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Inclinations

Priscilla Fagan

Fictitious Lies

No, it's not the title of my new novel, but it does lend itself to the theme of this month's column. Redundancy? No, fiction versus lies. Someone once asked me what I did and I said I wrote lies. Seeing from their expression that they didn't understand, I laughed and said I wrote fiction. Well, their answer was, "Gee, I never thought of fiction as lies." My response (I was in a great mood) was to explain that the authors they read must lie extremely well.

Fictitious (according to the Oxford Thesaurus): imagined, unreal, made-up, fabricated, untrue. Lies (according to the same): fabrications, misrepresentations, falsehoods, untruths, fibs, and FICTION.

So, these definitions mean what? Well, Angus Wilson, English novelist says, All fiction for me is a kind of magic and trickery -- a confidence trick, trying to make people believe something is true that isn't. Does that mean the same as -- being a good liar?

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to tell a lie well. Samuel Butler. I suppose this is where a good outline comes in handy. This English novelist also said, I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy. Now is that the voice of an author or what? Research, research, research. Inaccuracy in lying as well as in writing fiction will show you not only to be a poor liar but a poor writer too.

Well, I don't think there's any point to be made here, unless it happens to be that whether you write fiction or you lie, make sure you do it well. When I write fiction, I feel like I'm playing. (Perhaps that's why it's easy for me to believe I'm a phony.) My enthusiasm is such that I can't wait to see where the story is going and for that reason I think Robert Louis Stevenson said it best, Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.

If you'll allow me to get philosophical with this last Inclination, I'd like to turn to Voltaire, History is the recital of facts represented as true. Fable, on the other hand, is the recital of facts represented as fiction. And that my friend, says it all.

Until next month I remain,
Priscilla the eternal optimist