The Barnables

William Ansley · 26 Jun 2000, 22:24 · from urth-v0029.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: The Barnables
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 22:24:20
Message-ID: <urth-v0029-0082 at digest.urth.net>
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At 10:40 PM -0700 6/24/00, Adam Stephanides wrote:
>Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:
>
>>  The full name on that page is "Evan S. Barnable": remind me, was his dad
>>  named Evan?  Do we have evidence that his dad called him Smoky, and that
>>  Smoky is what the "S" stands for; or is Smoky just his hippie handle?
>
>I haven't reread the whole book in a long time, but the only evidence
>bearing on these questions I can find offhand is in the section dealing
>with Smoky's childhood: Smoky "lived a lot in three different suburbs
>with the same name in three different cities, and in each his relatives
>called him by a different name--his own, his father's, and Smoky--which
>last so suited his evanescence that he kept it." ("Anonymity," I, 1, p.
>6 in Bantam TPB.)  Which seems to mean that Smoky's father was not
>called Evan (since his name was "different"), and suggests that Smoky
>was first addressed as  Smoky by his relatives and not by his father,
>though Smoky may still be his middle name.

I re-read the whole book recently and rather carefully and so feel=20
fairly confident when I state that this is the only part of the book=20
where the origin of the nickname "Smoky" is discussed.

However, I disagree somewhat with your interpretation of the passage=20
you quote above. I think that when Crowley says "his own, his=20
father's, and Smoky" he means that the first set of relatives in the=20
first city called him Evan, the second set Barnable (his father's=20
name in the sense of "Mr. Barnable? That's my my father's name.") and=20
the third set Smoky. It may be peculiar for the relatives of a young=20
boy to call him by his last name, but it is not unheard of; it is=20
much less likely (to me at least) that both Smoky and his father=20
would allow their relatives to call Smoky Douglas (for example) if=20
that was really his father's name. It would have caused a lot of=20
unnecessary confusion, if nothing else.

This still makes it seems likely that Smoky's father was not named=20
Evan, but not certain.

William Ansley

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