
An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are - howrude
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/elena-ferrante-pseudonym/573952/
======
keiferski
I don't blame any writer for wanting to be anonymous. In today's world, your
race, gender, sexual orientation, age, hair color, clothing style, political
affiliation, birthplace, and any other discernible group identity will be used
to analyze, market, and categorize your work into the appropriate tribalist-
identity.

To quote from Ferrante's Wikipedia page:

 _Ferrante holds that "books, once they are written, have no need of their
authors." She has repeatedly argued that anonymity is a precondition for her
work and that keeping her true name out of the spotlight is key to her writing
process._

Some people just want to write a book...and have it be read as a book, not a
sociopolitical statement. Call it the "craftsman ethos", if you like.

~~~
squarefoot
"... will be used to analyze, market, and categorize your work into the
appropriate tribalist-identity."

And destroy you should you write something that others don't like. Privacy is
becoming an invaluable good whose loss can't be undone.

~~~
fishtank
Who has been destroyed in this fashion?

~~~
c0nfused
To pick an example, as a kid I read Ender's Game Because it was SF and had a
cool cover. Now, because of the odious nature of the author's personal
politics, I don't read his books.

This is entirely his own fault, but if he was just another name on a book I
would still be buying his novels.

To pick another example, there stuff like this:
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_55f1...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_55f1a255e4b002d5c0785287/amp)

~~~
fishtank
In neither case is the person's tribal identity used against them for writing
things that others don't like. Orson Scott Card holds a professorship. He just
published a book this year. A large corporation made a mass market film out of
his book, well after he had been writing things that others didn't like.

The controversy with the poet seems like a different issue, but even so --
Michael Derrick Hudson seems to be in exactly the same place before Sherman
Alexie assumed he was a Chinese woman 3 years ago.

~~~
nickelcitymario
Maybe OSC isn't a good example of an author being destroyed, but it IS a good
example of being unable to separate the person from their work.

If you really need examples of how a public identity can impact how your work
is viewed, see every famous person who has been named in the #MeToo movement.

(Please don't attack me for that statement. I'm implying neither support nor
opposition to #MeToo in this post. That's not the point.)

So in the case of Ender's Game, I first read it without any knowledge of who
OSC was or what his views were. And I came away from reading it as being about
the underdog, about how complicated power and morality can be, about trying to
do the right thing. I thought it was a wonderfully complex story because
almost every character sees themselves as trying to do the right thing, yet
are seen as villains by others.

Then I read about OSC and think: Did I miss the point? Did he? How can the
person who wrote this wonderful story not see that they are in turn bullying
others? It complicates the whole relationship to the story.

Of course, you may argue that I'm the one who is mistaken. That's fine. But we
have to at least agree that the more we know about the artist the more we
think about their art differently, and vice versa.

------
satori99

        "After all, as one of the most famous writers in the
        world today, you are a legitimate subject for inquiry, 
        whether you welcome it or not."
    

Either I am completely out of touch, or this statement is not true.

It's probably the former. One of the mentioned novels titles sounds vaguely
familiar, but I have never ever heard of Elena Ferrante.

I only read this letter because I wondered why an open letter to someone I'd
never heard of was posted to HN.

* [edit] Having said that, I completely agree with and respect her right to remain anonymous, whether she is influential through her writing or not. I also completely agree with the assertion that a book, or indeed any work of art or performance, exists totally independently of it's author once published or performed.

~~~
edanm
I'm pretty well-read, although not really in the "general literary" genre. And
I also only heard about her a few months ago.

That said, the person who introduced her to me made it quite clear that Elena
Ferrante is extremely well known, and was shocked that I hadn't heard of her.
And I've seen then somewhat confirmed this - she is indeed pretty famous (e.g.
this article).

So I understand the boat you're in... let's just consider ourselves today's
lucky 10,000 :)

(And no, I haven't read her book yet, but I'm planning to).

~~~
onlydeadheroes
Sounds like marketing to me, nothing more.

from the article: "global superstar"

I guess the bar has been lowered past the floor now.

~~~
marchenko
She's a legitimate global superstar in fiction writing. Her books are popular
enough to move the percentage of total book sales represented by translated
fiction in English-speaking markets (she` writes in Italian). Strangely
enough, her approach is often considered a kind of anti-marketing: no book
tours, few interviews, strangely downscale cover art - people, mostly women,
just really love her writing.

~~~
onlydeadheroes
I guessed I stepped on the wrong narrative because just questioning this
author's superstardom has gotten me to -4 on a mostly male site where most
people can't even downvote. I have no opinion on this author, but can we
please stop pushing everything like it is the second coming of christ just
because women like it?

As I said, marketing.

