So on to the book... I'm working on a book called Jehovah and Hades. Before I launch in to a quick preview of the book, I'm curious how many people find that title offensive. I really want the main characters to have J and H names like Jekyll and Hyde, because I'm borrowing a little from the idea behind that book. I've given a copy of the first couple of chapters to members of my family and a few of them didn't really like that I named one of the characters Jehovah. The names of my characters came from two ideas:
- I'm a big fan of reading and I read a lot of the Oxford Bible Dictionary in my early twenties. I really like the entry that explained Carl Jung's contribution to Bible study, specifically his book Answer to Job. What I really wanted to play off of in my book Jehovah and Hades was the gnostic duality that Jung saw between Jehovah and Satan in the book of Job. If you look at the Book of Job closely, Jehovah and Satan almost seem like equals. Jehovah allows Satan to inflict Job with all sorts of disasters and problems and, in the end, Job is given back more than he lost. Jung argues that Job's loss wasn't restored because even though he received more monetary gain, he lost people and possessions he loved. In that sense, Jehovah and Satan each inflicted a lasting reward and punishment on Job and could be viewed as equals. That's not a comprehensive look at Jung's ideas on the subject, but that was how I understood it from the Bible Dictionary. I don't necessarily agree with that idea, but the idea itself is interesting.
- I read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde during my first semester of college (for fun... because I read stuff like that for fun and history books for my homework). We kind of see the same duality... opposing forces... Jekyll, the brilliant doctor who worked hard to become an intellectual and Hyde, a baser creature who only gave in to his passions, desires, and instincts. I recently began to wonder what would happen if the two natures weren't stuck within a person, but separated in to two different people and allowed to move toward their full potential.
Jehovah and Hades is available on Amazon. Check it out here.
Jesus was named "Jesus" by his parents and no one cared because it was a common name, and in some cultures it still is. They didn't name him Jehovah; if they had, they would've been stoned to death. I have yet to meet a person with Jehovah as a given name.
ReplyDeleteI actually really like Janus because I've heard of real people being named Janus.
Also, think about Orwell's Animal Farm - the two chief pigs are named Snowball and Napoleon. It's obvious who they represent from the book, but not from their names.
Using your same logic though, have you ever met anyone with Hades as a given name? Everyone seems to be ok with that though.
ReplyDeleteEven though he was named Jesus, he did claim the name Jehovah later on when he claimed the temple as "his house" and if you've read Jesus the Christ you'll remember that he claimed the name for himself too (following which he was almost stoned).
I kind of like Janus too because he's generally though of as a god of beginnings (where Hades could be the god of endings). I think my main problem was how weird the book felt when I switched to the name Jupiter...
You're right about Animal Farm but Orwell did at least use Napoleon (the name of a dictator and, to some, a tyrant) to represent Stalin. In the French version of the book, he was named Cesar (again a dictator/tyrant).
To avoid people getting an uneasy feeling about the book's name... I could see myself switching it to Janus if everyone thinks that's better. It really suits the character about the same and let's me play off gnostic duality and Jekyll/Hyde. It's just always hard to let go of an initial idea. Jupiter didn't really feel right when I switched to that.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the names, but I'm not a Utahn - so it doesn't quite phase me, It's pretty strange (to me at least) that their father would give them those two names, like "Hey your destined to be great and all; but your brother... I think he's going to be sadistic."
ReplyDeleteI think it's cool to have that underlying sub text of "These people are polar opposites but still kind of the same" like Stephenson wrote and using the J and H is easily possible.
The great part is though, it's your story, use whatever you want, make up a name, in a lot of things I've written i've just made up a name, I mean this is current/future time frame, there are any possible names, not to mention if you through in some ethnic culture into them.
Or maybe Jace and Hannibal