A number of years ago New Scientist ran a series of articles on the back page detailign unusually apt names for people in particular jobs to hold.
An example was Dr. Richard Seed , a cloning proponent ordinarily known as Dick Seed.
There was a name associated with this phenomemon which escapes me now.
Can anyone recall what that is ?
And slightly related there is also a title given to the phenomenon of weather reflecting emotion. Particularly in poetry , this was called by a particular term.
> And slightly related there is also a title given to the phenomenon of weather
> reflecting emotion. Particularly in poetry , this was called by a particular term.
Does the back page usually have some kind of humorous angle to it? I can’t even speculate on what the basis for any other relationship between the two could be.
I’ve heard of SAD. Seasonal Affective Disorder but the causation works the opposite to what you’ve suggested.
Yes, the back page is New Scientist is called Feedback, and is devoted to humourous facts, stories, observations etc. The magazine wasn’t seriously promoting it as a new psychological theory or anything!
Aside from any slight tendency that people might have in choosing a trade that suits their name, I’m sure it is coincidence, but it is not as simple a phenomenon as it might appear, because the idea is reinforced by two factors:
Matching names and trades stick readily in the mind, non-matching ones less so; leaving us with the impression that there is really something going on.
For any given trade, there might be a wide range of suitable matching names; for example, it would be considered significant if a plumber were called Buckett, Leakey, Waterman, Tapper, Spigot, Piper, Flood, Bath etc - so the chances of a match are at least a little better than we might initially presume.
Just want to note that New Scientist didn’t invent this. Columnists in the U.S. have been collecting these “apt” names for at least 50 years, and probably much longer than that.
With pathetic fallacy, the fallacy is supposed to link to the (human) emotion in the writing, which is why it is “pathetic” in the literal sense - the landscape supposedly (but obviously not really, because trees and hills aren’t sentient - hence it is a fallacy) has pathos for the human suffering.
“As Gary looked out across the plain, he watched the leaden clouds drift heavy and slow across a sullen sky, while bleak rain drizzled down the window. Sorrow hung heavy in Gary’s heart, for it was a year to the day that the beautiful Silvara De Montaigne had walked out of his life, clad in the furs and jewels he had bought her.”
Thomas Hardy is one of the best users and abusers of the device.
