The following information is taken from the BGSU Monitor Monthly.
"Truth is a complicated thing," novelist Tim O'Brien told students during his October visit to campus. "Be careful about the word 'truth.' It's not all black and white in this world of ours--there are many shades of gray." ...
O'Brien explained that in his stories and his writing, he strives for emotional truth as opposed to literal truth, which can never be expressed in its totality anyway. "Even if it's made up, it doesn't mean it isn't true. I'm writing about the human heart, and the emotional truth there."
Or, to quote Picasso, he said, "Art is the lie that makes us realize the truth." ...
3 comments:
Yep, that'a definitely Tim O'Brien speaking.
I have this long-running argument with my younger son (19 on Saturday), who believes that what the writer produces is the truth and that is how it should stay, i.e. with the writer's intent. I maintain that once the thought is out and on the page or even on the lips of the thinker and imparted to another, then it becomes for the reader/listener to interpret, and THAT is the beauty of art. The creator SHARES with his or her audience, and the audience PARTICIPATES and OWNS the work at that point. The work becomes part of the ethos and is no longer the sole property of the originator (except under copyright law, of course). If I read or hear something, it is my right to interpret it as I wish, and I will fight for that right to the death.
As you may gather, we have had several passionate arguments, and that is MY side. Maybe I'll get my son to impart his, if I let him :)
Truth, to me, has many shadings. There is quantifiable, factual truth. There is the ultimate unknowable (in this lifetime) truth, and then there is one's personal truth. As a writer, I have to seek a balance between the factual and the personal, and I aspire to add the glimmers of the ultimate with which I have been given. I do believe we all do receive those hints of the ultimate truth, and they are so often the core of the personal truth.
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