MDMD (1)--Names

[Sherwood, Harrison]

>From: 	Paul Mackin

>From: 	Sherwood, Harrison[SMTP:hsherwood at btg.com]
>
>I thought the name was phallic. (wick)
>
>
>>>>>I did too. The old slang usage, as in dipping one's wick
>came immediately to my feeelthy mind.
>
Well, now, there you go, see?

A-and the thought of Cherry Coke somehow being involved was just too
revolting to contemplate.

Sticky situation.

>From: 	Sojourner

>I rather take "Wicks" to mean the word "wick" itself as we know it.  Bearer
>of light, or "enlightenment", as Wicks is the bearer of the story, and
>enlightenment, as revealed to us by Mr. TRP.  The wick is but the twisted
>strands of fiber which carry the fuel up to feed the flame, or light.
>Paper is but the twisted, matted strands of fiber which bear the words (the
>fuel) which lights the fire (what goes in in our tiny elitist brains as we
>read).  Ergo, what better name for the purveyor of this tale but Wicks?

All entirely unexceptionable, but I don't think the progenitor (ouch!)
of Ralph Wayvone and the Marquis de Sod is unaware of the secondary,
nudge-nudge-wink-wink connotation of the word.

Okay, you want to keep it above the waist: so how about the name "Wicks"
as an ironic invocation of Prometheus? That would go a long way toward a
compromise, don't you think?

>From _Bulfinch's Mythology_ (1855):

...Prometheus, who, with the aid ofMinerva, went up to heaven, and
lighted his torch at the chariot ofthe sun, and brought down fire to
man. With this gift man was morethan a match for all other animals. It
enabled him to make weaponswherewith to subdue them; tools with which to
cultivate the earth;to warm his dwelling, so as to be comparatively
independent ofclimate; and finally to introduce the arts and to coin
money, themeans of trade and commerce.

(I'm not trying to be patronizing with the above cut-and-paste; I just
thought Bulfinch's choice of words ["weapons," "cultivation," "tools,"
et phallic cetera] is significant.)

Harrison