A weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
This week's topic is:
Top 10 Most Unfortunate Character Names
1) Cushie & Pooh Percy- The World According to Garp- John Irving
And you thought Garp was an odd name...
2) Morag Gunn- The Diviners- Margaret Laurence
3) Hagar Shipley- The Stone Angel- Margaret Laurence
The first always makes me think of a dishtowel. The second would bring an unfortunate nickname.
4) Offred- The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
The protagonist from a scary set of women's names with "of" __ (fill in male name).5) Piggy- The Lord of the Flies- William Goldman
Enough said.
6) Mongo- Push- Sapphire (adapted into the movie Precious)
Precious's daughter with Down Syndrome. This name is sad and shocked me to hear.
7) Dill- To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
Mind you, this is a nickname but do you really want to be thought of as a pickle? :D
8) Milkman, First Corinthians & Pilate Dead- Song of Solomon- Toni Morrison
Milkman is a nickname, the other two are randomly chosen Biblical names, and the last name is just eerie.
9) Hamm, Clov & Nagg- Endgame- Samuel Beckett
Deliberately satirical, of course, in Theatre of the Absurd style.
10) prot- K-PAX- Gene Brewer
Rhymes with "goat." Purposely not capitalized. Still strange.
A weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading.
Rules:
•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
"Down past the fisheye on the hall wall, I can see my white shape, of tented body, hair down my back like a mane, my eyes gleaming. I like this. I am doing something, on my own."
The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
page 121
A Handmaid's Tale is one of my favorites... nice choice.
ReplyDeleteI love The Handmaid's Tale. I thought about Offred, but then I didn't use it because it's not REALLY her name. Dill and Hagar are excellent choices. Great list!
ReplyDeleteI like your choices - there are some really strange and sometimes just vile-sounding names on your list.
ReplyDeleteI remember realizing what Offred's name really was. Atwood's so clever! It was the perfect way to take the last bit of dignity from the women. I can't imagine how horrible it would be to lose your name and be called Of...some man's name.
ReplyDeleteGreat list! I love number 7 though. I'd really like to read The Handmaid's Tale, it sounds interesting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog!
Oh yes, Piggy is an awful name. Also yeah I always thought Dill was a pretty odd name (although it suited the character).
ReplyDeleteHere is my teaser from Expiation by Greg Messel (page 1):
ReplyDeleteMy sudden and unexpected return to Seattle was about to trigger a chain of events which completely change my life. Three months from this date my career, my life in San Francisco with my daughter and everything I had known before would be radically altered.
This is such a good book. And I totally agree with your first 2 names -- I don't know what that family was thinking.....
ReplyDeletebut it did make me remember that funny part of the book. :)
Those are some weird names!
ReplyDeleteI really should reread A Handmaid's Tale. It's a great book.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right, those names are pretty bad!
Thanks for stopping by my blog :-)
Definitely Piggy. That's a must for this list.
ReplyDeleteMine is here:
http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/11/nearly-ten-most-unfortunate-character.html
I absolutely loved this book when I read it a few years ago. Stunning imagery!
ReplyDeleteHere's my tease:
http://sunnyreads.blogspot.com/2010/11/teaser-tuesday-towers-of-midnight.html