Mr. ______ from the teeming city of ________

[mdin]

I read a lot of lit in college where specific things were left blank, like the last name or the city the story takes place in. The author would actually have a blank in there, even in dialogue. "Oh, Mr. ______ you're such a tease! Of course I'd love to go to ______ with you this weekend."

I had forgotten about that until I picked up one of my wife's chick lit books the other day and saw the author doing it. She said it's pretty common in her books, though sometimes instead of blanks they're put in a random word, though it's understood that's not his real name. Like Mr. Boss and Mrs. Having-an-affair With My Dad. Have you ever read anything where the author did that? How did you react?

[Mistook]

Reminds me of the old classics from Orwell, Fitzgerald and that lot.

"I met Mr. M______ at the cottage in North Richmond. He said, [instert oblique french phrase here] and I had to agree."

Seems weird to me that it's made a resurgence in, of all things, Chick Lit?

What's next? A hip New York single, staring into the green oblivion of her glass of Pernod the night before a running of the bulls?

[emeraldcite]

Usually it was done to protect a person or a place, but I'm not sure how I would react in a current novel. It would have to be well done, otherwise I'd spend half my brain questioning why they were doing it... which may hinder my enjoyment of the text

[carley]

In chick lit, it's done to be funny. Like in Jennifer Weiner's Good In Bed, Samantha's boyfriend does yoga. He's referred to as Yoga King. I don't think that his real name is ever mentioned in the book. I see a lot of it in chick lit and it's usually done to be snide or sarcastic or funny or whatever and it usually works. :)

[reph]

I have a theory – no, just a speculation – about the reason writers in earlier centuries did that. Using a blank instead of a name makes the story seem more real, because it implies that there's some actual information to suppress.

[Jamesaritchie]

I read a lot of lit in college where specific things were left blank, like the last name or the city the story takes place in. The author would actually have a blank in there, even in dialogue. "Oh, Mr. ______ you're such a tease! Of course I'd love to go to ______ with you this weekend."

I had forgotten about that until I picked up one of my wife's chick lit books the other day and saw the author doing it. She said it's pretty common in her books, though sometimes instead of blanks they're put in a random word, though it's understood that's not his real name. Like Mr. Boss and Mrs. Having-an-affair With My Dad. Have you ever read anything where the author did that? How did you react?

I think I was lucky. Whenever we came across writing like that in college, we skipped it.

[LightShadow]

People write like that? I don't think, wait, once, in an old Thorne Smith book, maybe, I think. I suppose it has it's cuteness and uses sometimes, but I wouldn't think the blanks would ever become more than a rare occurrence, except way back when.

[henriette]

"les miserables" by victor hugo is full of these blanks; "the vicomte de H____" or "l'abbaye de ______"

i'm not sure what the purpose was, but reading a thousand page book with thousands of blanks was quite the headache!

[Jamesaritchie]

"les miserables" by victor hugo is full of these blanks; "the vicomte de H____" or "l'abbaye de ______"

i'm not sure what the purpose was, but reading a thousand page book with thousands of blanks was quite the headache!



Which is a shame, because the story and characters are quite good.

[maestrowork]

I think sometimes they write in real people in a totally fictional way that they'd want to leave the names out, but everyone who reads the book would know who they are... H____? It must be Hitler!

[katiemac]

I wouldn't consider the nicknames used in chick-lit these days to be of the same persuasion as the blanks.

Like someone said, the nicknames are for humor, and a lot of women in real life do refer to others in this manner. Take, for example, Sex and the City -- the show is full of characters with applied nicknames, including the more famous "Mr. Bigg." In some cases, the character's name is still given, but the nickname works as more of a description, especially if the character is "off-screen," or there's a lot of in-and-out-again minor characters. For example, it's a lot easier to remember the who's-who when you have "Baby Mama Drama" (BMD) and "Mr. Mysterious" as opposed to Scott and Steve.

Plus, it gives the readers something extra to laugh about when they know a person who fits the exact description of the nickname.

[Mike Martyn]

"les miserables" by victor hugo is full of these blanks; "the vicomte de H____" or "l'abbaye de ______"

i'm not sure what the purpose was, but reading a thousand page book with thousands of blanks was quite the headache!


State censorship was common a couple of hundred years. I'd guess that if you left out the actual names of the great and powerful, they might not smash your printing press or throw you in the Bastille to rot! Admittedly, Hugo wrote in the 1870's(?) but the principal still applies except in his time the real problem would be actions for libel. (Just as it is now)

[Susan Gable]

I wouldn't consider the nicknames used in chick-lit these days to be of the same persuasion as the blanks.

Like someone said, the nicknames are for humor, and a lot of women in real life do refer to others in this manner.

Also, this works quite well when the POV character doesn't know the other person's real name. She can call him Bagel Guy because she sees him every morning in the bagel shop, or Surfer Dude, or whatever he seems like.

Buffy (the Vampire Slayer) started doing this, and I think it crept into the vocabulary.

Susan G.

[batgirl]

I read a lot of lit in college where specific things were left blank, like the last name or the city the story takes place in. The author would actually have a blank in there, even in dialogue. "Oh, Mr. ______ you're such a tease! Of course I'd love to go to ______ with you this weekend."

Doesn't John Crowley's Little, Big open with that style? Not the characters' names, but the place names, I think.
It was written in a consciously old-fashioned style, so that quirk didn't bother me. I have occasionally wondered, though, since the M-- style was in favour at a time when novels were frequently read out loud among family or friends, just how people managed the dashes in speech, back then. I mean, I can cope with some of it, but not all: "Aha," cried the Marquis de M--(Em), "M. G--(Gee) has enlisted in the --th (huh?) Foot, has he? What has his father, that stalwart of the --shire (huh?) Horse, to say to that?"
I'd assumed it was the influence of the roman a clef, and a desire for verisimilitude, but I'm wondering now if the idea of what a writer is really free to invent in a realistic novel has altered over the years?
-Barbara