Filling a need for the aspiring action-adventure author

 

Literary juggernaut Dan Brown has the following passage in chapter 49 of his book Digital Fortress.

Becker dragged himself off the floor of the bus and collapsed in an empty seat.
“Nice move, dipshit.” The kid with the three spikes sneered. Becker squinted in the stark lighting. It was the kid he’d chased onto the bus. He glumly surveyed the sea of red, white, and blue coiffures.
“What’s with the hair?” Becker moaned, motioning to the others. “It’s all…”
“Red, white, and blue?” the kid offered.
Becker nodded, trying not to stare at the infected perforation in the kid’s upper lip.
“Judas Taboo,” the kid said matter-of-factly.
Becker looked bewildered.
The punk spat in the aisle, obviously disgusted with Becker’s ignorance. “Judas Taboo? Greatest punk since Sid Vicious? Blew his head off here a year ago today. It’s his anniversary.”

This suggests two observations: the first being that when one is in need for a generator of fictional punk rock musician names, one could use the algorithm of taking the first word of a multiword metal (not punk) band name for the first name, and a single word Hasbro board game name for the last name. For future reference, here are the corresponding lists one could employ.

Multiword metal band names, first word only

  • White
  • Mötley
  • Iron
  • Def
  • Faith
  • System
  • Queens
  • Satan’s
  • Led

One word Hasbro board game names

  • Monopoly
  • Clue
  • Sorry!
  • Scrabble
  • Risk
  • Stratego
  • Cranium
  • Battleship

Thus you get the lineup of Iron Clue, White Cranium, Led Risk, and Faith Sorry! That last one I am personally a little dubious of, but the author using the technique is expected to use a little bit of his or her own critical judgement to filter out the clinkers.

The second observation is that if you name your protagonist Becker, the reader of a certain age will think of the character as being played by Ted Danson.

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