Comments on: Naming The Divided Self

By: Hg

Hg — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 08:24:55 +0000

Rachel – Sorry your comment didn’t appear here for a few days. My blog software thought it was spam, for some reason, so I’ve only just spotted it in the junk folder. I’ve tinkered with a few settings now – hopefully legitimate comments are less likely to be blocked in future.

By: Hg

Hg — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 23:12:31 +0000

Interesting. I’ve seen Ng as a surname (it’s Thai, or Vietnamese, I think), but never Hg.
It was originally just a contraction of “Hydragenic” and I used it for my e-mail address. Then I found myself referring to “Mrs Hg” on the site one day, and so Mr Hg was born by reverse association.
The fact that it’s also the chemical symbol for mercury was what clinched it for me. So many poetic associations: Mercury is the Roman god of communication, mercury is pretty but also a poison, it’s associated with speed (mercurial), etc.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:01:38 +0000

Very interesting thoughts. Having an online name different to a real one goes round and round in my head many times and causes more troubles than it solves. For instance I have a blog where I have used a fake name, but my son was involved in a “real world” event related to the blog and I can’t mention it as it would show the name I have used as a fake. I should have used a “nickname”.
For your situation, there is no problem. I assumed “hg” was a real name (it would have been a cool surname and I have had more than one customer with that name; maybe they weren’t real either) but it matters not a bit that it is not real.

By: Hg

Hg — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:28:36 +0000

Ani – there’s a relatively small group of people who know me as both. They don’t really seem to have any problem with it, as rr demonstrates so, er, clearly above. And it’s not like Hg is the first online persona I’ve ever had, though this is the first time that I’ve stepped outside the character and started writing about the phenomenon itself.
Jean – well, Gollum wasn’t exactly a confidence-inspiring name to invoke in the first place

By: Jean

Jean — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:04:47 +0000

I think you shot yourself in the foot there – look what happened to Marilyn!