Not standing in your own way…or names as irritants.
Posted by bbc on 04 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: books, general
There are various ways of interpreting that advice about not standing in your own way — or, sometimes, not standing in your own light. Essentially it means avoiding some action that detracts or distracts from your real goal.
I think it’s fair to assume that most authors intend for their works to be read – either for pleasure or for their thought-provoking ideas. So anything that needlessly distracts from that goal should be construed as standing in their own way.
As a respite from my continued (and apparently continual) process of sorting out paper, I’ve been reading mystery novels. I always have read mysteries, of course, so there’s nothing new about that; it’s just my chosen diversion from the aggravation of this week’s weeding. Today’s author is one that I’ve never read before; it’s an academic type, highly recommended by a friend of mine. I’m about halfway through and the writing is engaging enough, but I’m not looking forward to the next one all that much. A big part of my lack of anticipation is the name of the series character. Her name is unusual – both the first name and the family name.
There is an indication of how to pronounce the family name, which at least doesn’t leave one guessing. But it’s not that easy to say even when you know what it rhymes with. The first name can be pronounced at least two different ways – according to real people I’ve known with that same name. There may be a specifically British pronunciation, but I don’t immediately know what it is. And then she has a nickname which is also open to interpretation. It took me a while to consciously realize that every time I came to her name I was reconsidering how to pronounce it. You may rightly say that this makes no difference if I’m not reading it aloud to someone. But I find it distracting. And I forget to follow the story if I’m using part of my attention on how exactly the name should be pronounced.
It may not bother anyone else – or they may not be slightly obsessed with names. I’m not identifying the author because I don’t want to influence any other opinion of her work. Nor do I want to listen to people tell me how to pronounce the name. It’s like listening to a record with a skip in it – the music is fine but the skip is irritating enough for me to give up on it and move on to other things.
My desk was behind this column.