February52008
The Truth
Is there truth in life? There’s no truth in fiction. There’s many truths. There’s this character’s truth, there’s that characters truth, there’s the setting’s truth, there’s the time period’s truth, and over all of it there’s the author’s truth, his beliefs, but a capable artist will allow that even that isn’t the truth. A story’s truths can co-exist or—more often—fight with each other and in their battle allow pockets of space for the reader to insert their truth, not as a final answer, but as one more combatant in the mix.
But, again I ask: Is there truth in life? Are there things which are never false; never open to debate, nor wiggle room? Is torture always wrong? Is freedom of the press, freedom of speech and concseince always right? Is mutilating a women’s gentials wrong no matter what your “religion” or “culture” dictates? Do people of the third world “need” a strongman?
In America the political trend now infecting our leaders, of every ideological stripe, has been to attack a bad reality not for being bad, but for being reality. Journalists, Newspapers, Judges, Courts, Scientists, all those whose jobs are to offer unbiased unopionated measurements of reality, are increasingly this country’s biggest enemies.
