Personae

• "Self creation depends on the stories we tell about ourselves. We also tell ourselves a story about ourselves. This is our inner story ... We can edit and change these stories", Glover, "I: The Philosophy and Psychology of Personal Identity", 1988.
• "the politeness of everyday interaction is largely orientated towards protecting these self-definitions", E. Goffman, "Threats to Identity", 1961.
• "in order to write poetry, you must first invent a poet who will write it" - Machado.
• "The poet who comes to maturity and to poetry in a period when consensus [about nationhood] has been irrevocably eroded ... will inevitably acquire an impoverished account of how he came to be as he is" ... "He may find it difficult to see his own life beyond its immediate context" ... "What results is an imagination that places its emphasis on ... the forms rather than the noise of language", David Kennedy, "New Relations".
• Some aspects of nationality impinge on identity, especially when neighbours are significantly different or antipathetic to one's nation, but there are alternative ways of defining oneself via history, culture and community. On the WWW it's easier to be selective about the visibility of oneself's parts. One can hide nationality, adopt new or multiple personae with relative ease, and belong to more than one community at a time which makes it easier for those with only a minor interest in poetry to participate.
• But virtual communication (via MOOs, for example) mediated purely by text is impoverished. To compensate, standard jargons are developed involving keywords, comic sounds and slogans. As in cities, relationships develop quickly: it's easier to be intimate; erotic situations arise earlier. Role-play, with its deception, masks and uncertainty, leaves new gaps - space for the imagination.
• Kurt Lewins, in "Principles of Topological Psychology" noted that people in the USA tend to have large, compartmentalised public space in their mental maps, a trait which helps develop virtual identities.
• Virtual identities are creations with the multiplicity, heterogeneity, flexibility and fragmentation of modernist works - and modern cities. Cultural identity now matters less than social contacts; roots matter less than routes. As a greater percentage of our time is spent in virtual communication, our other personae (including those involved with writing) will be increasingly affected.