Intelligent Discussion

A few days back you may recall my blog gave birth to a rather intelligent perhaps even slightly meaningful discussion. Considering the number of those that have happened here you all know what I'm talking about. It was the fiction non-fiction veracity stuff. As you may have noticed I did not partake in the comment conversation. This, of course, was because I saw my self as a sort of mediator and unable to state my opinion. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I couldn't think of anything to say. Anyway, here is the conversation

 Courtney said...

You are a character that you created!       (While not particularly enlightening or thought provoking, Courtney's comment did have a lot more to do with the actual post than the stimulating discussion that follows.)

 Carrie said...

If all written words are fiction, are all spoken words fiction? If we think in words are our thoughts fiction? Or is it only in trying to communicate with someone else that the narrative gets fictionalized? So is all communication fiction? I think as soon as we arrange words into a narrative, that is fiction, even if we are only thinking to ourselves.      (And so it begins.)

 Wendy said...

What about the Word of God made flesh? Does incarnation protect the veracity of the word?      (Oh no, a hard question.)

 Corin said...

I'm going to say that question was directed at you, Carrie.     (Phew, neatly deflected.)

 Ken said...

If I may, I'd like to comment on this. The Word has been called The Truth, and The Word was made flesh. Nobody can deny The Word's existence; The Word is not fiction. If everything else is fiction, then that means The Word is the ONLY Truth in this world!    (Hmm, I think that's a good point. Let's see what Carrie says.)

 Carrie said...

Of course, as Christians we believe that the word of God is True with a capital T. Ken's point is interesting, that it could be the only truth in this world. It certainly has a unique status of truth, apart from questions of whether a biography is truer than a novel, or whether Cory is disseminating true or false information on his blog:)The Bible can be subjected to interesting narrative analysis though, such as examining the point of view of the narrator, and what information the narrator chooses to withhold or impart. 
It is the fact that all narrative can be subjected to this type of analysis that causes critics to claim that all narrative has essentially the same truth value. However, calling something fiction does not necessarily mean that it has no truth value. 
No matter what abstract conclusions we come to about the nature of narrative, we are still going to basically believe everything Cory writes on his blog, and we are not going to have any trouble figuring out when he is posting an example of his "fictional" writing versus when he is telling us a "true" story.         (Ha, I was right. Ken did have a good point.)

After that no one posted again. I think either everyone agreed or no one understood. I'm thinking a bit of both. I did bring this conversation up for a reason, though. Even if the word is "true", no one will argue that our understanding of it is faulty. All communication is riddled with fiction and untruth, even when we talk to ourselves. I wonder if in heaven we will be able to communicate with God, each other, and ourselves in a perfect understanding to an extent we cannot fathom now as earthly creatures. When they say things like, "Adam talked with God," I think that may be implying what I am speaking of, not just a stroll and chat in the garden. When Adam and Eve began attempting to deceive God with evasive answers, it was the first time perfect meaning had not been put into what was being said. It was a brand new way of communicating.

That's all, just idle wanderings of a strange and murky mind. I didn't think any of this through before I wrote it so don't take it as my martyrable belief. Just meandering through the chasms.