In my last post, I mentioned pseudonymous blogging. Boing Boing! has an article by Maggie Koerth-Baker on Pseudonyms and Science. It provides a thoughtful and concise explanation of why pseudonyms make sense for certain kinds of blogging. The article also provides links to further discussions of pseudonyms on the Internet.
Writing under a pseudonym was not invented with the Internet. The custom of "pen names" is well-established. I am entirely comfortable with Lewis Carroll, Andre Norton, George Eliot, and Mark Twain. What I fail to understand is why pseudonymous blogging on the Internet is considered by some to be inappropriate. As far as I know, no one is being forced to read pseudonymous blogs, which is perhaps more than can be said of Tom Sawyer.
