Welcome to Maid Spin, the personal website of iklone. I write about about otaku culture as well as history, philosophy and mythology.
My interests range from anime & programming to mediaevalism & navigation. Hopefully something on this site will interest you.
I'm a devotee of the late '90s / early '00s era of anime, as well as a steadfast lover of maids. My favourite anime is Mahoromatic. I also love the works of Tomino and old Gainax.
To contact me see my contact page.
In comparative folklore names have power. To know the "true name" of a being is to wield power over it. Rumpelstiltskin, the Sun-god Ra, Odysseus; across (Western) myths and legends is a widespread folkloric trope (Stith-Thompson C432.1) which remains popular in modern fiction and is one of those ideas which just "makes sense". It's a common framing in Tolkien, and the very basis of magic within Le Guin's Earthsea. And although I prefaced "western", this is only because I don't have the context of cultural folklore elsewhere and even so we see it often in anime, Sen is trapped by her name in Spirited Away, & it is the whole premise of the Death Note. It just makes sense. And although these examples require a supernatural element, we can find the narrative trope played out in "realistic" examples of criminals or spies for whom keeping their "true identity" under wraps is vital for their survival. Even in Homer we see Odysseus' "Nemo" trick working on both the supernatural and "spy" levels.
When I was young it was common sense to obscure your identity online. Adults would warn us of the dangers of ever posting details about our real selves online. I distinctly remember an "ICT" class (do they even have those anymore?) where we all made up handles for ourselves that we could use if we "ever had to make an online account". I picked "Lancelot01". But in the years since my childhood the culture has changed. Nowadays, unless you are particularly conscious and savvy about it, the web demands you give up your name to it. If you want an account with Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc you are required by their terms & services to provide your true Christian name. Most social media sites now punish users who post under "false-handles" and "avatars", while artificially boosting users who post under their fullnames and identifiable mugshots. I can hardly know what they teach the kids these days, but for most adults to tell their kids to stay anonymous online would be hypocritical and anachronistic. What changed? Why are we know expected to hand over the most powerful label we have?
There are several possible answers. The most obvious is greed on the part of internet corporations. When they have your identity they can squeeze more money out of you, while holding you accountable for any breaches of ToS or cheating their system. And while your name is the most pivotal piece of information, it is combined with a glut of further personal details to create an intersectional shadow you which can be tracked across cyberspace. If you give up your name even once, the venn-diagram of usage characteristics and miscellaneous metadata collected on your "anonymous" accounts can be linked back to your real-life identity. So unless you have been on this balance-ball like a schizophrenic since the day you first watched the ASDF Movie you are compromised without reprise.
The second answer, which ties in with the first, is that the internet is real now. In 2010 it was still a fantastical realm separate from reality, "what happens online isn't real" doesn't make sense today. Its no longer a video game where you can play false characters without repercussions, its the incorporeal-realm within which we conduct a increasingly large portion of our actual lives: professional, social & other. Therefore you must announce your identity like you do in the real world. If you meet someone at work or in a social setting, refusing to give them your name or wearing a concealing mask is an immediate sign of dishonestly and mal-intent. For worse the times have changed and this is the reality of modern society, which wouldn't be so bad if the internet permitted you the liberty to separate your "real-world" internet activity from your "alternate persona" internet activity, a practice which is becoming harder and more frowned upon by the normal masses as the years tick by.
Providing your name is an act of deference. When you meet with a superior you do not address him with his name, but he does to you. To call the King "Charles" would be obscenely rude, but for him to use your first name would be a sign of great generosity. This is the way the world works, the weak give their names to the strong and the strong's names hold power and should be used in moderation. In the Hebrew Bible the name of God is commonly obfuscated, his true name is hidden from the reader through titles and achievements, just like you would call your teacher "Sir" or your father "Dad". Even the Tetragrammaton is obscure, with Kabbalistic Judaism maintaining that the "true pronunciation of YHWH" is a fact known only to the divinely enlightened. There is also a sense that it is dangerous, to hear the true name of God is to die, for it is too much for mortal man. This is also seen across other cultures with regards to dangerous concepts through word-taboo. Curse-words are forbidden because they invoke accompanying sin. In Northern European languages (where they were more common) the original Indo-European word "arktos" was replaced with the word "bear" (meaning brown-one) to avoid summoning one, and in French & Spanish the original latin word "mela" for "apple" was replaced respectively with "pomme" (just meaning fruit) and "manzana" (meaning, weirdly, "Gaius Matius's favourite fruit", who was a best friend of Cicero) all in order to avoid the association with the "evil" apple of Eve (malum-malum), although Italians didn't seem to see the need.
For many cultures and through most time-periods the use of aliases was commonplace. Your given-name (firstname, Christian name, whatever you want to call it) was your "true name". All other names were there as layers of personal space, shields around your real identity which only those close to you could use. This is what "surname" means, it is an over-name, a cover. This is true with titles (for the rich) and nicknames (for the poor). Using someone's given name is highly personal and in many cultural contexts, rude. In Japanese the term "呼び捨て means to address someone using their "naked" given name without honourifics, and is rude except for those of close relation. This sentiment is being eroded in the West, but much of this erosion is inorganic, as discussed above, nouveau cyber-corporations which feed of information need our real names to control us as if we were little Rumpelstiltskins, strip us of the names which shield us and leave our souls bare to enslave us like Yubaba in Spirited Away. The internet is a scary place! Never use your real identity and be wary of interacting with those who do. Your name, just like your signature, fingerprint or retinal scan, is one of your most valuable assets in an "information age" where information is power.
