It's not just nicknames for their mother, though, it's their father, too. Neither of them seem able to call him by his name--in fact, the only people who can really call James by his name are the alcoholics in AA, who tend to talk to a "Jim." These particular nicknames, particularly the Moms, sort of makes them larger-than-life, that is, it disassociates them from actually being "people." The idea of actually meeting an Avril is terrifying, the thought that that person exists, let alone is related to you. But I can understand this epic "Moms," this embodiment of such universal mothering--as in, a plurality of moms--that she somehow ceases to exist, herself; this, what Bain notes is a simulacrum's behavior, or what Wallace flat-out labels as showing anhedonic tendencies.
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