Zohar’s Man of la Book, a popular Bookish blog, has just posted a short, entertaining piece I’ve written about the naming of characters in popular fiction–Polly, in particular.
It begins:
“Popular fiction for younger readers has long featured adventurous, resourceful, determined female protagonists, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice to L. Frank Baum’s Dorothy to Philip Pullman’s Lyra to Susanne Collins’s Katniss.
“Their influence on the culture can be far-reaching. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published, to great acclaim, in 1900. Four years later, responding reluctantly to the demands of the novel’s admirers, the author published a sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, but Baum’s eager, insistent readers would not let him stop there. His publisher released additional sequels in 1907, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1913, and every year thereafter until 1919, when he died.”
Stop by Zohar’s place for the rest!
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Thanks very much, Humidor. Glad to hear you’ve enjoyed the piece.
Don
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Wow, that’s a really clever way of thinikng about it!
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