Provenance of Titles

1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV)
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

 

True story: my Voyager novel, The Black Shore, was original titled Paradise. Then my editor realized that the book right before mine was titled The Garden and thought that, yes, we were going to that well too often!

Just as well. In retrospect, The Black Shore is a better title . . . and Paradise was kinda uninspired.

 

For all of Eden's charms, calling every seemingly pleasant place after it kind of diminishes its impact.

 

Why did so many Data episodes have his name in the title? Nobody else has so many...

 

I've never read or even heard of "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman.'' But when I saw the title I thought, "That sure sounds like something written by Harlan Ellison."

 

Ellison's great with titles. As much as they changed "City on the Edge of Forever" around, they never messed with the title.

 

Okay, what I meant to say is, no other main characters. Even Kirk doesn't get his name in a title. (Though Spock does.)

 

"Is There in Truth No Beauty" is a quotation from George Herbert's poem "Jordan (1)."

"Who Mourns for Adonais" is a quotation from Percy Shelley's long elegy "Adonais."

Being a Miltonist, I'd have liked "Space Seed" to be "To Rule in Hell" or "A Heaven of Hell" or something like that, but the nice thing about "Space Seed" is it refers to both the sleeper ship and the marooned colony, both of which could be likened to seeds.

 

I wonder how many people still pronounce it "uh-DON-is" rather than the actual "AH-doh-NAY-is"?

 

In many areas of professional writing, the author unfortunately doesn't get to choose the title of his work.

 

Well, I guess I'm stopping here and now. I guess we assume it's a different spelling of Adonis.

 

Which is actually a mispelling of Adonais. In the Greek myths, Adonais was famous for his beauty, and everyone loved him for it.

Percy Bysshe Shelley used the name in his epic poem mourning the death of poet John Keats, which is undoubtedly where Star Trek got the name.

 

I thought Adōnis was the Greek version derived from the Hebrew Adonai.

 

Do you think it's lazy or inspired?

 

That translates from Hebrew as "My Master" (or Lord). I don't know what the Greek version means

 

Often, it's a collaborative process . . .

"Um, what else can we call it?"

 

``Lincoln's Doctor's Dog.''

``There's already three of those out.''

 

These days it would be "The Girl with Lincoln's Doctor's Dog."

 

I guess it depends on how different the books are and how special the title is. If the book was called "The ____", well, there's bound to be more than one person who thought of that. If you choose a title like "Purple Space Chipmunks Punched Me In The Eye", I guarantee you're probably safe.

To what extent do you make sure the title means something relevant and significant to the plot? Do you sometimes start with a title and write something to fit it?