About

Dwight Towers was a character in Nevil Shute’s end o’ the world novel “On the Beach. ” Both the novel and the 1959 film adaptation are worthy of close scrutiny…

Here’s a clip from the wikipedia entry-

“From Australia, survivors detect a mysterious and incomprehensible wireless telegraphy signal originating from the United States (San Diego). With hope that some life has remained in the contaminated regions, one of the last American nuclear submarines, USS Sawfish, placed by its captain under Australian naval command, is ordered to sail north from its port of refuge in Melbourne (Australia’s southernmost major mainland city and headquarters of the Australian Navy) to try to contact whomever is sending the signal. The American captain, Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), leads the operation, leaving behind a woman of recent acquaintance, the alcoholic Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner), to whom he has become attached, despite his feelings of guilt regarding the certain deaths of his wife and children in the U.S. He refuses to admit that they are dead and continues to behave as though they are still alive.”

So, when I was looking for a nom-de-Internet, the idea of using a guy whose ideology caused everything he valued to be turned to mush but he STILL can’t let go of it, well – it had some irony-value.