John Havelock
I am Havelock.
Nomenclature
"Call me Havelock" would make a true point. But it's not good enough.
I have thought to play Ishmael. But no. That's not good enough. It doesn't go far enough. Melville meant well, but he couldn't finish the job.
A man needs a name, if he is to belong to the world, and the world to him.
A man without a name, without the power of names, suffers anomie (nonfiction).
You need a name for me. I need a name for myself.
For the mind that must give names, everything needs a name.
(Memo to mind: take occasional time outs: stop naming, relax, meditate. Then get back to it, refreshed.)
Man gave names to all the animals. Still does.
Man gives names to all that he can name.
The Man Who Doesn't Get Killed
You probably know me as "The Man Who Doesn't Get Killed," something like that, and not as some old guy who goes on about the Old Testament (nonfiction) and Herman Melville (nonfiction).
Please do not ever refer to me as "The man who can't be killed." I always said that wasn't true, from the beginning. It causes nothing but attempts on my life, and it's gotten a lot of good and undeserving people murdered, so enough already.
This is the twenty-first century, not the agriculture-through-industrialism nation-state building phase. Many of the old problems no longer apply, and we should stop behaving as if they do.
As for the new problems, I will come back to that in a while.
Hollerith
Hollerith is a personal friend of mine, and I need him to keep doing business, so please accord to him the same "Man who doesn't get killed" status that you do for me.
He is The Card Man. He has Cards. You want Cards. Simple. Don't mess with The Card Man, please.