In the last section of reading of the book Lucy, Lucy began to talk about her discontent with that she felt with her name. She felt that her name had no substance and that it was picked with no real meaning attached. Because of this she decided that she would try to call herself different names she said, "I called myself other names: Emily, Charlotte, Jane. They were names of the authoresses whose books I loved." After reading this I was brought back to the idea that Jamaica, the author of Lucy, had also changed her name and that this book was based loosely off of her life. I then began to wonder, how much of this book is actually a true life account? I guess that I could assume that many of the big things that took place in Lucy's life could have taken place in Jamaica's which caused her to want to write about them.
I then was also thinking that Jamaica's real name was Elaine Potter Richardson, the main character's name was Lucy Josephine Potter. They even shared a name, "Potter". Thinking about this I think that Jamaica must have had a deeper connection with the idea of "Potter" being a slave owners name. I wish that I could ask her many of the questions that I am thinking about.
Another thing that I also thought about when I read this passage was how there are so many other
authors that have pen names when they write.
- Samuel Clemens--Mark Twain
- Richard Bachman--Stephen King
- Charles Lutwidge Dodgson--Lewis Carroll
- Theodore Suess Giesel--Dr. Suess
Do you think that giving yourself another name would allow you to write with a more unabashed style? Would you censor yourself as much if you were able to hide behind a name? I wonder these things both about myself, you, and Jamaica Kincaid. Because she wrote with a different name, did she feel as she was writing this that she could write more openly?
1 comments:
I agree that it is interesting that so many authors choose to have a different pen name. If I were to write under a pen name, I would feel much more open to expressing my opinion and not filtering what I need to say to prevent it from hurting people. On an episode of House, the patient was not able to control what he said so he would say everything that came to mind. It ended up making his wife upset, since he was telling her the things that he did not like about her that he normally would never say. But this man was also disturbed that he could say everything he thought. Some things are meant to be kept in your mind. I think that once the pen name was connected to who you were, you would need to go back to censoring your writing. People would be able to trace it back to you and would get upset if you hurt them.
Post a Comment