I just got done reading two books that involved doppelgängers — The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim and The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk. In the former, the doubles are separated for the whole novel except for the first chapter; in the latter, they are engaged in a master/slave relationship throughout the work.
As a narrative trope, the doppelgänger is a great way to represent personal or internal conflict, or to represent contradictions inherent in a social strata. Think of The Prince and the Pauper, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, and any number of other tales involving identity swapping and confusion. I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Impersonation. It is a rare novel that keeps the reader engaged even though the denouement is projected well ahead of time. The doppelgänger conceit is played out fairly straightforwardly and mostly to benefit the story, not an overarching theme. I can’t say that I liked The White Castle, however. I really liked Pamuk’s My Name is Red, but this novel was just … well, slow. Almost completely still, in fact. It felt flat and was surprisingly repetitive. The master/slave dichotomy has been done much better.
I’ve only ever had two possible “celebrity doppelgängers” identified for me — famous people that others seem to think look like me. This revelation requires an extreme suppression of my ego, but here are the actors who — others have claimed — could play my “double” in the film version of my life:
A Pretty in Pink-era Jon Cryer (AKA “Duckie”)
and Jimmy Fallon from SNL
Personally, I just don’t see it all. I mean, look at me!
The “Duckie” thing haunted me in high school. I think it had something to do with the fact that I dressed sort of weird and sometimes wore a hat. I haven’t heard anyone make this comparison recently.
The Jimmy Fallon connection is more recent, and was largely proffered by my friend Janet, though others have independently mentioned it. Again, though, I just don’t see it.
Thankfully, neither of them came up when I uploaded my photo to MyHeritage’s face recognition program.
Unfortunately, the first hit on that site was Jacques Chirac.
Je ne pense pas que je ressemble au président français!
Check out the full results from MyHeritage
Comments
Well, your resemblance to Jimmy Fallon and John Cryer is there, kind of, if one squints, but you don't speak or move like either of them so that's the end of that. In a few decades, we'll have to see if you move and speak like Monsieur Chirac. Hmmm... Yikes!
Posted by: arrmac | June 15, 2007 10:34 PM