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As I was reading Legion this past week, I was recgonizing names from the first book. First one I saw was the name Karl. Karl is the Butler in The Exorcist. Karl in Legion is the Father of a Serial Killer. Another name Spencer, Sharon Spencer in the first, in Legion there is a Nurse Spencer. Does Blatty like to use a repeat of names? Or did he run out of names. Another one in The Exorcist there is the one woman who Chirs invites to her party, her name is Perrin. Then there is Merrin. Odd isn't it? What do you think?
In terms of using the names in Legion (which I still have to read..), maybe he wanted to keep that connection with The Exorcist. I doubt he was unable to think of new names because. well.. They're just too similar. This also made me think of how many 'Williams' were involved in the production of The Exorcist =P
This is something that occurred to me too. I just finished the novel for the first time.
Â
Remember
that Blatty intentionally alerts us to anagrams in the novel. I think
there are a few at work regarding people's names.Â
Regan:
it's an exact anagram of 'anger'. It also contains “rage,” and that's a
word that Blatty uses often in conjunction with the demon.Â
Lankester—
a caster-out of devils. Also, the first syllables of Lankester Merran
form “La Mer,” French for “the sea.” Also a famous piece of classical
music by Debussy. I have no idea if that's relevant.Â
Karras— a phonetic anagram of sacre, the French word for rite or ritual. D. Karras, a phonetic anagram of “sacred.”
Â
Chris MacNeil— kneel (before) Christ.
Â
Blatty also likes to play games with words I noticed, which is a delight. For instance, when Father Merrin first arrives at the house:
Â
“As she turned around to face him, she saw him standing with his head angled sideways, glancing upward, as if he were listening— no, more like feeling; she thought— for some presence out of sight… some distant vibration that was known and familiar. Puzzled, she watched him.”
Â
The first time I read this, the word “Puzzled” just leapt out at me because it's not what I thought it said at first. With the capital “P,” a “u” and two “z”s, I thought it said something else entirely. Now that is a master stroke of subtlety. I notice that he employs this technique quite a lot— substituting a more ordinary word for a contextually loaded word. I can't think of other examples off the top of my head but I noticed it a lot as I was reading it.
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