Okay, here's my question. Not a serious one, just curious if anyone had a tkae on this. What's with the names of the guys from the Agency? (of course, they're all men, god bless america. bah). I keep feeling like I'm missing something. Ah, well, prolly am. Only read it once.

I'm not positive. I believe they're just code names, since they are a secret service organization, who likes to do things like code names.

The alternative is that, because it's a mythical setting, they've been given non-mythical names just so they're non-mythical.

Of course, there was also a hint and a redirection in there with Loki, who was Mr. World. It makes World is just another human, but he's really not. However, since his name is World, which is bigger than Town, for example, that means he's more important.

=Brian

Intersting. I thought they were sort of abstract modern concepts taking on physical form. Shows what I know.

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Originally posted by Sparker:
Intersting. I thought they were sort of abstract modern concepts taking on physical form. Shows what I know.

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It's possible, but not the interpretation I got. After all, I'm not the author, I'm just some guy who read the books a couple of times.

The reason I wouldn't think that they're abstract concepts is because he went through the trouble of giving them a back story. One was married, the other was planning on seducing his widow, that sort of thing. I'm guessing that the two reasons for the introduction of that knowledge is to: 1) humanize them; and 2) make you not feel so bad when Laura kills the one, since he was just a slime anyways. Very popular technique, that second one.

There's plenty of good reasons to go with your theory, though. Don't give up on it on my account.

=Brian

heres a stretch, but a fun one:

Mr. Town, Street, Wood, Stone etc..

elementals, as in smaller elements of a World...
keep following now; Men to be sure, but pawns of Mr. World and so named accordingly.

Mr. World: In Myth, the dark/evil/bad cop often inherits the material...or the Earth.
(biblically, Satan, father of lies is master of the material and the base)

Mr. World represents the bad cop, drumming the "other" side against Shadow/Wednesday.
(also relating the milieu of lies to he of the world, wheras painting Odin/Wednesday as the representor of the "spirit" or "sublime" side vs. the base name of World, which represents falsehood)

again, a stretch, but a fun one to roll around.



a good cop / bad cop name for a two man con.

[This message has been edited by Whiteboy (edited 06-10-2002).]

I think it was partly to give the same creepy effect the Strangers names had in Dark City-- "Mr. Hand" and all that...
Of course, the characters in the Neil novel had the disadvantage of not being played by Richard O'Brian, so i kept thinking of extras from the X-Files... still, pretty cool....

the (yes, i know he did the commentary track for Dark City) floyd

They brought to my mind the agents from The Matrix -- which is probably why I thought they weren't really human.

That spider-like "search engine" was very Matrixesque too. I liked that bit.

When Mr. Town (I think it was him) had taken a branch from the tree and as trying to drive away from the farm, he talks about how he was in the CIA, and was now doing this wacky shit. He also acts very human toward Shadow's wife and the loss of Wood and Stone.

Well, I too thought they were there, because everyone knows people like that have to be there. Not everyone perhaps, but very many people believe in secret societies ruling the world. And those society people would have to be human because they are believed to be human. I am not making sense, am I ? It was just a thought.

I thought for a while they were sort of abstract meta-mythical figures, but now I think it's supposed to be a humorous representation of any US government agencies desire to engage in pointless intrigue.