True things aren’t usually very interesting. Oh, it is true that Truth is Stranger Than Fiction, but those are rare cases. In general this thing we call life is pretty boring if I were to just stand here and tell you about it. Yet memoir writers have long made a business of telling their stories in such a way that their audiences are riveted to every word, compelled by every chapter in-the-life-of. There’s no way that their lives were truly that interesting, that literarily compelling. Even an exciting person has exciting moments in their lives, islands surrounded by vast seas of mundane days; shopping trips, PTA meetings, commutes, meetings. I contend that these memoirs are embellishments at best, lies at worst.
And why not? Sometimes the right lie feels more true than the truth. The right lie can entertain far more than the intractable truth. And if a lie both feels true and is entertaining, who are we to deny it?
Nothing written here is true; except for the rare cases when it is. If these experiences were completely made up, they’d be just simple fiction. Because there’s a grain of truth somewhere, instead, these are lies.
All works copyright Dennis M Liggio 2009.
For those looking for where it begins, check here.
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