There are two characters in the book The Intuitionist who share their names with b-list comic book characters. The characters are Ben Urich and James Corrigan. I found this too much of a coincidence to be unintentional, but I am not sure why he would have done it. Is it supposed to be a commentary on something or have any kind of significance at all? Did he just do it for kicks. This is the only book of his I have read so I’m not sure if this is a thing Whitehead does or if he has that kind of sense of humor. I did a bit of searching, but I couldn’t find it acknowledged anywhere.
For background, in comics, Ben Urich is a journalist appearing mostly in Daredevil comics and Jim/James Corrigan has been a name shared by multiple characters in the DC universe. I think it was the Specter and the name of a corrupt cop in The Gotham Central series.
Anybody have any ideas?
by Exotic-Channel4253
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Maybe it’s just a nod to comic book fans. Who knows?
He is a Marvel Comics fan
From an interview he did with the Times.
EZRA KLEIN: So I’ve heard you say that Stan Lee and Marvel comics made you want to be a writer. What were the comics you were into?
COLSON WHITEHEAD: It was late ’70s, so Marv Wolfman writing “Amazing Spider-Man.” Chris Claremont’s reboot of “The X-Men” was very big. Frank Miller doing his “Daredevil” magic. Get into his weird, scary New York — [LAUGHS] that he liked to do. So yeah, I mean, it was Marvel comics that made me want to write, Rod Serling.
I used to just hang around the house reading comic books and watching TV. And so it seemed like being a writer could be a cool job. You could work from home and not talk to people. That seemed pretty ideal.