Pseudonyms

The penchant for politics is still peremptorily proclaimed a panacea more palatable than the paregorics of physicians.

Patience P. Paradox, The Monument, September 10, 1840

Before leaving pseudonymity, I had planned to mention also that, among the arts, the use of pseudonymity is limited basically to two domains: literature and, far behind, the theatre (names of actors), a realm that today encompasses the broader field of show business. Done.

I had also planned to be surprised at that limitation and to seek the reasons for the privileging of literature and the theatre: why have so few musicians, painters, or architects used pseudonyms? But at this point the surprise would be much to facetious: use of a pseudonym unites a taste for masks and mirrors, for indirect exhibitionism, and for controlled histrionics with a delight in invention, in borrowing, in verbal transformation, in onomastic fetishism.

Clearly, using a pseudonym is already a poetic activity, and the pseudonym is already somewhat like a work. If you can change your name, you can write.

Gerard Genette, Paratexts, 53-54