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Rise and Fall of the Pseudonym!

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In this article, originally published on Internet Actu [fr] on July 4, Xavier de la Porte from the French radio show Place de la Toile [fr] broadcasts his book review of the week . The radio program is dedicated to the question “Is it still possible/desirable to be anonymous on the Internet?” [fr]

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The book review of the week comes to us from the online magazine Salon. It’s entitled “The decline of the pseudonym” and is written by Carmela Ciuraru, a literary critique and recent publisher of a A (secret) history of pseudonyms. The article, while concentrating on pseudonyms in literature, offers interesting perspectives for better understanding the reasons we use pseudonyms on the Internet.

On its most basic level, a pseudonym is a form of theatre. Yet the diverse applications and situations urging authors to adopt them are infinitely complex, and often hard to identify. Names are full of pitfalls and potential, and may interfere with writing. Virginia Woolf – who never took a pen name – once said that an author’s fundamental conditions makes it impossible to stay sane:

Never be yourself, and always be you. That’s the problem.

Like a scenery change, A name change can mean a new perspective.

The pseudonym as a second identity

To some extent, says Carmela Ciuraru, all writing involves impersonalization- the convening of an ”I” of authority to make the speaker of a poem or a novel’s characters. Poet Walt Whitman’s explored other voices as himself. He embraced his multiple possibles. Yet other writers are not capable of such alchemy – or do not wish to do so – without the use of an alter ego. If the “I” who speaks is a construction, not entirely true regardless of the degree of autobiographical text, the use of the pseudonym is used to elevate the concept to another level by construction another invention. As Joyce Carol Oates wrote in 1987 in the New York Times, ”The culture of a pseudonym can be understood as a kind of culture in vivo of a narrative voice that underlies all work on the words in the making it unique and inimitable. ”

The fusion of an author and an alter ego is something unpredictable, according to Carmela Ciuraru. This can become like a marriage or partnership – faithful and strong, or  more like a short and exhilarating love story. The attraction is obvious and undeniable. Entering a new body plays with the erotic impulse. Historically, many authors were foreigners, living alone: becoming someone else offered them an intimacy they would not have otherwise obtained. In the absence of a companion in real life, the pseudonymous entity can be used as a confidante, guardian of secrets, and protector.

In Thimoty Gallwey book The Inner Game of Tennis (published in 1974), has applied the concept of splitting in two to the tennis player, describing how each entity promotes or hinders performance. What he provides is a kind of guide to better your tennis game, but without any technical advice. It focuses on what he describes as the two arenas of engagement: the I (self) 1 and I (self) 2. Carmela Ciuraru remarks that when the book was released in 1974, thousands of people wrote to the author saying that they had successfully applied his principles to a variety of things other than tennis, like writing and parenting.

Here’s how Gallwey, a Harvard graduate in literature, describes I 1: it is the speaker, the critic, the voice that monitors, shows his persistence and inventiveness to create obstacles. The first self admonishes you and considers you an uncorrectable error. But I 2 does not judge, it represents liberation in its purest form – it leads to action, is capable of the full range of feelings, and can be extremely prolific. In the literary context, It is clear that the liberating potential of an I 2 is enormous. A nickname can give a writer the distance necessary to speak honestly, but it can also give him permission to lie. Anything is possible. The author offers several examples which I must forego, to get directly to the final paragraphs.

Pseudonyms disappear with time

Carmela Ciuraru explains that in the mid-19th century this curious phenomenon of pseudonymity reached its highest level, and as in the mid 16th century, it was customary for a text to be published anonymously. It is interesting that the decline of the nickname in the 20th century coincided with the rise of television and film. People had access to the lives of others, it became more difficult to preserve private life - and perhaps even undesirable. In contemporary culture, no information is too personal to be shared (or reappropriated). Reality TV has increased our appetite to “know” famous people, and the authors themselves are not immune against the pressures of self-promotion and personal revelations. We live in an age where, as the biographer Nigel Hamilton wrote, ”the identity of an individual has become the focus of much discussion.”

The author continues on to say this phenomenon isn’t unprecedented, yet with the explosion of digital technologies things went into an downward spiral. Conspicuously expressing the desire for fans to interact online and in person with their favorite authors, expecting that they blog in return, that they sign autographs, they they smile and pose for photographers at promotional events. Like the author’s books, the author himself or herself are sold as products. Although the practice of pseudonymity is important, it has lost the allure of yesteryear, and is confined to genres like the thriller and erotic literature. Using a pen name in today’s world is less effective and much less creative than a marketing campaign.

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Article initially published as “Le déclin du pseudonyme” on InternetActu

Illustrations: Flickr CC PaternitéPas d'utilisation commercialePartage selon les Conditions Initiales koalie PaternitéPas d'utilisation commercialePas de modification 13Moya


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