Self Self Self


Bloggers are supposed to be self obsessed, aren't they?

You've heard of people searching for their own identity. Well today I found it. I realised exactly who I am.

There's an old song from the musical My Fair Lady, which runs:

Wiv a little bit of luck,
Someone else'll do tha
Bloomin' work.


You've heard people telling stories which begin something like, "There was me, and John, and Mike, and Dave and...someone else - don't remember who. Doesn't matter. Anyway..."

And you've heard parents tell their children, "Oh of course it's not your fault. It's never your fault. It's always someone else to blame...."

That's me. I'm someone else. I'm the one who does the job because no one else will, the absent one who gets blamed...and the one who was also there who no one quite remembers.

The film Unbreakable hinges on the second lead, played by Samuel L Jackson, discovering who he is - he's the evil criminal mastermind.

The Vorlons in Babylon 5 are obsessed with the question "Who are you?" - though they've forgotten their own answer. In Farscape, Scorpius finds the remains of his parents because he hopes they'll tell him "Who I should be". The song which most sums up Rocky Horror probably isn't "Time Warp" but "Don't Dream It, Be It".

Notions of "The Real You" permeate psychology, and much of psychoanalysis is concerned with "stripping away layers to find the true self". In Heidegger and Sartre, the notion of Authenticity is crucial. The antagonist of Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing" justifies his malice by saying, in effect, "I must be true to who I really am".

I of course don't believe in an unchangable, essential self. But if I had to define the person I tend towards being, it's...someone else. The one who'll do tha bloomin' work.

What about you?

1 comment:

  1. I know the feeling.

    If there is any sort of dirty job to do, (like the ladies' room at the church flooding again) I'm the first one people run to.

    But if there's something lovely going on (like a three-day conference in Florida, expenses paid), I'm the one who's left out in the cold (literaly).

    I'm not sure exactly who I am, but I can tell what I'm doing ... plotting revenge! :-)

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