~~~
marchenko
I didn't downvote you, but those who did probably decided your response was
not particularly well-informed. Men might dominate HN, but women are over-
represented as consumers of fiction (and nonfiction), in both print and ebook
format-in the UK market, for example, they buy over 2/3rds of fiction books.
So simply being popular with women is enough to be a literary phenomenon.

~~~
onlydeadheroes
While I don't disagree with your reasoning, I haven't read this author.
However another user describes this author as "what Paulo Coelho was back in
the 1990s, but adapted to the #metoo and gender politics momentum."

Now when I saw the heavy handedness of my comment's downvoting, I was
surprised. Having further looked into this, I now find the root of the rot of
modern discourse: the censorship of gender politics. So I stand by all my
comments in this thread and I consider your well reasoned market analysis
entirely immaterial to this discussion.

~~~
dang
I imagine you were downvoted because you posted shallow dismissals and
flamebait, both of which break the site guidelines. Please review
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
and follow them when posting here.

------
sn41
Why is there such a complaint? Anonymity is a privilege of the author, isn't
it? There are authors who remain anonymous even to this day, one I know is B.
Traven, the author of the Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The precise authorship
of individual articles in the Federalist papers is unknown. Also, I believe,
if you really want to go that far back, the author of Ecclesiastes is not
identified.

And then there are known but reclusive authors. J. D. Salinger, and Cormac
McCarthy are modern hermits.

Authors are entitled to their privacy. Why should we pry?

~~~
superflyguy
Salinger has certainly got this reclusive business down to a t - nobody's seen
or heard anything from him for a good 8 years now.

~~~
Veen
It’s easier to avoid appearing in public when you’re dead.

~~~
xkcd-sucks
Tell that to Carrie fisher

------
DarkWiiPlayer
An interesting read, though I find the constant cries of sexism somewhat
annoying, as they don't really seem to add any substance to the text other
than legitimizing the authors subjective impressions, which, as far as I am
concearned, don't need any lagitimization in the first place.

~~~
kkarakk
The problem is that doubts about sexist and other -ists and -isms have become
weaponised in our culture today. it doesn't even matter WHEN you said
something or whether you apologised for them as kevin hart's case has shown.
his case is even more egregious since he was obviously appealing to the
comedic social context of the time.

better start caring before someone uses your lack of care against you

edit: downvotes without rebuttals on an comment like this are a data point in
themselves i think

------
victor9000
Why are people being so antagonistic in this thread? Personally, I'm ignorant
about this author. If you know their work, could you let me know what I'm
missing?

~~~
ordu
I'm wandering the same. I have read this open letter and I cannot understand
what the letter about. What author tries to tell? Why he have wrote this
letter? Unclear message with unclear motives... My guess based on this, that
the letter is exploded emotional instability caused by books of Elena
Ferrante.

But, I'm not sure: if I cannot understand something, it doesn't mean that it
is nonsense. Seems the only way to crack this and to understand what happens
is to stop being ignorant about Elena Ferrante and read some of her books.
Doesn't seem to be a fun.

~~~
skybrian
It's not spelled out, but along the way she writes about various clues that
(my interpretation) the books might be some sort of collaboration between a
prominent Italian author and his wife. And who knows, maybe others?

But never mind the essay. For what it's worth, I liked the first book in the
series and got bogged down in the second. It's an interesting glimpse of a
particular time and place in Italy.

------
dna_polymerase
> After all, as one of the most famous writers in the world today, you are a
> legitimate subject for inquiry, whether you welcome it or not.

