.013 [oh, the power of it all]

Omishto was obviously named appropriately, because she is just as her name says "one who watches." However, this begs the question, does a name or title define a person, or does the person define a name? I mean, if Omishto's father had not named her such, would she still be as perceptive as she is? Or would she have neglected the part of herself that was more of an outside observer, and focoused more on the parts of herself that were more drawn to community and a longing for acceptance? Would this have changed her admiration for Ama, and made Omishto look up to her mother more?

[My name, for example, means "universal". It is german, and comes from Emmanuel, which is a name used in the bible for Jesus. If you wanted to take it one step further, you might look at my middle name, which is noel, and discover that Emma Noel looks mighty similar to Emmanuel.]

[This was a very clever wording technique, courtesy of my parents.]

I watched Across the Universe a couple of hours ago, and I found myself listening especially closely to the Thanksgiving dinner scene, where Max and his uncle are arguing about what truly matters in a man's life. Max says something like, "why is it always what are you going to do? what will you do? what will he do? why doesn't anyone ever ask who I am?" and Jude says something like, "surely it's not what you do, but how you do it?"

[Good call, Jude.]

Although this statement was made to simply diffuse a family quarrel, it really got me thinking about what exactly a name means to a person, and what exactly a person's impact on the world is going to be, with respect to what they do...

In Omishto's case, it is certainly how she does what she does, rather than just what she does. This goes along with the difference between the different court systems mentioned in the novel; the American court system seems to only care about what a person does, while the tribal court system gives more weight to the "how you do it" part.

Honestly, I think that both outlooks are completely necessary when glancing at the easy [this word is quite literally so soggy with sarcasm that it may, in fact, be dripping mess] question of the meaning of/one's purpose in life.

So what do you think?

Is what you do really who you are?

or did Jude have it right?

Should we consider, not what we do, but how we go about doing it?

.012 [my name's not baby...]

So today I was thinking about what I could possibly write for the in-class essay about names in Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy, and I was coming up with the most random connections possible. Most of them were complete BS, and there was no way I could turn them into an essay. In fact, I still have no idea what I will write about, although I have been tearing through the book for a few hours now...

As I was thinking about names in general, a friend of a friend who is in a band randomlyadded and messaged me on Facebook saying,

"So I hear I am not supposed to call you Emily?"

[nice one-liner, band guy]

I of course said "Yes," and when he asked why I said, "I don't know really...it's just not my name. Everyone always assumes that Emma is just short for Emily, like its the lesser version of the two, when in reality my name is better so......."

He agreed, so I think we can be friends ;]

Silly as it may seem, that simple question really got me thinking about why my name is so important to me. I mean, it's only four letters, it's pretty simple, and nowadays [thanks toFRIENDS and the Harry Potter movies] it is pretty common. I think, though, that a name is much more than just a few letters put together, or a way of identifying a person. I think, just like Hannah mentioned in her blog, that a name directly represents the person to whom it is given. If a person with one name is really annoying, then that name will forever have a negative connotation in my mind because I am reminded of the annoyance every time I hear it. It is guilty by association, I suppose. For instance, when I was little, I was bullied by a girl named Deleny; thus, every time I hear that name, I feel myself cringe. And although I have never met an Emily I don't like, I still have an aversion to the name because it is simply too much alike to mine. I wonder if this happens to other people? Like do girls named Beth hate it if people think their "real" name is Elizabeth? I have no idea, and it probably does not matter...

I like my name, and that's all there is to it. Just don't call me Emily.

.011 [sleepy hollow]

Last night as i perused the channels, attempting to find a movie that would satisfy both of my needs to a.) keep me awake, and b.) entertain me just enough that I could kind of procrastinate without being completely there, I decided to watch Sleepy Hollow. No, this movie could not be found on tv, as most things cannot, so I decided to watch it on my laptop...at three in the morning. As I watched the macabre and quirky romance between Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp, I realized that Lives and Times must really be getting to me. I realized that by the time Depp's character is performing autopsies on the headless bodies in the Hollow that I was analyzing his character in the context of one who is displaced. Thank you Lucy, for forever ruining what could be a simply entertaining Tim Burton film. Ughhhhhhhhhhhh

HOWEVER

I suppose making connections like this cannot be all bad right? I mean, now I can have a fuller and deeper understanding as to why Depp's character falls so fast for Ricci's character [because she is the first person he meets] and why he is so committed to disbelief of the "headless horseman" tale [because it is not from his direct culture].

Maybe next time I watch one of my favorite movies I can also attempt to apply some of the themes we talk about in Lives and Times into the plot.....

OR maybe I can just forget about all of that and watch my late night [early morning] movies in peace.