Camus wrote that “fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” J.D. Vance has tried the same defense for his Haitian lies.
Tag Archives: Lying
Bunyan on Fiction vs. Lying
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Abraham Verghese, Albert Camus, Alices through the Looking-Glass, Election 2024, fiction, J.D. Vance, John Bunyan, Lewis Carroll, Neil Gaiman, Pilgrim's Progress | Comments closed
Why the GOP Is Quoting 1984
American authoritarians appropriating Orwell’s “1984” for their own use is itself an Orwellian move.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 1984, Donald Trump, George Orwell, Salman Rushdie | Comments closed
Lord, How This World Is Given to Lying
Trump’s big lie about winning in 2020, which has become gospel in certain GOP circles, brings to mind Falstaff’s lying.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 2020 election, Donald Trump, GOP, Henry IV Part I, Stolen Valor Act, William Shakespeare | Comments closed
What To Make of a Hero That Lies
A student wants to know what to make of Homer’s apparent approval of Odysseus’s lying. The question doesn’t admit of an easy answer.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, Homer, Odyssey, Philoctetes, Sophocles | Comments closed
Wycherley Describes Self-Deceiving GOP
In Wycherley’s “Country Wife,” self deception defines the society. The parallels with Trump’s GOP are startling.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Country Wife, GOP, self-deception, Ukraine bribery scandal, William Wycherley | Comments closed
When Fiction Trumps Truth
Wednesday Writing last week for the New York Times’ “What Is Power?” series, Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari argued that fiction is a more powerful force than truth in politics. I extend the discussion to literature (which Harari does not discuss) because of its reliance upon fabrication in the service of a higher understanding. Camus, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Geoffrey Chaucer, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare, Yuval Noah Harari | Comments closed
Trump Lying, Modern Day Shout-Boasting?
Mark Twain depicts the verbal art of shout boasting. Maybe Trump operates out of this tradition.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain, shout-boasting | Comments closed
What Is Truth? Cowper’s Beautiful Answer
In the face of Trump’s constant lying, we need William Cowper, who reminds us of the sanctity of truth.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Task", Donald Trump, falsehoods, politics, Rudy Giuliani, William Cowper | Comments closed
Donald, Who Lied & Was Burned to Death
Donald Trump has taken political lying to new heights, bringing to mind Hilaire Belloc’s darkly comic poem, “Matilda, Who Told Lies and Was Burned to Death.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Matilda", Donald Trump, Hilaire Belloc, Lies | Comments closed
