So, I'm sitting at work and I'm the only one in here and I feel that it's time to update this thing. I would like to talk about alter egos. I have recently decided that my alter ego is a warrior from the Land of Pak named "Lux the Conquerer." Now, anyone who reads this knows that I'm about as far from a pseudo viking warrior as one can get. Yet, I truly have this secret desire to burn and pillage (but not rape of course, because rape is bad.) Well, ok maybe not burn and pillage but start a revolution, you bet your ass I do. So, I have, with a little help from some friends, created the alter ego of Lux the Conquerer.
I also am working on creating my alter ego of Jack Benimble. Jack Benimble, will be my drag alter ego. He is an orphan in London at the turn of the twentieth century whose works as a paper boy, but has the secret desire of performing in Music Halls, so at night he sneaks into the closed halls and performs to empty theatres. In order to successfully accomplish making this persona I have to work out a Cockney accent, find an outfit, and frankly learn to perform.
So why do we (I'm assuming we although frankly I could be the only crazy person who wants alter egos) desire an alternative persona. I know for me, while I'm perfectly happy with my life, I do long for the excitement of a Viking warrior or the freedom of a turn of the century London orphan. Of course, both of these are highly romanticized, knowing that to be either a Viking or a turn of the century orphan, is a very difficult and unromantic life. But then isn't the point of an alternative being the romanticism of a time in which you don't live and frankly could never begin to actually live in. Anyway, do we all desire secretly to be somebody else, or am I just crazy?
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At the moment, I have three interrelated and vaguely defined alter-ego-type-things living in my head. Interrelated because they all know and interact with one another, and only one of them is definitely an alter ego of me, but, ultimately, as they live in my head, they are all me, in some form or another. When those three (two male- Den and Det- and one female- Andre- as it happens) don't serve my purposes (I'm not sure what those purposes are), I retreat to Goose, who, near as I can tell, grew up in some sort of dystopian underground cavern society, raised by some sort of vague sex slaves to a minor despot, and has recently been rescued by some sort of anti-despot radicals and thus discovered life outside the caves. Why this is the alter ego I came up with at the age of 14 or so, I do not know, but I'm rather fond of her. Her name is Goose, which I also can't really explain.
Then there's my dozens of drag identities, but they're less important, and most of those are modified versions of Den and Det anyway.
What about alter egos one hasn't necessarily made up? Have you ever tried to imagine yourself as someone created by someone else? I guess that is what method actors do.
I think it would rock to be Indiana Jones, so that is pretty much my new ambition.
As far as alter egos I have created for myself? Ah! There are so many because I have a weird imagination. And I usually try to get them out there in something else I do, such as they will appear in stories I have written or pictures I draw.
I think one of my alter egos that maybe actually a counterpoint to what you were talking about is one I created that was similar to my high school self (only way cooler) so it felt that maybe I wasn't the only one who felt lonely, poetic...etc. Regular teenage angst I suppose. But my alter ego, Emerson, dealt with it a lot better than I could.
So I guess it makes me wonder about what alter egos could be used for? To satisfy a sense of adventure? To treat an overactive imagination? To comfort oneself? Or just to have some fun?
Also, isn't the idea of the alter ego part of the appeal of RPGs, LARPs, and even the internet? Where one can create something completely other, be anonymous? I wonder where the desire for us to do such things come from.
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