Pretty Things

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of suicide.

Nina and Vanessa use the internet to create alternate identities. The allure of being another person or multiple people predates social media and the internet and is present throughout literature. The controversial 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud declared that he could be someone else or an object (Rimbaud, Arthur. “Extract from the ‘Voyant’ Letter.” Poetry in Translation, 2008). As such, people have been able to imagine themselves as other, “prettier” things long before social media. The 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman routinely spoke of the multiple identities in his body (Whitman, Walt. “I Sing the Body Electric.” The Portable Walt Whitman. Penguin, 1977). Minus social media, neither Whitman nor Rimbaud could commodify their multiple selves or immediately display them to an audience. Dramatizing and commodifying a personal life occurs in Oscar Wilde’s satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In the satire, Cecily, a character from well-off London society, intends to publish her diary, and another well-off character, Gwendolen, likes to reread her captivating diary on the train. Cecily and Gwendolen write in their diaries with an audience in mind, just as Vanessa posts on social media with her audience in mind.