An evening of fundraising for its charitable foundation The Walrus magazine presents The Walrus is Coming to Town! on Monday October 22 at the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts. The night’s speakers will debate the shifting East-West Canadian power balance. The event will also include readings by Alberta literary big guns Will Ferguson and Aritha van Herk and an auction in which participants can bid their way onto the pages of five writers’ next novels. Wayne Johnston Charlie Foran Jake Macdonald Karen Connelly and Guy Vanderhaeghe will honour the highest bidders by naming a character after them. “It’s quite gauche really as well as fun” says Connelly. “Writers take themselves very seriously and this is an opportunity to alleviate some of that.” Fast Forward questioned her further about the implications of the name sale.
Fast Forward: How do you choose character names when you write fiction?
Karen Connelly: It’s a very organic process; the names have a lot of personal meaning to me — sometimes they contain the initials or middle names of people I know. And often they have a lot of mythical meaning to the story. I can’t really get to know a character until he or she has a name.
Where did the names in your first novel The Lizard Cage come from?
They came from historical Burmese sources and the book actually explores those sources. The only name whose source is not revealed is that of the good conscious-stricken jailer Chit Naing. But a Burmese speaker would know that Chit Naing means "to be able to love." Which is what he succeeds in doing in the book. Teza’s name in Pali means "power fire glory" and it was also the nom de guerre of General Aung San who liberated Burma from her British colonizers. Zaw Gyi is the "true" name of the little boy Nyi Lay which he keeps a secret from the prisoners. When he reveals his true name to Teza his friend the possibility for transformation becomes a reality for both of them.
Will naming a character after a real person (a complete stranger) cramp your style?
I guess that will depend on the name. And the person. If it’s a Thai or Turkish or South Asian or Greek name I will immediately start thinking about those parts of the world and how to involve that name in the book. If the name is Anglo-Saxon it might make me think of my own roots. There is always a mystery in a name if you sit with it long enough. It’s like a human face — in fact a person’s name becomes part of their face. I suppose I’d like to see the person who gets the spot in my next novel. My next book is going to be… well I’ll tell you all about it later.
What work of literature would you most like to have your own name appear in as a character?
I don’t like my name. I find it rather boring and most of the time I go by my nickname Kaz. Living abroad has been a pleasure for many reasons — one of them being that it enabled me to escape my own name which is very prosaic. Therefore my name would probably appear in a novel and belong to a minor well-behaved character. Someone rather unlike me!
You and a friend can win tickets to The Walrus is Coming to Town! by being the first to e-mail kwatson@ffwd.greatwest.ca. For ticket and event information call 294 7447 or visit shopthewalrus.com.