No she isn't. She doesn't owe jack shit to you or anyone else. The sense of
entitlement in this piece is really off putting. Read her books or don't.
That's it. For once accept the work as it is and don't try to interpret it
against the background of the authors views, opinions or worse: her race,
gender and whatever else millenials come up next.

~~~
CptFribble
While I think Elena would agree with you (having said "a book, once written,
has no more need for it's author" though I'm probably paraphrasing), she isn't
trying to stay out of the public eye.

Despite refusing book tours and interviews, she has done many interviews-by-
email. She has a regular column in The Guardian, which frequently discusses
exactly these issues of gender and authorship.

I think if you want to stay anonymous but keep your public platform, you're
welcome to try, but it won't be easy. And I think it isn't wrong to try to
understand the people with platforms making public statements and influencing
large and important discussions.

------
wkearney99
What was that George Burns joke?

Sincerity is everything, learn to fake that and you've got it made.

So is this an extension, destroy the value of sincerity/authenticity instead?

The letter seems like little more than a pretty intense bout of literary
critic navel-gazing.

------
mathattack
This country has a tradition of semi-anonymous writing. (See the federalist
papers) I think with AI semantic analysis, the ability of writers to remain
anonymous will be threatened. Software will out anonymous writers.

For non-fiction, this is important. (Is it worthwhile to know that a book
about public Health Care is authored by a pharma exec?) Can the same case be
made for fiction? Or is the damage of not getting art too big to dispense with
the pretense of anonymity?

------
tomchristie
Authorship is always both an individual and a collective act of creativity.
We've millenia of shared culture poured into us. Similarly the interplay
between the feminine and the masculine voice: Each can only exists in contrast
to the other, and we all have elements of both voices within.

"Et nous sommes encor tout mêlés l’un à l’autre"

------
fipple
I’ve never seen anything in an “open letter” format that didn’t sound like it
was written by an asshole.

~~~
nroets
There are some good open letters by shareholder activists, especially if you
understand the broader context: Pensioners enjoying meager dividends while
management getting fat paychecks.

~~~
sverige
Yes, but those people have an investment to protect. This article reads as an
extended attempt to bully a writer who values her privacy into surrendering it
to please people who have no real right to know anything beyond what she has
already revealed. It's such a vile attack that I couldn't finish reading it.
"Asshole" doesn't begin to cover it.

------
vahji
Ah well. If the absolutely not politised Time magazine has placed her as one
of the 100 most influential people in the world, then the guy you replied to
is a dork. No questions asked! ;P

~~~
avvt4avaw
Look at the other people on the list this year. Donald Trump. Cardi B. Hugh
Jackman. Satya Nadella. Sean Hannity. Jacinda Ardern. Elon Musk. Oprah
Winfrey.

You can argue about the exact selection of people. You can say that Time is
'politicised'. But this is clearly a list of people who are very well known.

It's not embarrassing to admit that you had a blind spot about a particular
author, musician or politician. But it is a bit silly to then go on to claim
that since you haven't heard about them, they can't be that famous after all.

~~~
icebraining
I live in the EU, which is quite Americanized by any standard, and I'd bet
nobody around me would recognize the name of Sean Hannity (or Nikki Haley,
another name on the 2016 list). That list just seems hopelessly parochial to
me.

~~~
samastur
It's a list of influential people, not most famous. Knowing who they are I'd
say you could reasonably put both on such list.

~~~
icebraining
What's Nikki Haley's influence on the world?

~~~
SiempreViernes
Being the US representative to the UN, I imagine she helped delay action on
climate change and things like that.

~~~
icebraining
She's only been the ambassador to the UN since 2017, yet she appears in the
2016 list.

~~~
SiempreViernes
Man, Trump really makes the years seem longer...

------
lostjohnny
Elena Ferrante does not exist.

~~~
krapp
neither does "lostjohnny."

~~~
lostjohnny
Her books are not even hers.

Elena Ferrante is a product, we should not speak about the influence of the
author(s) of the books, but about the influence the marketing department has.

~~~
krapp
Every famous author is a "product", it doesn't make them any less real.

JK Rowling has a much bigger marketing machine around her, for instance, but
it would be wrong to claim that she, or her books, aren't worth mentioning in
a discussion about Harry Potter, only Bloomsbury and Warner Bros.

~~~
lostjohnny
That's where the confusion kicks in.

I'm sure in good faith you believe Elena Ferrante is a woman, but we don't
even know if the books have been written by a single person or if each book
has a single author...

It's an interesting marketing phenomenon nonetheless, but we are not looking,
IMHO, at someone writing under a pseudonym for personal reasons.

We are looking at the absence as a marketing tool, that amplifies the
curiosity around the product.

It would be like talking about Hawthorne Abendsen as a real author.

~~~
Veen
It’s interesting to think about whether it really matters. The text is the
same either way. If you judge a book on the words on the page, it doesn’t
matter much how they came to be there, so criticising ‘her’ work on different
factors seems irrelevant.

~~~
lostjohnny
That's my point.

We should talk about the books and not about anything else.

My first answer was to someone who wrote, and I quote

> _I don 't blame any writer for wanting to be anonymous. In today's world,
> your race, gender, sexual orientation, age, hair color, clothing style,
> political affiliation, birthplace, and any other discernible group identity
> will be used to analyze, market, and categorize your work into the
> appropriate tribalist-identity._

There's no evidence that this is the case, in fact the evidence point to the
exact opposite direction.

