I wear a pseudonym as a mask because I want to be true to the truth.
- veradapozzo8
- Aug 25, 2023
- 2 min read
As Gilbert says to Ernest in Wilde's dialogue The Critic as Artist,
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Oscar Wilde,
The Critic as Artist, Part II
With some remarks about the importance of discussing everything,
from the essay Intentions, 1891.
As I am a very private person, I have always avoided social media and their vanity and cruelty fair: many friends and colleagues and some relatives have tried (and some still try) to convince me to join IG, FB/Meta and Co. and/or to accept to fall in WA messaging black hole, but it was, it is and it always be in vain.
Nevertheless, as I feel the urge to express myself and to say something meaningful about the World I live in, I have decided to create this blog and I have chosen my mask, i. e., a pseudonym which allows me to be true to myself and to the truth.
My pseudonym, Vera da Pozzo, is a pun alluding to what I care about most : truth and loyalty, depth and insight. In my mother tongue, the syntagma "vera da pozzo" means a puteal, but it could be a female name followed by a family name.
Water is indispensable for living, and we need to keep it pure and unpolluted; it is the same for truth.
Of course, I am fully aware that, as Algernon responds to Jack,
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Oscar Wilde,
The Importance of being Earnest, 1895.
Source:
I have invented this pseudonym some years ago, but it is only now that I am starting to wear it as a mask and - finally! - giving birth to Vera da Pozzo.
Even if my pseudonym, like me, is Italian, I have decided to write in English because I deeply love this beautiful language since my childhood and also because it allows me to have a more detached view on both Italy and France.
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