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Re: sacred names

Hi,

> uh, don, i don't care how they rationalized using a name that was part of the
> black jazz lexicon for a white man's band. .... should be untouchable out of
> respect for the dignity of the legends they represent. the point is the
> name's already taken.

With all due respect to Thelonius Monk, that is a very silly claim.  Perhaps
it's because my own name is Don Smith (not to mention my dad's name is Don
Smith, and his dad's name is Don Smith -- different middle names, though, so
I'm not a III), but to talk about a name being "already taken" seem ludicrous
to me.  (When you have a name like mine, doing a web search on your name will
cause you to lose your sense of uniqueness *real* quickly.)  Names are just
words, and they do not have a unique mapping from object to subject.  Should we
rename all the small, tree-like plants because the name "Bush" is already
taken?  There were monks long before there was jazz.  If anything, Thelonius
should have to rename, because many of those monks earned their name by
enduring persecution or committing themselves to good works (I don't actually
believe that; I'm just trying to apply your logic to a broader example).  Just
the fact that Ric's band was originally called "The Art Monke Trio" (Monke with
an "e") shows that the name had *nothing* to do with Thelonius Monk.  Nothing
here was "rationalized", because there was nothing to rationalize.  Convergent
evolution: things can start out from very different places and end up looking
similar.  Words are not like basketball jersey numbers; they don't get
"retired" to one particular usage or meaning.  

Sorry, but I do not get your logic.  You said Ric should not have named his
band after Thelonius.  I pointed out that he did not, in fact, name his band
after Thelonius.  If he were trying to ride on Thelonius's coat tails, or 
trying to be a Thelonius sound-alike "tribute" band, or trying to capitalize
off of Thelonius's name and/or reputation for his own gain, then I would agree
with you.  But he isn't.  It's just a coincidence.

Yours,
-- 
Don Smith                    Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
dasmith at rotse2_physics.lsa.umich.edu        http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

"The art of filmmaking is the art of regret."                 -- Ang Lee
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