NB: This may not be a word-for-word transcript.These 70 Writers Are Actually All the Same PersonIlan StavansOn November 30th, 1935, dozens of writers passed away. They came from different backgrounds, espoused divergent beliefs, and wrote in a variety of styles. Yet all of their work was stashed in a single trunk in an apartment in Lisbon, Portugal. So, what mysterious string tied all these writers together? Well, the trunk belonged to one enigmatic author, Fernando Pessoa, who was, in fact, all of them.Some authors use pseudonyms and pen names to protect their identities or bolster their artistic personas. But Pessoa used what he called “heteronyms” to write not as himself but as other people he invented, giving way to generative, artistic experimentation. He fleshed out their imagined lives, devised their distinct quirks, and cultivated their unique literary voices. Sometimes Pessoa’s heteronyms interacted with each other, even criticizing one another’s work. Pessoa describe
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