It’s interesting that most of us had such an adverse reaction to the new name. I agree that it definitely sums up pretty much any town in the U.S., or even the world for that matter, but it seems so plain and negative. However, it seems that life has a tendency to suck sometimes (maybe this is just my negative, grumpy attitude because of finals and papers?) so the name definitely leaves little to the imagination and gives no false promises. As we were reading the novel I kept thinking of this renaming situation that occurred near me. There was a road that lead to the IBM site in Kingston named Neighborhood Rd., but some people decided it didn’t sound professional enough for the area and what IBM stood/stands for so it was changed to Enterprise Dr. I find it so intriguing that we infer so much about a name that it needs to be changed to “accurately” reflect whatever it is we’re trying to represent or get across.

Hiding behind false names?Referring to the quote you pulled makes me think about our own personal names and their relation to meaning. My name, Michael, comes from as Arch Angel or something. Or something should show you how religious I am. My daemon self hides behind my Christian naming (or some devout Catholics would say so). You are hiding behind the name of my sister.

Knowing the name of something spoils our interest in it. This kind of goes with the end of the novel when Struggle is revealed. All the whispering and the ?there goes that guy? that our main character was experiencing surely ends with the drop of this bomb. There is nothing bight and mysterious left about our guy nor the anticipation of the name in waiting.