having kids and a family means... not necessarily more to Harry than it would to her, but it's special to her, the youngest of seven, in a different way than it would be to little orphan Harry, who has always craved that family connection. It's like Scully and Mulder! And the way poor, emotionally abandoned Mulder really desperately would like a family, but Scully has grown up in a big family with brothers named Bill and Charlie and even if she would like kids, Exceeeeeept it's not like Scully and Mulder at all, because Mulder does not view himself as deserving of that family, and they weren't supposed to have kids. BUT STILL, I think Scully named William for Mulder's William and not her Williams for the exact reason that Ginny might let Harry give all her kids really awful names.)

Hi my name is Alexandra and sometimes I like to write up six long paragraphs about something everybody already agrees with anyway/doesn't even think about anymore and post them on the internet.

P.S. LAST NIGHT'S CHUCK WAS AMAZING.

Comments

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Aww, see, that is exactly what the naming of people should be used for, I think. And Nathaniel really is a pretty name.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Reaaaaaaally? I thought it was bad, but like... I guess my general feeling when I finished it was like WELL THAT WAS PURE CHEESE, but I was so grateful for the series as a whole that I felt like if she wanted schmoop, she could have it? I DON'T KNOW.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

See, I think those are exactly the kind of circumstances where naming your child after someone is the loveliest thing.

OH YOU'RE HARRY/HERMIONE TOO? There are so many of you guys, WHAT.

[silverstars.livejournal.com]

Ha, well, in my defense, my preference for H/Hr has next to nothing to do with my opinion of the epilogue. It just read like really bad fanfic to me. It seriously tripped me up because I think she is an excellent writer. She just went waaaaay too far with the names.

I'm the same way with fanfic I read from other fandoms too. I don't read many with babies in them, but (I'll use Bones as an example because of your icon) if I came across one that I was moderately enjoying and then bam!...they have a baby girl named Miley. I would be x-ing out of the page so fast. I mean, yeah there are definitely worse names out there, but there's no way someone as intelligent and sophisticated as Brennan would have a daughter with that name. That was just a completely random example, but you catch my drift!

[elapses.livejournal.com]

HA, no, I totally agree with you there, it was like bad fanfiction. I was always into Ron/Hermione but I really really have never liked Harry/Ginny and that just... made it worse. DON'T TELL ANNA, but in my imaginary future universe, they have all these fights about Ginny wanting to play Quidditch and hating writing and staying home with the kids because they didn't know each other well enough, I don't think. Ron and Hermione at least both knew what they were getting into?

I am totally irrational about babyfic too, I mostly don't read it UNLESS THERE IS AN ESTABLISHED BABY IN CANON, in which case I still get fussy if they get anything wrong. But yeah, Miley? ICK, that's so wrong.

[barilace.livejournal.com]

I would have loved the Harry Potter epilogue if she would have included other things instead of just talk of who they married/what their kids names were. That was cute and all (yes, a tad too cute but still. aww, lmao), but I wanted to know what they were doing like "a year later" or "five years later." Something more substantial to who those characters were other than their kids names. I so wish she would have opened it up again at like Ron and Hermione's wedding where we could have found out what they were doing career wise and etc, and then she could have done "10 years later" or some shit and included the whole kids at the train station bit.

[lissie-pissie.livejournal.com]

I FUCKING HATE THE POTTER NAMES, OKAY. I ALSO KIND OF HATE HOW EVERYONE ON X-FILES IS NAMED WILLIAM. The epilogue bothered me because I would have MUCH rather seen what happened as a result of the actual war and everything. I want to know more about what the ACTUAL characters I know and love are doing for a living and stuff. As for names, I have them picked out, but I didn't pick them out beCAUSE of the person. Like the first one I just chose because it sounded pretty. The second one was one of my middle school friend's little sister's name and I just thought it was pretty. And that's paired with my grandma's middle name. And then the third one (if I have three, idk) is one of my high school teacher's first and middle names. So I guess they ARE after people but not anything like the Potters. There's no HUGE significance.

[afrocurl.livejournal.com]

I like it, too. If only because it's not the same--more like an homage.

[vintagejoy.livejournal.com]

My name is a family name but I wasn't named after anyone. I share my name with my paternal great great grandmother, and its my aunt's middle name, but my mother chose it and she doesn't have a strong link to either. She just thought it was a lovely, uncommon (at the time, at least) name.

My sister has a family name too, but hers is much the same as mine. In fact, I think my mother actually wanted to name her Matilda Rose but my dad hated Matilda, so she become Rose Monique. My sisters and I all have Dutch middle names (rather, names commanly used in Holland, as opposed to traditionally Dutch).

RE: CHUCK. Saraaaaaah. Last night was incredible! I'm glad Ellie and Awesome were there because I hate them being shafted for the (admittedly entertaining, but markedly less-awesome) Buy More crew.

