This week: Lies Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
—Winston Churchill (Ironically, it wasn't actually Churchill. That's a lie.)
A lie told often enough becomes the truth.
—Vladimir Lenin
A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.
—Thomas Mann |
You're a liar.
Sorry, I shouldn't assume. My assumption is that if you're reading this newsletter on Writing.com, you've at least attempted to write fiction. If you have, then, by definition, you're a liar.
If you're like most people, you probably got told as a kid that lying is bad. Chances are, you got told this by the same people who convinced you to believe in Santa Claus and/or the Tooth Fairy (maybe we need a Truth Fairy instead).
But lying isn't always bad. With fiction, the reader (or listener or viewer) knows it's a lie, and willingly participates in the falsehood for the sake of entertainment. With the supernatural beings of childhood, the situation's a bit more murky, but an argument can be made that it stimulates the child's imagination, which is generally considered a good thing.
There are also things like spying or police undercover work, which require one to lie in some way. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on point of view. To the people who hired the spy, it's a good thing. To the people the spy is spying on, not so much.
When is it not good to lie? Well, on your tax forms, for starters, or in the court where they sent you after you lied on your tax forms. When you're trying to hide something bad about yourself, or damage the reputation of another, lying is generally considered bad form.
But fiction, as I said, is, by definition, a lie.
So what about lying within the framework of a story? Like if one character says the dragon was green, but the dragon was actually orange, so the townspeople hire a dragonslayer to get the wrong flying lizard. For one thing, it can generate drama and tension. There's a pervasive trope in fiction that the truth will always be revealed. While that's a lie, it can make for good storytelling.
One interesting thing about the English language is that we have several words for telling falsehoods (such as lying, prevaricating, or fibbing), but we don't have a single word for telling the truth. We can say someone is telling the truth, or speaking honestly, or presenting facts, but all of those are more than one word.
I'm sure this says something about English speakers, but if I said I knew what that was, I'd be lying. |
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Fantasy: May 28, 2025 Issue [#13147]
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