If you're a beginning writer, how do you decide upon a worthy (or unworthy?) literary persona?
Many writers don't like writing in first person for the same reason that actors don't like playing certain roles in the movies. And certainly they don't like to be typecast.
If people know you very well and you have an identity independent of your movie roles, say an Oprah Winfrey, for example, then you can play many different characters, and many different personas, yet people are able to tell the difference between the "persona" Sophia in The Color Purple, for example, and the "persona" called Oprah Winfrey. Most people don't approach Oprah Winfrey thinking she's Sophia, nor is the author of the original work a Sophia either.
For young writers, selecting a literary persona can be a problem. Most young writers assume that people know them so well that they can tell the difference between the author they know, and various fictional characters and/or caricatures. It is surprising to writers and actors that people can't tell the difference, and they appear not to be able to tell the difference. Sometimes writers and actors themselves can also, like their fans, become confused about their true identity, and just start "playing a role."
Artists need to education fans about this and they also need to educate themselves on personas in movies, books, video, works of art.
This confusion of identity can be very destructive for artists and for their fans. And for people that just know them. Marilyn Monroe for example was perhaps destroyed as much by Marilyn Monroe herself as by the persona of Marilyn Monroe. Other actors have complained about this phenomena. Those for whom the persona is not a destructive persona can just "play along," but for others it can be a matter for concern.
The dilemma of persona as media image or public image is same dilemma for many public figures. If a Ronald Reagan is truly an intelligent man or if an Elvis is a person very well-read, then these are good things to learn. Maybe they don't jibe with the persona, but it's necessary knowledge.
As for actors concerned about typecasting, perhaps it's best that they refuse certain roles, and/or mix those roles with many different types of roles and many different types of sensibilities. Dumb blondes shouldn't just play dumb blondes, they can play intelligent blondes. Writers also find that they can have a problem with literary typecasting, where readers only want the same type of book, the same type of literary personality.
American journalists who write for the popular media are told that the American public reads on 9th grade level? So they write on 9th grade level? We suppose that American readers like international readers can read above 9th grade level. But if you want 9th grade level, journalists can give you 9th grade level, just don't approach these journalists thinking they're also on 9th grade level. That's literary persona. We assume that American TV personalities communicate on the same 9th grade level. And we assume that's not necessarily their level. That's TV persona.
William Shatner on Show Me the Money is certainly entertaining, however. But what about the real Bill Shatner? That's TV persona. Nevertheless, it's good whenever we find masterpiece roles for this master actor.
Actors provide the best examples for writers when deciding upon a literary persona, because a literary persona is much like a stage persona, a stage personality. Even when writers are writing autobiography, there's a persona aspect to autobiography, even though it purports to be the true self. Billie Holiday in autobiography is both Billie Holiday and persona. And so are the contemporary autobiographers. And very few are nothing less than their heroic selves.
Personas can be worthy or unworthy personas. But writers, like actors, need to make sure that "fans" can tell the different. A writer selecting an unreliable narrator does not mean the author is an unreliable narrator. Certainly many of the problems that celebrities might have in commitment is not just the fault of media, as Paul McCartney has mentioned--but much might be also the fault of persona.
When connecting to public figures are you connecting to the person or the persona? And certainly private people, like public people, can also have personas.
The problem of literary persona is a problem that writers have been dealing with for centuries. And it's a question for young writers to ponder like young actors when deciding upon roles. Is the persona worthy or unworthy of them? Should they write (or act?) on 9th grade level when their true level is postgraduate school? (Or vice versa?)
