Lies? Or Stories?

[bogwitch64]

I just finished reading A Land More Kind Than Home by Wylie Cash, and in his note from the author*, he said this:

"...I wish I knew then what I know now: As a six-year-old, you're called a liar when you tell a story that you know isn't true. But if you can keep telling stories and wait just a few more years, people will eventually call you a

Comments

[blackrabbit42]

Well, there's a difference between telling mom that your stuffed tiger is really alive, and telling her that you made your bed when you didn't. But I suppose they both take a certain willingness to imagine and visualize a scenario that strays from reality.

:)

[bogwitch64]

I should have put the part that came before that in his author's note--as a six-year-old, he embellished a story about the family trip to the beach, because he thought "swimming and playing in the sand" was way too boring. Instead, he told a friend his dad had buried him up to his neck and a sandcrab got hold of his big toe and nearly snapped it off before his dad dug him out. I'll add this in up there.

[blackrabbit42]

Still, it made me pause to think... if a person had NO imagination, they would literally be incapable of lying. Lying requires the ability to imagine a scenario that doesn't exist. How boring life would be then.

I am a terrible liar, people can tell instantly by looking at me if I am not telling the truth. Thankfully my kids have inherited this trait, in spades.

:)

[bogwitch64]

When I was a kid, I totally believed that if I didn't ADMIT to anything, no one could prove I was lying. Ha!

I'm good at the little white lie, and the storytelling, but outright lies?? Yeah, not so good with that. As evidenced by my daughter's post on Jezebel, she's doing pretty well with the little white lies. :)

"It's not a lie, it's a gift for fiction."

[msstacy13]

The crucial distinction he either misses or delights in overlooking is "when they know your stories aren't true".
There is a world of difference between the willing suspension of disbelief and the intent to deceive, just as there is between play money and counterfeit money; between a copy and a forgery.

Re: "It's not a lie, it's a gift for fiction."

[bogwitch64]

Yes, there is a whole lot of difference between suspension of belief and deception. I see I should have put the part that came before that in his author's note--as a six-year-old, he embellished a story about the family trip to the beach, because he thought "swimming and playing in the sand" was way too boring. Instead, he told a friend his dad had buried him up to his neck and a sandcrab got hold of his big toe and nearly snapped it off before his dad dug him out. I'll add this in up there.

Re: "It's not a lie, it's a gift for fiction."

[msstacy13]

Hmmm...
I suspect the story about the story never actually happened;
he probably read To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,
and realized that people would think he was more of writer
if he told them he made up stories like that when he was a kid.
:)

[cmcmck]

I was exceedingly good at lying as a littl'un because if I'd told the truth, life might have got rather, shall we say, interesting!

[jennygordon]