This reminds me of the quote from Vonnegut's protagonist in Mother Night, who is an American on Nazi propoganda radio who is "actually" an American spy (Howard Campbell--I may forget the exact name), but that "identity" doesn't work out after the collapse of Hitler since he isn't recognized by the US as their "agent."
The quote: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." I read this in high school, along with God Bless You, Mr Rosewater and Cats Cradle, but the quote made a lasting impact.
It is possible that we lose who we are when we pretend, passively or actively, to be what we are not.
To OP:
I suspect the original might be a person who is in the process of redefining him/herself--whether externally, financially or psychologically--in reaction to their former familiar, cultural, or personal social "identity".
As a person who seemed self-consciously and in perpetuity redefining myself, it doesn't seem to apply to me, but I defined myself pretty much in opposition to my circumstances, even though I thought my parents to be fine people (and still do--we just didn't see "eye to eye," religiously or on many other things). And, yes, people who know my father and grandfather see strikingly similar personality characteristics to myself, so I'm not completely clear that the putative redefinition "took," completely.
The quote: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." I read this in high school, along with God Bless You, Mr Rosewater and Cats Cradle, but the quote made a lasting impact.
It is possible that we lose who we are when we pretend, passively or actively, to be what we are not.
To OP:
I suspect the original might be a person who is in the process of redefining him/herself--whether externally, financially or psychologically--in reaction to their former familiar, cultural, or personal social "identity".
As a person who seemed self-consciously and in perpetuity redefining myself, it doesn't seem to apply to me, but I defined myself pretty much in opposition to my circumstances, even though I thought my parents to be fine people (and still do--we just didn't see "eye to eye," religiously or on many other things). And, yes, people who know my father and grandfather see strikingly similar personality characteristics to myself, so I'm not completely clear that the putative redefinition "took," completely.
As an elongation of Nietzsche's "When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you", is it unfeasible to imagine that, when you're putting on an act, that the act is also 'putting on you'?
Me? I dunno...I'm like Popeye....a herbaceous tuber....."I Yam What I Yam".
Last edited: