Representation of the Self (Myself)

 Or Do you say, I, Me, or My or you or us?

Recently I have been editing biographies of poets for a local poetry festival in town. The poets were given the task of writing about themselves in 75 words or less. To be noted: generally, poets are my favorite type of people.

I find the idea of self representation intriguing, in many facets.  The majority of my reading is centered first person- subjective- sometimes stream of consciousness narrations. 

This is, absolutely Nietzsche-esque,  forever locked inside your own mind with no relevance or relation to others or ability  to see another human as well as you see yourself bleak. Absolutely cultural contextualized and aptly placed in a given timeframe bleak. If you doubt everything everyone else sees, the one thing you can never doubt is what you see. It is after all, the only true fact that you can be sure of. I was once told the easiest thing to write about is yourself. After all, that is all that you know, really. You see yourself more than anyone else. You see the world with your own eyes. You live inside your own head.

And, from a readers point of view, writing from your own view lets others see you clearly. 

That said, you  would think a 75 word biography would be an easy task.

Wrong.

After reading 30 or more pages where poets write about themselves to other poets I have concluded that there are generally four ways people can write about themselves.

1)    The third person narrations, in which you simply say your name and use he or she pronoun in representing yourself. This distance from yourself, by yourself, allows you to write your accomplishments. Common accomplishments include: family (breeding), marriage (devotion to the husband/wife), hobbies (as this is what I do) and a long, long list of where you have been published. The latter proves your credibility in the poetry scene.

2)   The person who simply states their profession.  Ie- I am a nurse for 24 years. Their identity is closely linked with what they do for employment. This idea always baffles me. As in, I am a teacher and nothing else or I am a student studying Math-ah-mat-ics, and I do nothing else. How can a person only  identify with their job?

3)   My favorite:

Those people who recognize that they do not know who they are. They switch from third person to first person, weaving their identity together, leaving you more-so baffled than you were to begin with. Who are you? I don’t know.

4)   People who quote their own words in their own biographies.

"There is no real reality to a really imagined life any more."- Gertrude Stein