9: Life & Fiction

I just want everyone who is reading this to know that I am fixated on the lies people tell, and for the past few years, I have been obsessing over the lies I am going to tell others. Now, if that sounds odd to you, simply replace the word lies with the word stories, and it will all become clear.

I chose the word lies because using the word stories does not truly express what I intend to share with the world; for that matter, neither does the word lies, but when this word is used during a conversation or while writing there is a certain attachment to negativity.

When someone uses the word lie regardless of if it is used as an accusation or in defense of what you know to be true, it brings suspicion with it. If you accuse someone of telling lies, the proof typically falls on the one making the accusation. When you simply say that you are not lying or that what is being said agents you are lies, the burden of proof still falls on you.

I know it sounds like a game. Whoever says the word lie or lies first is the loser, but I wrote all of that because it is a point where life and fiction exist at the same time. Sometimes it is all a matter of perspective while the rest of the time ethics and morality are involved, and even they hinge on the level of emotional reaction a person has to it.

For example, if there are two people making claims that the other is lying, how do you tell which one is being honest or do you even care? In fiction, this is relatively simple. This is because when you start to engage with any kind of fiction, you are agreeing to be lied to for the sake of entertainment purposes. Life, on the other hand, is not always so cut and dry.

On average a person tells a lie 1 to 2 times a day, and this is on top of the extremely broad range that a person is lied to 10 to 200 times a day. Okay, let’s say that you told and received one lie each day, and both of them were done for the sake of not hurting anyone’s feelings, does that make it any more acceptable than just being honest?

Or how about the lies we tell ourselves? Where do those fit into the equation of life? Most people say that they do not want to be lied to, but at any point in your life, you are going to believe at least one lie. (If you want to explore this idea and read an entertaining story, then I suggest Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind.)

I am not here to say that lies are perfectly acceptable, but I am saying that they are part of our everyday life. How you deal with the lies you are told or tell shows who you are, and the same is true when it comes to fiction.

Fiction emulates life and is capable of proposing some of the most difficult as well as the most controversial questions of our time. You only have to go back about 82 years to see that Isaac Asimov was showing people what they should be concerned about in regards to artificial intelligence.

At the same time, life tends to be inspired by fiction resulting in cellphones, submarines, the taser, rockets, atomic energy, the internet, and all digital audio or video players. The list can go on, especially when you take into consideration all the other things, we use every day that have been invented due to some of the things mentioned on this list. Life and fiction have this symbiotic relationship that allows each other to grow and at times make improvements.

Okay, anyone can say that the reason fiction is so different from life is that everything in fiction eventually gets wrapped up neatly by the end of the story and life does not simply do this. This is true to a certain extent, but without getting too dark, the real ending of any story in fiction as well as life is death.

While death does not always mean the end in fiction, the same is true with life. In fiction and life, death is a symbol of a permanent change. The proverbial ending or death of anyone or anything leads to an unavoidable confrontation that deals with mortality and change in a way that ultimately defines how that death affects everything it has touched.

Unlike my other main posts, this one is shorter. I used the word life instead of the phrase real life because adding the word real implies a certain perspective that is not always held by others, and there is anything inherently wrong with how each person having their own view of the world around them. However you see the world adds to this thing called life, and I will not impose a different reality upon you unless you are reading one of my lies/stories. Just remember life can be stranger than fiction, and fiction is a specified perception of life; the two will always be there building upon each other creating possibilities that are only limited by the minds that experience both of them. Until next time, I am Nolan Ex Tenebris.