“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
Oscar Wilde
And the question: should I continue with the mask of Sinistra Inksteyne or use my real name?
My real name is unique – well, Google doesn’t know of any others – but not as fun as Sinistra Inksteyne.
I have had a theatre piece appear under my real name, but that is quite different from what I am currently doing. But not necessarily different from what I shall do in the future.
It’s a matter of what name appears on the cover, for a start.
I could always keep the blog as Sinistra Inksteyne and use my real name within it.
Perhaps it’s a matter of courage.
And of not getting caught out by the DDJ.
Your input welcomed! Especially from those who already know what my real name is (i.e. most of those followers who actually read the blog and don’t just ‘follow’ to try to enrol me in a pyramid scheme).
My apologies if this post is a little unpolished: WordPress currently doesn’t let me see my text while I’m writing it. Although I can still see the red squiggles under non-dictionary words like Sinistra, Inksteyne, and even more ironically, WordPress.
The world wide web is a medium with positive and negative features, like any other.
One positive feature is being able to present various facets of yourself (some with higher irrealis content than others) for interaction with others. One negative feature is the unsorted attention your presentation can attract.
Sinistra is a thoughtful and interesting person(a) that you will kill if you add in the rest of you (charming as the rest of you no doubt is).
Sinistra is attracting some ‘follows’ that you would prefer to be repelling. Do you want those people to have access to the real you? Let them hassle the persona and leave the real you out of it.
Putting your real name out there is like losing your virginity. Once done it cannot be undone. You do not know from this side of the fence what it will be like on the other side. There are numerous stories of people who lived to regret their ‘real name’ postings on the internet, maybe only many years later, but deeply regretted for all that.
If you think your DDJ might not appreciate learning who you are, how do you think a potential employer, when they do that search on your name, will feel about the prospect of being your next DDJ? The internet can be very ephemeral-feeling, but one’s idle words can have a terrific persistance. The hand writes and having writ moves on …
Remain our chocy zombie gherkin (gooseberry?) loving Sinistra.
You make some excellent points, Carrs. Especially regarding my future employment prospects (never bright at the best of times).
There may well be sufficient clues already to figure out my name, if someone put their mind to it. The only ‘negative’ attention I have had is being followed by people I suspect of being pyramid-schemers – which merely means that they are being bombarded with my posts, which they don’t read anyway. It would be spam, if they hadn’t asked for it 🙂
But what of when I publish a book? Do I publish entirely under the name of Sinistra Inksteyne, a la Lemony Snicket?
I’ve had a play appear under my real name – is it worth building up two separate reputations (and trying to keep one of them off the Internet)?
On the other hand, might it be better to write different kinds of work under different names?
Food for thought, certainly.