What's Up with the Double Slash?

   In Other//half. What IS up with that? Also, how do you pronounce that? "Other half" is fine. Except pronounced the way it kind of forces you to, with a slight pause there between the two words and the slight emphasis on the word "half." Alternatively, pronounce it as one word: "otherhalf." Or "other over over half." "Other double-slash half" sounds pretty cool, too.

   But what's up with it? Why is there a double slash? Where is the influence coming from? What could have been the inspiration behind that? By any means far from a complete list, but:

1. The (apparently unnecessary!) slashes used to separate the parts of a hierarchical system in URLs
2. Dot hack
3. Dodge
4. Encoding into italics in the text formatting system Wikispaces uses (don't worry, you can escape the wikitext formatting by putting double backtick characters on either side of your text: Other``//``half to read Other//half instead of Otherhalf. Useful to know, right?)
5. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and the Vertigo tour



u2.com

6. It looks cool.

   I don't really know, in short. It's just nonsensical punctuation that appears far often than you'd expect. In Other//half, though, I don't know, it conveys a feeling of being "over over," Other over over half. Instead of separating them, it combines them, puts them into a group and makes them the same thing. Just like how other//halves work in this universe. They are combined, but separated by the exact same thing that combines them.