What's in a name? That depends.
Sep. 14th, 2006 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerA mysterious and controversial (officially) world (-like sphere) out in the lawless and terrifying fringes of the solar system has a proper name at last... and it's Eris. As for myself, I think it sounds more interesting and fitting than its previous half-joking, half-dismissive nickname of "Xena," and it commemorates its significance to the discord over how much and just how we should care about what's way out there.
One point about this does stick for me, though. I get the significance of the name in part because I spent a period of time grappling with the simple fact of a fan collective churning out self-insertion fanfics where characters piled up harems of previously existing female characters and promoted various obscure and half-obscure things in a "everything we follow is intrinsically interesting!" way. (Later, I just grappled with their work in a different way by working on a MSTing of it.) One thing among their ragbag of unashamed yet unexplained obscure references was the (apparent) joke religion of Discordianism, in which the original Eris, Greek goddess of discord, holds an important role. The joke somehow wound up on me as the irritating aspects of the stories rubbed off on the references I hadn't experienced beforehand, regardless of whatever qualities might have made them references to start with. In the end, the news reminds me again of the faint yet nagging ache of not being quite sure if I shouldn't just turn away from someone else's elaborate and public self-indulgence...
One point about this does stick for me, though. I get the significance of the name in part because I spent a period of time grappling with the simple fact of a fan collective churning out self-insertion fanfics where characters piled up harems of previously existing female characters and promoted various obscure and half-obscure things in a "everything we follow is intrinsically interesting!" way. (Later, I just grappled with their work in a different way by working on a MSTing of it.) One thing among their ragbag of unashamed yet unexplained obscure references was the (apparent) joke religion of Discordianism, in which the original Eris, Greek goddess of discord, holds an important role. The joke somehow wound up on me as the irritating aspects of the stories rubbed off on the references I hadn't experienced beforehand, regardless of whatever qualities might have made them references to start with. In the end, the news reminds me again of the faint yet nagging ache of not being quite sure if I shouldn't just turn away from someone else's elaborate and public self-indulgence...