David,
That's fine, of course, to not let the personae "run loose." Fine poetry can
certainly come of such bondage (a tether ball going round and round, faster
and faster toward its pole can be beautiful)! And the usual form of
authorial presentation ("This poem is written by me, my name is ###")is
fine, too--it will always be with us, and should. I try to write them
myself, with no great success.
But *why not* let some of those personae go, to live their own lives, pursue
their own callings, encounter others? To stick with that "muddy, half-wit"
for no particular reason seems a bit like the father who christens all his
progeny with his own given name and then never lets them leave the
apartment. He has his nose in the Bible, and doesn't see, somehow, that in
their freedom they will be no less his, and that everything they "render in
their wanderings shall extend his seed and honor his memory." (Dead Sea
Scrolls)
Personae, in other words, are one thing; hyperauthorship is another. The
latter is about the *creation of authorships*.
Such creation and proliferation does not replace anything, it simply adds,
like a bit of weather, to the climate. And given this (that it does not take
away) it is interesting how the cloud-break of apocrypha causes discomfort
for so many?
Kent
David Bircumshaw said,
"and this not at all an attempt of a critique, or an 'authorative' (ha ha)
answer, but what I'm really intrigued with on this identity question is why
you seem to use a theoretical scaffold for it.
I use at times various personae, but they all end with the muddy tag of
'David Bircumshaw' underneath. I have lots of problems with that guy, btw,
but I stick with him, possibly from a sense of sympathy. I certainly do at
times want to be somebody else, for instance one richer, better looking,
younger, miore talented, etc etc, but I stick with that half-wit, maybe if
just for old times' sake, rather than let the personae run loose."
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