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Names And What They Mean

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:47 am
by Max Kodan
If this topic has already come up, lock this one and link me to that one, if you could...

Some of the names chosen in Ozy and Millie have some unusual backgrounds. Ozymandias is, as it's said in the character page, the name of a poem published in 1818. I wasn't sure if the whole poem was posted here yet, so I wiki'd it.

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

(Rhyme scheme: ABABACDCEDEFEF)

The other's I haven't had as much luck finding. Llewellyn is an annoyingly common name.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:00 pm
by Sage
I think the poem has come up innumerable times... and
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
has probably been cited again and again and again...

Strangely, I have never personally seen the name "llewellyn." We know that "Wahnsinnig" is "insane" in German... not sure about Larnblatt (when was the last time he appeared in the strip BTW?)

Yes, these names seem a little odd, but I like them... :D

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:41 pm
by rabid_fox
It's a startlingly excellent poem, right up there with Yeats' masterpiece, "The Second Coming".

Ah, gods, I do love the Romantics. They were mental.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:57 pm
by Tom Flapwell
I would guess that "Avery" is meant to evoke "every," because he wants to be an everycoon.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:22 pm
by rabid_fox
Timulty - tumultuous. I hope. It suggests that in later life, he'll suffer several severe breakdowns, end up with a live-in helper by the time he's 23 and never really recover well enough to function as in individual. Avery will visit him now and then...but the visits will become less frequent because of Timulty's aggressive behaviour towards family.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:35 am
by Muninn
Timulty - tumultuous. I hope. It suggests that in later life, he'll suffer several severe breakdowns, end up with a live-in helper by the time he's 23 and never really recover well enough to function as in individual. Avery will visit him now and then...but the visits will become less frequent because of Timulty's aggressive behaviour towards family.
Timulty is not Syd Barrett.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:40 am
by CameronCN
Millicent=Maleficent. :-P

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:48 am
by Zaaphod
Timulty - tumultuous. I hope. It suggests that in later life, he'll suffer several severe breakdowns, end up with a live-in helper by the time he's 23 and never really recover well enough to function as in individual. Avery will visit him now and then...but the visits will become less frequent because of Timulty's aggressive behaviour towards family.
Timulty is not Syd Barrett.
Let's hope he's not Arnold Layne either. :P

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:45 am
by Steve the Pocket
I'm kind of curious what "Ozymandias" was originally Greek for (I think it's Greek; his Egyptian name was Ramses).

I've always kind of suspected Millie might have been named for political philosopher J.S. Mill, but I'm probably miles off. And I went so far as to ask D.C. where "Timulty" came from, but never heard back.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:55 am
by Rocketman
I'm kind of curious what "Ozymandias" was originally Greek for (I think it's Greek; his Egyptian name was Ramses).
It's apparently a transliteration into Greek of one of the Pharaoh's titles, "User-maat-Re".

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:30 pm
by Kazapsky
Strangely, I have never personally seen the name "llewellyn." We know that "Wahnsinnig" is "insane" in German... not sure about Larnblatt (when was the last time he appeared in the strip BTW?)
"Larnblatt" is probably the noise a lot of his students end up producing in his class, whether intentionally atonal or not.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:13 am
by Max Kodan
Actually, there's a LOT of Llewellyns out there. So much so that Llewellyn is accepted by spell check >>. Unfortunately, there's at least 5 people our Llewellyn could be based off of...lots of Authors, poets, playwrights, actors, kings, lords, even some guy who helped someone escape from the english and was executed for it. Go ahead, wiki his name, there's plenty to read.

I think the only way we'll know for sure is if someone who actually knows tells us.

Ah, and THIS one I found interesting >>;

Llewelyn Lewellin (1798–1878), British cleric and university educator

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:07 pm
by rabid_fox
A side point to mention here - in Ireland, a "Millie" is a really derogatory term for a girl.

Basically means a slutty self-obsessed little tart. The English might be familiar with "chavette", which is a similar idea.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:20 pm
by nickspoon
A side point to mention here - in Ireland, a "Millie" is a really derogatory term for a girl.

Basically means a slutty self-obsessed little tart. The English might be familiar with "chavette", which is a similar idea.
I heard about that on the radio, apparently the Irish find it hilarious when the English call their children 'Millie'.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:24 pm
by rabid_fox
We find it funnier when you call them Chantelle.