Tyrone (Re: Apologies)

[Eric Rosenbloom]

Mark David Tristan Brenchley wrote:
> Tyrone's name, I think, comes from the word "Tiro",
> meaning an initiate or beginner. Stems from the medieval latin word
> "Tyro", meaning a recruit. Do with this what you will...

Yes, he's certainly a tyro. Here's another thought on the subject, and I
may be way off-base but it strikes me that Tyrone used be thought of as
a common African-American name (like, if you were writing in 60' and
70's USA and wrote a stereotyped character of African descent you'd
lazily call him Tyrone). In Gravity's Rainbow, Slothrop is ostensibly
being used to find the Schwarzkommando, that black presence in the white
war, because of a misperceived racist reflex. (Slothrop to his credit
seems able to separate cartoon-shaped life from real humanity, and so
Their project fails as Tyrone saves the Schwarzkommando from Them.) What
I mean to say is, that name may acknowledge that Slothrop is not a
purely "white" character.

Yours,
Eric R