In my world, humans (and now dolphins) sparsely populate a planet. The sparsely part is part of the back story and becomes part of the plot later. My world is peopled with individuals, some of whom have mental powers (called talents.) Although telepathy is not uncommon in my world, one of my characters is a kind of super telepath. He even has an unusually large head that makes him look hydrocephalic. He functions as a sort of radio on the sailing vessel where a good part of the my story takes place. His telepathy can work over vast distances, unlike common telepathy which has a range of some tens of miles. I named him Radio. It is a name and a title all in one and all individuals who have this particular aberration are referred to as Radio. He doesn't have too much of his own personality because he is a bit of an idiot savant (such a horrid term.) He literally can only do the job that he is pretty much born to do. Can't tie his own shoes. There is a smattering of other techno-terms within the story line. They serve as archaic bits of vocabulary harking back to how the humans and dolphins got to be where and what they are. Is that hokey? :redface: P.S. I'm probably going to play with the spelling of Radio just a bit to denote linguistic flux within the human community. I did this with the name that humans use to refer to the mythical point of origin on the planet. The humans call it Auregen now, while the dolphins still refer to it as Origin. Does that make it better, or worse??
Is Radio just a kind of nickname or was it a given name when he was born? If it's a given name I may have to say that is a little corny, but if it's just a name reflecting his 'talents' and job description then it'll fly, and be pretty cool. Playing with the spelling is a great idea, and maybe even substituting simpler synonyms. If the human population didn't have any effective means to preserve the original language, then alterations to spelling, meaning, and possibly pronunciation makes complete sense.
Ok, well... good. I just don't normally go in for obvious names for characters. Even when my favorite author, Octavia Butler, chose to name the protagonist of her Xenogenesis trilogy, Lilith, I had to groan because it was just such a heavy handed use of allegory.
Lilith's Brood has a lot of mythological allegory like that. She is a great writer. OP: I like his nick name Radio. I didn't think anything sounded corney. It actually sounds like an interesting world. Can the humans and dolphins communicate?
Yes, Octavia is my all time fav. I felt like I blasphemed just a bit there when I criticized her. :redface: The dolphins (they themselves use the word delf) can communicate with humans but do not. Because of happenstances that become important later in the story, the delf were left to their own devices in the northern reaches of an enclosed ocean (The Closed Ocean.) Humans no longer even remember the dolphins, and the majority of dolphins have only a semi-mythical recollection of the humans.
A) Not hokey. I want to read this. B) You might want to check this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow8oHrKmEJU <-- The story isnt similar to your's at all, but the main character's name is Radio, and while certainly not an idiot nor idiot savant, I immediately thought of this film. (Also, second favourite film of all time.) --Edit: God. Even the trailer puts tears in my eyes. I emphasize point A.
Oh, man! I sooooooooo forgot about that movie. No way I can call him Radio now. I will be back when I have a different game plan. :redface:
You seem to like this word as I've seen you use it several time lately . . . name him "Hokey" for his quirky nature.
If you get completely against the idea of Radio, maybe call him Radeo? Or just Rado? Haha just putting it out there.
Could also name him something to do with radios: Short Wave, Squawk, Freq (for frequency), Sig (for signal), Trans (for transceiver), Tuner, Ant (for antenna; not the gay comic), Spectrum or Spec (for all the radio frequencies) . . . just some thoughts.
As soon as I saw "talents" I thought of Octavia Butler...one of my fav's also. Just throwing out a few names if you decide against Radio. Tooner (tuner) Stacean (keeping with your human/dolphin idea); or Stacheon Dyal (dial) Ray D. O.
HAHAHAH! If it wasn't hokey before, that last one SURELY would have been, and they would just have called him 'radio' for short because of his name. I do like Dyal a LOT, though.
