I'm getting about tired of this fake name crap. When I had to pick a display name for the blog, I didn't really give it too much thought. I'm not sure if it came from starting the blog so close to a Critical Mass or if it came from listening to the Make Up In Mass Mind. I know it wasn't Catholic Mass. Or Mass Ave. Anyway, I stuck with it, and didn't think much of it until people started referring to me as "Mass." As you can readily imagine, I began having all sorts of Derridean thoughts about "the name" and such.
So I'm getting sort of tired of this alias.
There's a certain joy in anonymity, as it minimizes the repercussions on your real non-cyber life. Certainly, as RCR well knows, the authors of the Federalist Papers utilized anonymity in an attempt to distance their well-known roles in the new government from the positions they took in their polemics (and also because it was traditional -- their Anti-Federalist antagonists had also adopted pseudonyms). Anonymity, like virginity, is something that once you lose it, you don't get it back. Unless you're Madonna.
So I'm taking a stuttering half-step toward revelation. I'm changing my display name to something closer to my name. It's slightly more honest.
5 comments:
Interesting. Of course now I'll be trying to figure out how that connects to your real name. :)
Oh, and whenever I saw your old alias, I totally thought of Mass Ave.. Sorry.
My orignal alias was Underused, which was an homage to the Pavement song (as I'm sure you know), but everyone kept calling me RCR, so I switched. RCR is what it is. If I had a different career, I probably wouldn't care about anonymity. Well anyway, should we break a champagne bottle on your head to re-christen you?
"I christen thee the flying wasp!"
RCR, I remember when you dropped underused as a screen name.
MG!, I'm fortunate in that it's a common enough word, right?
I've never tied "Mass" into anything. Isn't that awful? As for "Cuff," I like it. The problem is, it will make me think "off the cuff," and your work is anything but...rather excellent analysis on our culture and times. There was a character in Dickens' Bleak House called "Cuffy." I guess I'll think of him, tooz. :)
Derridean thoughts, given a natural conclusion tend to undo any meaning at all dont they?
The alias does seem inconvenient when you intend to forge more then a one way writer to reader relationship. Anyway, does that mean you will, letter my letter reveal your real name? Is Cuff similar to Jeff??
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