# Convention seen in older literature **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249 "2011-06-12T21:41:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/1 "2011-06-12T21:41:16Z")
Why in older literature is it common to see names of characters or places represented as something like “Mr. M—”, as if the author were keeping the identity of an actual person anonymous, and is there a name for the practice? An example from Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”: “from her he learnt that she had grown up in Petersburg, but had lived in S— since her marraige two years before” This is a fictional character, not an actual person whose reputation might be harmed etc. - why would he use this construct rather than just putting in a real (or for that matter fictional) place name? ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/2 "2011-06-12T22:27:00Z")
Well, according to Barth in the titular story in his collection _Lost in the Funhouse_, “Initials, blanks, or both were often substituted for proper names in nineteenth-century fiction to enhance the illusion of reality.” I don’t know if literary critics have invented a term for it. It’s like a fraudulent roman à clef, though, and used for exactly the reason Barth gives. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/3 "2011-06-12T22:47:04Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > Well, according to Barth in the titular story in his collection _Lost in the Funhouse_, “Initials, blanks, or both were often substituted for proper names in nineteenth-century fiction to enhance the illusion of reality.” I don’t know if literary critics have invented a term for it. It’s like a fraudulent roman à clef, though, and used for exactly the reason Barth gives. This is my understanding as well. I think the common use of the epistolary format in the 18th and 19th centuries was also due to a desire to make fiction seem more “realistic”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/4 "2011-06-12T23:06:32Z")
Y’know, as soon as I saw the title, I said to myself “I’ll bet it’s the M— thing”. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/5 "2011-06-13T02:29:09Z")
It was used pretty commonly, but not inevitably. Woody Allen made fun of it in one of his early New Yorker pieces: “Should I marry M\_\_\_\_\_\_? Not if she won’t tell me the rest of the letters in her name.” ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/6 "2011-06-13T05:29:43Z")
How does obscuring a name make the work more realistic? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/7 "2011-06-13T05:32:01Z")
It looks like a recounting of real events with names redacted to protect the innocent. Or not-so-innocent. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/8 "2011-06-13T06:00:59Z")
Well, with me it always had the same effect as “My number is 555…” in movies and TV. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/9 "2011-06-13T06:12:38Z")
When I was younger, I thought it meant you got to make up your own name. I remember being very frustrated as a 5 year old at how long some of those books are. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/10 "2011-06-13T06:16:24Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …Woody Allen made fun of it in one of his early New Yorker pieces: “Should I marry M\_\_\_\_\_\_? Not if she won’t tell me the rest of the letters in her name.” GMTA! That’s the first thing I thought of when I opened this thread! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/11 "2011-06-13T07:02:35Z")
Stephen King did something similar in the story _The Breathing Method_. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convention-seen-in-older-literature/585249/12 "2011-06-13T09:07:47Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > How does obscuring a name make the work more realistic? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman\_a\_clef](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_a_clef) It was a pretty popular genre, once upon a time. These days, people just slag each other in their autobiographies with reckless abandon 😛