"Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures."
Jessamyn West - American Writer
My favorite genre is science fiction/fantasy. I've often thought this type of fiction reveals truths, that some other fiction doesn't even aim for.
As a child growing up poor in a bookish family, treasuring story, I learned to appreciate the finer points of Truth in fiction.
We didn't have T.V., my Mom read to us. We would talked about the stories, the meanings, the feelings, the other possible choices the characters might have made. And what we would have done in those circumstances.
Mom loved poetry. I particularly loved the story poems, like the Highwayman, and Beth Gillart.
She loved fairy tales too. She read me all of the Grimes brothers and others, anything we could find.
Mom never seemed much interested in making me think exactly like her, she just wanted me to think. "It's O.K. to be a follower, but think about what you're following."
She would say, "I always feel uneasy when you go out with _____. I worry about you when your with them." Then we would talk about why she would worry, four or five things she saw as potential problems I might have to face because of choice they might make.
The amazing thing was that she was always right. One or more of those things we discussed would happened, and I'd be able to see it coming and make choices that would keep me out of trouble.
I began to see and understand how reality often obscures truth.
Truth may not always be fact, that doesn't make it any less the truth.
In Fact, sometimes facts can lead to anything but the truth.
Who's truth? My truth? Your truth?
We make some very serious choices based on what we decide is truth. All our experiences, the good stuff and the bad, education, things we've read, people we've known, all this goes into making up what we call truth.
It is all just a work in progress.
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Mums always know best. Truth is as we know it according to our experience. Fact is the consequences of what we do with/to truth.
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My favorite genre is science fiction/fantasy. I've often thought this type of fiction reveals truths, that some other fiction doesn't even aim for.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good way of putting it. I love science fiction more than any other genre. I grew up on Asimov and Clarke and EE "Doc" Smith. My current favourite sci fi author is Tanya Huff and I'm just re-reading one of hers.
Genres are difficult for me since my first priority is that books be unique and well written. Tastes are individual but I happen to enjoy sci-fi that pushes the boundaries of modern understandings in physics and biology. I guess it's a way of trying to live in a distant future where the turmoil of current problems has been left behind. Oh, I'd love to spend some time on a ring world.
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