Fame  or Anonymity?

Andy Warhol famously said "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes", to which Banksy has responded "In the future, everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes."

Fame and anonymity are two opposing aspirations, examples of which are found in the long history of creativity.

We live in an Age of Celebrity with photo ops, paparazzi, internet, fan mail, brand ambassadors and book signing, creating opportunities for those who seek fame or who have fame - or infamy - imposed upon them.

At the other end of the spectrum is what Tom Geue calls the “Technology of Absence” – the desire for anonymity. The identity of Protest graffiti artists is hidden as is that of cybercriminals, and users of  the Dark Web. Technological innovation is often developed by teams and the product is known by the company they work for rather than the inventors, who remain anonymous to the public.

We rarely know the names of the designers of historical palaces mosques, temples, and churches that inspired many architects. The authorship of some influential literary and art works have been lost in time such as the Epics of Gilgamesh or Beowulf, I Ching  or One Thousand and One Nights. Some authorships are disputed such as the controversy about who wrote the plays ascribed to Shakespeare. This was a manner of Chinese whispers originating in 1785 by scholar James Wilmott who could not reconcile the very ordinary life of Shakespeare with the extraordinary works he wrote.

Paintings and sculptures by unknown artists may be known simply by a place, style or subject – Master of Delft, Master of the Embroidered Foliage. While the value of an art work increases when the artists is known, the value of novels by anonymous authors is based on sales. The real name of the hugely successful contemporary Italian author, Elena Ferrante, remains a mystery as does  the creator of bitcoin known only as Satoshi Nakamoto. 

Many creative people enjoyed fame in their lifetime:  writers Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemmingway, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, artists Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Sadeqain, movie and pop stars. Others achieved fame posthumously Van Gogh, Franz Kafka, Oscar Wilde, Johann Sebastian Bach, Vermeer, Anne Frank.

Some authors initially used pseudonyms to hide their true identity – Johnathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austin, the Bronte Sisters. Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi used the name Panj-darya and Anga., for his columns.  Mushfiq Khwaja used Khamabagosh. Others are known only by their pseudonyms – George Elliot, Lewis Carroll, Henrik Ibsen, Moliere, Tristan Tzara, Voltaire. Closer to home we have Ibne Insha, Munshi Premchand, Shaukat Thanvi and Ibne Safi.  

The Takhalus or pen name used by all poets writing in Urdu, a word derived from Arabic, meaning to get liberated or become secure, reflects  a creative self-identity –closer to fame than anonymity. 

Virginia Woolf believed anonymity allowed creativity to emerge from the core of the being. E.M. Forster wrote in “Anonymity: An Enquiry” that “all literature tends towards a condition of anonymity . . . The poet wrote the poem no doubt, but he forgot himself while he wrote it, and we forget him while we read”. Anonymity is believed to have a healing power.  It frees the author from the expectations of his or her readership, and allows quiet space for experimentation.

Anonymity as a cloak of invisibility also protects the dissident from persecution, allowing important aspects of protest to reach the public. Journalists protect their sources, but E.M Forster also asks the questions of newspapers: “Who gives us this information upon which our judgments depend, and which must ultimately influence our characters ?”

Ted Gioia in his article “Banksy, Daft Punk, Elena Ferrante: The New Cult of the Anonymous Artist”, claims anonymity is becoming the new status symbol – more hip and more trustworthy as it steps away from the narcissism of fame.

Durriya Kazi  

July 21, 2019

durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

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