[Chapter 15](https://www.reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/r8wo0c/behind_the_mask_chapter_15_fm_incest_cousincousin/)
“You know what’s weird? Parents get to name their kids.”
“…Yeah, and?”
“I’m just saying. A person isn’t who they’re gonna be until many years later. Sometimes they even change who they are through the course of their life. But through all that, you still call them the same thing. We don’t do that for caterpillars and butterflies.”
“Jesus Christ…”
“Caterpillar. Butterfly. Two separate names for… essentially the same creature, but it’s changed. But people change too. You can never tell what they’ll turn into just from when they’re born. The parents don’t know who this baby is gonna be. Even the baby doesn’t know who it’s gonna be. But they slap a name on it anyway, and y’know, forever now.”
“Drew, it’s just a fucking name. What something’s called doesn’t define what it is.”
“Then that defeats the whole purpose of names, maybe even language. The whole point of language is communication. If we don’t all use the same words for things, kinda useless, isn’t it.”
“Kids need a name that early because they need something to formulate a sense of self around. Otherwise they just grow up with no identity. Might as well be referred to by number.”