What’s in a name?

Mere minutes after choosing the name of this blog, Czardoz Contra World, I was struck by an amusing thought. Would readers be drawn to this blog mistakenly thinking that it was devoted to the video game Contra? The name is of course a riff on Nietzsche contra Wagner, the great philosopher’s essay cum diatribe against the great composer. After a coming of age, or perhaps better termed a spiritual earthquake, Nietzsche turns on his former friend and hero, unleashing his often vitriolic prose (and even a bit of impish verse) against Richard Wagner, now become the laughable prophet of mediocrity.

Despite the game’s various merits and numerous fans, this blog will feature no gratuitous discussion of Contra, or its sequels or derivatives. Forgive me, errant Googlers, for here your bullet-riddled vision-quest/nightmare shall not be found.

Perhaps a survey will be in order for choosing a more appropriate name for this blog. Or perhaps this name will stick, despite any perceived ambiguity. After all, does anyone think of rainforests when browsing Amazon.com?

As far as the idea of being “against the world,” this is meant partly in jest. One cannot be wholly against the world if one is still living within the world. But conflict is the seed of not only great writing, but also writing that gets the dogs barking, so why not stick a little skirmish in the name as well? As Brian Cazeneuve put it, “War is on Page One of your local paper. Détente is on page 47.”