[superskittles76.livejournal.com]

BOTH of my names are to honor family members. My Dad's grandmother died before I was born and was SO sad she wouldn't get to meet me that he wanted to name me after her. My Mom's dad was all emo he didn't get a grandson (I'm the only grandchild he ever got) so she wanted to name me after him to cheer him up (he fell in love with me of course lol). Luckily they changed the spelling of their names or else I'd be Bettie Joe which is SO MUCH MORE RIDICULOUS than Betty Jo :P

I don't see anything wrong with naming your kids after people important to you, but JK took it too far with the Potters. It's just so ridiculous sounding. I agree with you, it sounds like Ginny had like, no say in it, although like you, I see where she'd be all, eh whatever let harry have his thing, but at the same time, that's crap. Maybe she'd want to name the kids after her uncles or Fred (although George did both of those lol) or something. The only one that sounds like she had a part in it is Lily Luna, which is the STUPIDEST ONE because hello, why are we honoring LUNA? You know Ginny and Harry weren't all OMG GREAT NAME so IDEK. Ugh, I haven't reread DH since it came out so I'm still irrationally angry about it all D:

TEXMEX HEE :D

[elapses.livejournal.com]

I thiiiiiink my ideal Harry Potter epilogue would have been about Harry raising Teddy-- the Harry/Sirius godfather relationship they never got.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

I CAN DEAL WITH THE WILLIAM THING? Kinda sorta. Kinda. I don't know. What I can't deal with is when fanfic authors call him William Fox? I'M SORRY, MULDER WOULD NOT ALLOW ANY CHILD OF HIS TO CARRY ON THE NAME HE HATES. PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT ARE VERY WRONG ON THE INTERNET.

But yeah, I don't know if those actually count for being named for someone or not. I mean, no, I think your grandmother's middle name definitely does count, but... hmm.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Aw, I like Matilda! It's got a very distinct air about it. But I love the idea of giving your kids patterned middle names-- my parents did that too.

Oh my goodness, I know, it was such an incredible episode. I cannot get over that moment at the end where Sarah walked in after everything, and then steeled her face with a smile for Chuck. There was a brief moment where I expected Chuck to swoosh in and accidentally sort of save her from that Fulcrum agent, and that would have been fine and it would have been a lovely enough episode, but then they hit us with that ton of bricks, and I just, wow. Funny how something I usually just describe as "delightful!" can be totally and completely heartwrenching sometimes.

And I agreeeeee, I was so glad Ellie and Awesome were there too, I love them so much, and it is annoying that the Buy More crew get more sideplots than they do.

[dramatic-sigh.livejournal.com]

My middle name is Victoria, either after some great distant Aunt (I think) or the feminine version of my Dad's middle name, which is Victor. I was told both, so it could be either or both. My brother, however, his middle name is my mothers maiden name.

At this stage in my life, there's no one I would really name future/fictional children after. It could change; maybe I'll look at my family tree and discover a kickass name (or, alternatively, a kickass great, great relative), but I suppose, with these sort of things, you never know until you're faced with that sort of choice.

(As for your examples, the dishonor of the worst case of family naming I would have come across in fiction would be Ms Myer and the demon spawn 'Renesmee', which is just another form of ridiculousness that is best forgotten. :D)

[sunspawn.livejournal.com]

WHY IS THERE NO OPTION 'I DO NOT INTEND TO HAVE CHILDREN FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY'S GENERAL WELLBEING?' (and my own..)

SO.CONFLICTED.

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

COME ON MAN WRITE YOUR YULETIDE

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Betty Jo is definitely a lot lovelier than Bettie Joe!

Yeah, that's pretty much EXACTLY how I feel. And I KNOW, like... Luna was there, but... I have no idea what she did to manage to kid a kid named after her. It's absolutely ridiculous.

DAMN IT, now I'm craving it :(

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree-- I don't even forsee myself having kids, but it's hard to know at 19 whether or not I will want to pick a family name. I kind of like my grandmother's name Beverly, but... who knows?

I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT RENESMEE. That was truly horrific, I agree.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

THAT'S WHY THEY'RE THEORETICAL CHILDREN, HELL. I have no intention of reproducing, but I have a very vague idea of what I might name someone.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

FINE >:(

[paperskies.livejournal.com]

My middle name is Rae and I think it might be some long long dead relatives name, but I'm not exactly named after them, it's just that on my dad's side of the family all the females have the middle name Rae. My great-grandmother, my grandmother, my aunt, my older cousin (we're the only two girls in our generation except for my little half-sister who somehow got away with the middle name Charlotte. NOT FAIR FATHER, you give me some weird middle name but Ava gets a pretty one? NOT ON), and so on and so forth. But I for one will not, if I have a daughter, give her that middle name. I'll leave it up to my cousin or little sister. I just don't see the point, mostly because I don't have a tie to it, it means nothing to me, it's not personal at all. It's just a family tradition that's never really been explained to me. Plus I've never liked the actual name all that much, blerg. WHATEVER GRANDMA, I WILL BECOME A VICTIM OF YOUR WRATH BUT I'M NOT NAMING ANYTHING RAE AND THAT'S FINAL.

BUT YES, THE HARRY POTTER NAMES ANNOYED ME! EXCEPT FOR TEDDY LUPIN WHO I LOVE WITH ALL MY HEART. (which may or may not have something to do with the undying love I have for his father....umm)

[luminoso.livejournal.com]

Ugh I've never re-read the epilogue SPECIFICALLY because of the disgusting children's names. I mean I get it, my middle name is my grandmother's maiden name, and that's cool and all but yeah, ugh. I might name one of my son's after my grandfather, but only because he was so incredibly important to me.

Also I agree about the point with Toby and his daughter Molly, I legitimately cried for about 1/2 an hour after he did that.