A lot of serious scientific work in pragmatics, philosophy and comics has preoccupied itself with this issue: the need of a alter ego. Apparently, the self need not just be divided to body and soul, the good old Platonic distinction. It can also be divided to a self and a persona. This distinction need not worry us in a philosophical way. Instead we might think about it in every day terms: what does it mean to say that every one of us has (or needs to have) a self and a persona. And do we need to have just one persona, or could we also have more?
I guess this is where comic-books and superheroes become relevant. The substance of every superhero is the fact that he is a normal (usually geeky, run-of-the-mill, unassuming) person, a person that no-one would ever think has anything to do with superpowers, and then he/she also has this other life, this other part of his character that transpires through his/her masked persona. And the important question here is, why do we need a mask to bring our personas to life? Is the persona mutually exclusive with our everyday, socially acceptable image?
The other important question is of course whether we all need this self / persona distinction in our lives. Do we all need this because our socially acceptable self is suffocating and we need something to help us break off some steam? Can we only function within these restricting lives that we lead, only if we have a persona, be it just a crazy girl who dances a lot in weekends?
I think we do. People are multi-faceted entities, they have a lot of layers (like Shakespeare always liked to illustrate) and their lives can only let them show so much. It is only in the freedom of a mask, in the freedom of an alter ego that we can only be free.
What's your alter ego?
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2 comments:
I would like to think that my alter-ego is Medea or a similarly strong-minded, fierce woman.
But my alter-ego is probably Madame Bovary or something.
Great post, Lady V. Great.
Thanks Youkali :)
Mmmm Medea and Madame Bovary, interesting. Total opposites, it seems, or maybe not?
On a more superficial note, I think that my alter ego would be Lacy GaGa, besides we share the same first name. Actually, I think I want to write a post about her.
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