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/lit/ - Literature

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16368790 No.16368790 [Reply] [Original]

Why do people use pen names?
What's the actual point?

>> No.16368794

either imposter syndrome or spicy content

>> No.16368795

>>16368790
my surname is too common

>> No.16368801

>>16368794
fpbp

>> No.16368803

>>16368794
/thread

>> No.16368807

I don't want some Mossad hit squad knowing where I live.

>> No.16368814

>>16368790
I have a cushy government job and respectable friends and family. How could I publish my smut and my political writings under my real name?

>> No.16368820

Ego

>> No.16368821

>>16368790

you switch to / reveal the real one once you see if people like it or not

brainlet

>> No.16368851

>>16368790
I don't like how my name looks on paper. Jack London for instance sounds better than Jack Chaney. It's merely for aesthetics. Also, it lets me embody a persona.

>> No.16368862

>>16368851
Hey I liked Call of the Wild. I thought you died tho.

>> No.16368873

>>16368851
okay but why is Rowling using a pen name? Her name is already out there so she isn't concerned about aesthetics?

>> No.16368881

>>16368790
original name not being aesthetic or cool enough.

>> No.16368886

>>16368851
Hi Jack! Long time no see.

>> No.16368891

>>16368873
it wasn't meant to be leaked, I think.

>> No.16368902

>>16368862
Legends never die.
>>16368873
She goes by her first initial and an added K because it sounds cooler and more refined. She also writes crime fiction using a male name, a tradition that dates back some time (George Elliot, the Bronte sisters). Most likely because of a belief or reality that male names are more well received.

>> No.16368912

Nigga you know what mf would think of me if they saw me tawkin ebonics under my real face

>> No.16368924

>>16368912
are you Asian? lmao because that would be funny, nigger.

>> No.16368952

>>16368790
reasons to use a pen name in the past:
>to avoid embarrassing or bringing shame to your family
>to avoid persecution from the government or the church
>to hide your gender from publishers and readers

reasons to use a pen name now:
>to publish trash too embarrassing to have your real name attached
>to avoid sullying your brand

not a reason:
>you're J K Rowling and you just publish shit under a pen name but everyone knows you're J K Rowling making the pen name utterly worthless

>> No.16368960
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16368960

>>16368790
my birth name is incredibly common, boring, and not even accurate to my heritage since my father was adopted

>> No.16369011

>>16368952
>>to hide your gender from publishers and readers
We need to get back to this. Women should not be so visible.

>> No.16369031

>>16369011
unfortunately now it's men who are using women pen names to get published. And feminists are showing their true colors. It was never about equality.

>> No.16369040

>>16368790
Λάθε βιώσας

>> No.16369063

>>16369031
lmao that's definitely not happening

>> No.16369075

>>16369063
Most blogs about writing smut or romance (the most $$$ on amazon) suggest using a female pen name. Anon is probably wrong with other genres but it’s true for that.

>> No.16369101

>>16368790
People will literally kill you for thinking too differently from them.

>> No.16369109

>>16368790
I use a pen name!
My real name is very rare in America, and I don't really want people I know finding out that I write what I write. (No you pervs, not smut. Horror.)

>> No.16369110

>>16368790
if I wrote something I wouldn't want people I know reading it

>> No.16369117

Because they are radical and understand that identity is alienation. If you need to publish under your own name and present yourself as X, you are alienated and neurotic.

"hey guys I'm a writer" means hello fellow domesticated assets, I have a value in the economy of appearances (division of labour)

>> No.16369133

>>16368790
I used to have a prof in uni who wrote his course material under a pen name. I'm not shitting you. You were assigned this prof, he was legally under obligation to sign the exam minutes with his official name, he gave you his professional email with his official name on it, but the course material was under a pen name.

He didn't even tried to hide it, he has both names on his personal webpage, as if out of some weird case of self-conscious schizophrenia.

The best part is that he was teaching Fourier analysis. Almost no literary prowess involved. Truly a legendary autist.

>> No.16369596
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16369596

>>16368790
>robert galbraith

>> No.16369671

>>16368814

Assuming you live in America, you enjoy legally protected freedom of speech and you ought to be able to write whatever you please without it negatively impacting your job.

>> No.16369865

>>16368790
why are you anonymous?

>> No.16370281

>>16368790
I work in the private sector, so employers could retaliate if they found out I based my characters on their employees.

>> No.16370411

>>16369671
I'm not in America, although free speech protections for civil servants in my country are nice enough. I have constitutional stability, meaning I can only be fired after both an administrative inquiry a trial by a court of law, this only for violations of the civil service statute or criminal law.
These statutes don't protect me from being seen as some kind of deplorable by my bosses and colleagues, nor protect me from veiled discrimination in promotions (which, apparently, is not as easy to be proved as it is in American courts).
It's just not worth the trouble and I have no particular esteem for the idea of sacredness of free speech. I also like pseudonymity.

>> No.16371715

>>16369117
unironically good post

>> No.16371805

>>16368960
>heritage
genetic collectivists are dumb

>> No.16371844

>>16368790
I have written things that could compromise my academic credibility

>> No.16371865

>>16368790
Having written a tome that's 1/5 "nigger" I can tell you why I do

>> No.16371903
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16371903

>>16368790
>He doesn't have a second name to exploit.

>> No.16371931
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16371931

>>16368790
to create a wide range of imaginary personas which you can use to analyze questions from differing viewpoints of course

>> No.16372018

>>16368790
I have an ugly Italian surname and I don't live in a Italian speaking nation. It seems crass and tacky.

>> No.16372024

>>16371931
Pessoa Gang

>> No.16372036
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16372036

>>16371805

>> No.16372833
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16372833

>>16368790
lol it's literally fun to deceive