Hi Tomas! I wanted to ask: is the name "Arden Vox" significant?
Aarden in Dutch means "earth" or "earthly", and Vox in Latin means "voice." So his name kinda means "voice of Earth" -- which seems appropriate, given his motivation for working on The Project.
No. The joke there is "Ardent Voice", and the slight connotations of Vox populi: as he is both acting unilaterally for everyone and thinks they are him. And of course this famous phrase: Vox populi, vox Dei – "The voice of the people is the voice of God".
Esther is just a reference to the novel I Smell
Esther Williams, which I was reading when I was writing the story. And it is referenced in the DFW essay the protagonist inverted the message of.
As for Krishna, I just thought the line "granting me an unwariness that allows me to ask such things of Krishna" was amusing, so named him Krishna.
Aarden in Dutch means "earth" or "earthly", and Vox in Latin means "voice." So his name kinda means "voice of Earth" -- which seems appropriate, given his motivation for working on The Project.