More, inspirational [music]
Are storytellers liars? In the most facile sense of the words, yes. We might desire more than this sophistication in a response. We move on, turn the words around. Do storytellers tell the truth? Yes, this is less emotively challenging. We can all take a deep breath and think about this. First, what is truth?
Starting with the facile: there are those writers who might say that the Sydney Harbour Bridge is yay high above sea level. — And moving on:
There are writers who have in their writing what I call the Quality of Saying True Things. These are not Kevin Costnerisms, homespun twaddle that rolls off the tongue. Not for me, anyway. These things I find in the writings of Kurt Vonnegut or Paul Cornell or Dave Sim. These are vital and bright things that strike to the heart of the world, they contrast strongly with the dull observations of a “truism.” — And:
And there are installations and arias, cinema and hugs…
There’s what I’m saying…
But what am I talking about? What is it that these things have? Is there a Platonic isness?
A Narn — ‘What is truth? And what is God?’
G’Kar — ‘Truth is’
G’Kar — ‘a river.’
A Narn — ‘And what is God?’
G’Kar — ‘God is the mouth of the river.’
The Narn ignores G’Kar’s wisdom that truth is in the searching. He demands an easy answer. He demands a narrative that will allow his current point of view. It seems to me that unless he has the wisdom, he cannot receive it. He must Zen it, gestalt into the meaning. Truth is not a noun, but a verb. I have nothing true to say; you may not pin down my words and say, ‘there is the truth!’ Truth is contingent, in context, between the lines and then gone.
Yet I spoke also of bridges. Here is science and history and objectivity and, damn it, why don’t I just try jumping off one and we’ll see how real it becomes. But listen to Feynman’s penultimate words: ‘Nothing is certain.’ Einstein opened up the prospect and went to the grave afraid that God played dice with the universe. Gödel proved that any system capable of implying arithmetic was either incomplete or incorrect — we just hope our systems are incomplete! And all of this rests on the sensible truth that we can trust what we perceive and communicate ably, that we have an interest in speaking the truth! Go and read some Déscartes or Burroughs, a legal document or Baudrillard, Pokémon or Chomsky!
Richard:
Liars and lies are extremely powerful emotionally charged words. In general we don’t like talking with emotionally charged words because they belong to sensationalist media. We really don’t use them because they cloud up meaning.
Yes, my position is extreme. Yes, I believe in mundane reality and higher truth too. Yes, I am a hypocrite and pissing in the wind. This is a deliberate tactic. I think we must be aware of our lies lest we become trapped by our truths. I need to say something loud to keep awake, because it is so, so easy to sleep the sleep of truth. We are meaning machines and we would be careful to not confuse meaning with history.