Monday, January 25, 2010

Summing up the lies

My social experiment has been over for a few days now, but I have been unable to put into words what I learned. My mouth runs fast. Too fast sometimes for my own good, but my biggest struggle was with writing and changing my story just enough to make it not quite true. Whether it was through exaggeration or metaphors or little tweaks here and there that made the story jump from the truth track onto the not-quite-so-true track. It wasn't until I ran into another struggle after the social experiment expired that I found my answer...

I've been debating whether or not to drop my creative writing class. Here's the answer that slapped me in the face. The funny part is that it is the wrong book for the class. Wrong book for class, right book for my heart. This is what it has to say,
"Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart"

So tell all the truth but tell it slant-
success in circuit lies
too bright for our infirm delight
the Truth's superb surprise
as Lightening to the Children eased
with explanation kind
the Truth must dazzle gradually
or every man be blind-
-Emily Dickinson

I'll stick around for a while I think. Hopefully the right book is just as insightful

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