Truth
There are two kinds of truth. There are facts. These are statements that describe the physical world in sometimes excruciating detail. It rained on Sunday 08/26/09 in Fort Worth, TX. Air is mostly composed of nitrogen. During the war of 1812 Washington DC was sacked and burned. These truths are very useful, and quite powerful in understanding our world.
The second kind of truth is more slippery, because it's composed of fiction. Fiction is not telling a lie, although it does not purport to report facts. Fiction's main purpose is to touch the hem of this type of truth's dress. This truth is transcendental truth. It is an understanding of our world, and what it means to be a human person. It cannot describe all of what it means to be a person, because people are not like Campbells soup, but rather like a home cooked meal; intricately and differently seasoned each time, by each cook who prepares it, even if they use the same ingredients. To those of you who say that fiction cannot tell the truth, if you understood my simile then you have understood transcendental truth. It is not a factual statement like; all humans are unique. However what it does is take that factual truth and adds shared communal experiences to it so that it has meaning beyond the words, a universal meaning.
There is nothing wrong with facts. If it weren't for the search of factual truth, and the achievement of such, I could not post this so that the world could see it. Factual truth leaves us alone in the world though, each individual left to deal with more factual data than could ever be sorted in one lifetime, because the factual data pile continues to grow. Fictional truth though, transcendental truth, allows us to share a common bond. Ask anyone who has gone to a convention: sci-fi, anime, gaming, writing, SCA, etc. All those who attend have a common bond, a common transcendental touch with each other. This is why so many of these conventions have the feel of sacred space. The world really does come together for a moment, and if they open themselves up to it, they can feel included, not excluded, from at least a portion of humanity.
So, I guess this is my statement that I choose to live primarily in fictional truth, as opposed to factual. I do not reject the factual world, but instead choose to embrace the fictional.
I don't know why it seems important to post this now... but I do.
To all those whose fiction touches mine, I love you. To those who do not share it, I love you too, and hope some day you can join in my fiction, or I in yours, if only for a while.
The second kind of truth is more slippery, because it's composed of fiction. Fiction is not telling a lie, although it does not purport to report facts. Fiction's main purpose is to touch the hem of this type of truth's dress. This truth is transcendental truth. It is an understanding of our world, and what it means to be a human person. It cannot describe all of what it means to be a person, because people are not like Campbells soup, but rather like a home cooked meal; intricately and differently seasoned each time, by each cook who prepares it, even if they use the same ingredients. To those of you who say that fiction cannot tell the truth, if you understood my simile then you have understood transcendental truth. It is not a factual statement like; all humans are unique. However what it does is take that factual truth and adds shared communal experiences to it so that it has meaning beyond the words, a universal meaning.
There is nothing wrong with facts. If it weren't for the search of factual truth, and the achievement of such, I could not post this so that the world could see it. Factual truth leaves us alone in the world though, each individual left to deal with more factual data than could ever be sorted in one lifetime, because the factual data pile continues to grow. Fictional truth though, transcendental truth, allows us to share a common bond. Ask anyone who has gone to a convention: sci-fi, anime, gaming, writing, SCA, etc. All those who attend have a common bond, a common transcendental touch with each other. This is why so many of these conventions have the feel of sacred space. The world really does come together for a moment, and if they open themselves up to it, they can feel included, not excluded, from at least a portion of humanity.
So, I guess this is my statement that I choose to live primarily in fictional truth, as opposed to factual. I do not reject the factual world, but instead choose to embrace the fictional.
I don't know why it seems important to post this now... but I do.
To all those whose fiction touches mine, I love you. To those who do not share it, I love you too, and hope some day you can join in my fiction, or I in yours, if only for a while.