What's in a name

[xmakina]

I've had quite a few people ask me about "xmakina" so I reckon it warrants it's own post.

1) How do you say it?
xmakina is phonetic - ex-mak (as in Apple Mac)-in-a.

2) Where does it come from?
I've had xmakina as my alias for about 7 years now. It originally came from needing to think of an alias after my old one (corrupt_uk_2000) began to show it's age as well as being too connected with me being 13. The actual inspiration came from Red Alert: Aftermath which contained a mission titled "Deus Ex Machina" which I thought sounded cool so condensed it into xmakina, because all good online names start with an x.

I was not aware of what Deus Ex Machina actually meant until quite a bit later, when I found out it meant "God From The Machine" which is pretty awesome for a software developer so I continued using it. It was even later than that that I found it's also the term for when a seemingly hopeless situation is resolved through a completely unexpected (and usually outside) event, e.g. War Of The Worlds where the aliens died because of germs. Which was rubbish.

So there we are. That's my name and why I use it. If anyone feels like it, I'd love to hear why you chose the name you use on LJ...

Comments

deus ex crane

[bondagewoodelf.livejournal.com]

The linguistic derivation is quite fun also (my Ancient Greek teacher taught us in secondary school, but it's also on Wikpedia).

It derives from the convention in ancient Greek plays where a crane ('mekhane') was used to lower actors playing gods on the stage.

So, literally it means 'God, by means of using a crane'

[dbsurfeit.livejournal.com]

Which ties into its current meaning due to the fact that the Ancient Greeks weren't, actually, terribly good at writing plays. Good for their time, perhaps, but they had a tendency to write in tragedy after dilemma until the protagonists were stuck in an complete rut with no possible solution. So, bam! The gods have to step in and sort everything out. Deus ex machina!

[louis_mallow]

Actually, it's just a different culture. It's no more 'bad' than African art or Peruvian singing is 'bad' - just a different frame of reference. And it's tempting to think it's not a different culture because the similarities are so striking.

If you don't believe me I'd highly recommend some books by David Wiles or by Csapo and Slater; I think they'd change your mind.

Once you're into the mindset, and can contextualise, the plays will seem quite marvellous. The main things we struggle with are the size of the performance space --which dwarfs any modern theatre and was open-air-- and the political significance. Athenian theatre at the Dionysia was... well let's just say that all seats were subsidised so everyone could go, including prisoners who were released for the performances. Even women and slaves may have attended. And this was about selling Athens's power, since it was the major show festival to visitors and metics.

Re: deus ex crane

[louis_mallow]

It's both. The God from the Machine would usually resolve plots in a way we now feel would be 'cheating' by the writer. But that's because all the Athenian Tragedy we have was from dramatic contests performed as part of religious festivals.

There's a cracking example at the end of Philoctetes.

[wolfpeach.livejournal.com]

Nice! I had figured it was a "Deus ex machina" reference.

Mine is a gardening joke. I am an obsessive gardener, and used to breed my own varieties of tomato. Latin for Tomato is "lyco-persicum" (lit "wolf-peach") because when the Europeans first encountered the tomato, not only did those prototypical varieties have a downy fuzz on them, but it was assumed that they were poisonous, and were only originally grown as an ornamental.

Also, I'm a rather camp, girly, boy in many ways, so "wolf-peach" is nicely ambiguous. :)

[feanorfinwe.livejournal.com]

Mine is a Tolkien reference. I usually use just "Feanor", who was one of the early born elves and a mastercraftsman and rebel. However, LJ said that the name "Feanor" was already taken, even though no-one seemed to be using it, so I added the name of his father, Finwe, on the end. My LJ icon is the symbol (or "star") of Feanor...mentioned momentarilly in "The Lord of The Rings" when Gandalf is describing the doors to Moria. It's one of the engravings on the doors.