I never said that one truth is as good as another. There is such a state as true fiction and false fiction. Again, by fiction I mean the necessity of our reinventing the stream of experience not only as we experience it but as we recall it, too. That reinvention is always partial and biased, and thus it is fictional. There is, in my view, no alternative to this. That's why in court several witnesses are better than one, or why 12 jurors are better than one, or why cross examination is aimed at teasing out the correspondences among overlapping reinventions of past events. Several reinventions of the same event can produce more likely evidence than one.
I think you are simplifying my view by testing it in everyday terms instead of philosophically. I admit my terms may not be everyday usage, such as "fiction versus actuality" but I have tried to be clear in stating my more complex way of using such terms because this is that sort of dialogue, not everyday conversation. WC --- On Wed, 12/31/08, GEOFF CREALOCK <[email protected]> wrote: > From: GEOFF CREALOCK <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Malcolm Gladwell and beliefs) > To: [email protected] > Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 2:57 PM > William: Given your statement, cited by Cheerskep, "All > stories are based on > memory. All memories are fiction" I wonder if you > would feel constrained if > you were required to "tell the truth, the whole truth, > and nothing but the > truth". Presumably one fiction is as good, or better > than another. > Geoff C > > > >From: [email protected] > >Reply-To: [email protected] > >To: [email protected] > >Subject: Re: Malcolm Gladwell and beliefs) > >Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:19:15 EST > > > >Here is what you "actually say", William: > > > > > "there are numerous factual histories of the > American Revolution". . . > >each > > > one is fictional to some degree" > > > > >Please tell us what your word is for those portions > that are NOT fictional > >to > >any degree. > > > >This is also what you "actually said": > > > >"All stories are based on memory. All memories are > fiction." > > > >It is that universal that caught my interest. Do you > now want to modify it > >to > >put it this way?: "All stories are based on memory > to some degree. All > >memories are fiction to some degree." > > > > > >************** > >New year...new news. Be the > >first to know what is making headlines. > >(http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026)
