My alter-ego has questions
My alter-ego is considering a novel in a genre "we" don't even read (for anyone who's new here - my alter ego gets paid to write fiction - when she's lucky). I know. WTF? But it's a really good idea and I think I can pull this off. But I need to see about gathering data. While the concept hit me like a blow to the gut, I need to get a wider view before I do more than the dabbling I started last night.
One of the central themes is identity. The "person" we show the world (and sometimes that's many people as I'm sure you've all experienced to some degree or other) as well as the "person" we show our most intimate confidants and family and finally the person we are inside and who we may never show to anyone at all.
Note, I'm not talking about having aliases or a box of different ids a'la the Winchesters. No, I'm talking about the faces we show; the masks we wear and how deep they go and how easy, or difficult, it is to take them all off and just be ourselves. I doubt there's a single person reading this who doesn't have a selection of masks they wear. There's the one you wear to your kid's soccer practice or to the scout meeting or the PTA meeting. There's the one you wear to work and the additional one that shows up at meetings with folks outside your department. There's the one you wear to your parents' house, the one you wear going out bar-hopping with friends, the one you wear when you first meet someone, the one you wear with your SO.
Now, for most of us, we don't even *think* of them as masks - they're just parts of ourselves that we express when appropriate. Guess what? That's a mask. And it's not a bad thing. It's part of what being a social critter is all about. We do what we need to do to smooth the way in our relationships with our fellow big-brained primates.
So, my question to you all: Are you aware of your masks? Do you resent them? Do you embrace them? Do you feel freed or stifled by them? Ambivalent? Talk to me about your masks; about the masks you encounter in others. If you feel too exposed, feel free to PM me, though I'm hoping to get a solid discussion of the topic going.
One of the central themes is identity. The "person" we show the world (and sometimes that's many people as I'm sure you've all experienced to some degree or other) as well as the "person" we show our most intimate confidants and family and finally the person we are inside and who we may never show to anyone at all.
Note, I'm not talking about having aliases or a box of different ids a'la the Winchesters. No, I'm talking about the faces we show; the masks we wear and how deep they go and how easy, or difficult, it is to take them all off and just be ourselves. I doubt there's a single person reading this who doesn't have a selection of masks they wear. There's the one you wear to your kid's soccer practice or to the scout meeting or the PTA meeting. There's the one you wear to work and the additional one that shows up at meetings with folks outside your department. There's the one you wear to your parents' house, the one you wear going out bar-hopping with friends, the one you wear when you first meet someone, the one you wear with your SO.
Now, for most of us, we don't even *think* of them as masks - they're just parts of ourselves that we express when appropriate. Guess what? That's a mask. And it's not a bad thing. It's part of what being a social critter is all about. We do what we need to do to smooth the way in our relationships with our fellow big-brained primates.
So, my question to you all: Are you aware of your masks? Do you resent them? Do you embrace them? Do you feel freed or stifled by them? Ambivalent? Talk to me about your masks; about the masks you encounter in others. If you feel too exposed, feel free to PM me, though I'm hoping to get a solid discussion of the topic going.