@allisonwyss

I've got names that work for the time period but can be shortened, as their friends and family do, to something that sounds more modern.

@crcollins

I love using names that don't fit. Not for every character. Usually just my favorites. And I like when the not-fitting is subtle. It's this little perk up moment I think. Just a little "hey pay attention here, reader."

@crcollins

But it IS really interesting how names do so much work to pin a time and world. Don't they?

@allisonwyss I went the other direction for a short story and chose to leave the characters unnamed so it can be nearly anywhere.
I and a few readers like the effect and ambiguity but others were put off by it. It's been interesting as a writing exercise to figure out how to write clearly without names (there are only two characters) and also how to ground it a bit more without losing the openness created by the lack of names and specificity.

@crcollins

@emmaaum @crcollins

I definitely used unnamed characters sometimes in my shorter work. There's this interesting relationship between reader and character that it can create. Sometimes, it makes a space of intimacy, to be known only by a pronoun. And sometimes it feels like the pronoun just turns into a name. But it's more difficult to sustain over a longer work or when you have more than a couple characters.

@emmaaum @crcollins

One thing it can signal is a sort of archetypal sense. A character is named by their role rather than their name.

@emmaaum @crcollins

But sometimes NOT naming can be a way to actually place the characters, rather than to be vague about place. It can signal genre, for example, when used in conjunction with other forms.

@emmaaum @crcollins

I worry sometimes that stories that don't use names can fall into a trap of gender essentialism. It's so easy to make the decision to have one of each pronoun to differentiate characters, then with nothing else as handle, regressive stereotypes can accidentally fall into place or just be assumed. I mean it certainly doesn't happen every time--just something to watch out for.

@allisonwyss
@emmaaum @crcollins

It's an artifact of the language.

In sign language (ASL), pronouns are set by body position. I might lean to the left and sign "bank manager, tall" then lean to the right and sign "bus driver, old". Then I might sign that the (lean left) was wet, and angry at the (lean right), and you'd know the tall wet bank manager was angry at the old bus driver, without knowing (or needing to know) whether each was male or female.

#ASL
#SignLanguage
#linguistics

@allisonwyss
@emmaaum @crcollins

If English had programming language extensions, then instead of "He watched her as she cooked his breakfast the way he had seen her mother do it," you might say:
"1 watched 2 as 2 cooked 1's breakfast the way 1 had seen 2's mother do it."
This would be different from "1 watched 2 as 1 cooked 2's breakfast the way 1 had seen 1's mother do it."

No need for gender. Maybe even introduce more numeric pronouns as necessary.

#linguistics
#ProgrammingLanguages

@allisonwyss
@emmaaum @crcollins

Come to think of it, I wonder if that's easily understandable.

"Peter watched John as he² cooked his¹ breakfast the way he¹ had seen his² mother do it."

or maybe

"Peter¹ watched John² as he² cooked his¹ breakfast the way he¹ had seen his² mother do it."

You know, I might actually try this, for my story writing!

#linguistics
#StoryWriting

@allisonwyss
@emmaaum @crcollins

This could even remain constant across gender change! Let's try it:

Kam¹ had seen the Doctor² recover from near death, but he¹ didn't think he² could survive this one. So he¹ was astounded when his² unmoving form got up, changing to look exactly like Jodie Whittaker.

"What?" she² demanded, glaring at him¹. "It's just regeneration."

"Fine," he¹ retorted, taking female form. After all, she¹ wasn't called Kamelion for nothing.

#linguistics #StoryWriting

@allisonwyss
@emmaaum @crcollins

(I'm sorry I highjacked this conversation with my monologue. You can block me now. But thanks for inspiring me.)

One of you is from writing.exchange . Is that an instance for literary people? Maybe you can understand why I feel so liberated not to have to worry about pronouns?