Friday, October 08, 2004

That middle initial

Incidentally, it's rather unprecedented for the sitting commander in chief to be comprehensibly referenced only by his middle initial. The middle name is a wierd marker. Frank Lentricchia once pointed out that it was odd that our famous assassins all are recognized by their full names: John Wilkes Booth. Lee Harvey Oswald. James Earl Ray. In the Russian tradition, only one person has ever had his middle name, or patronymic, function as a standalone reference: Lenin, whose name was invoked so frequently that he was colloquially called Ilyich. These are the history-makers in whose company W finds himself.

2 comments:

Todd said...

You forgot one more historical personage whose middle initial is often used: Jesus H. Christ. But I don't think many people refer to him as just "H."

Todd said...

And another thing. I know your patronymic isn't Berridge. And your first name isn't Graham, either.