I'm a Liar
05.08.08

Yes I am. And this isn't something recent in me. Quite unbelievably, I've been lying ever since around the time I met Harry and, with every blog entry/FictionPress story that goes online, the lying gets worse, and perhaps a little higher.

"Writers are liars" says the Master of Dream, Neil Gaiman, through the lips of the character Erasmus Fry. The third compilation of his critically-acclaimed Sandman series, Dream Country, opens with this quote. It is there, on the very first page of the compilation, like some scrawl from a note-taking fan. It readily stared at me when I opened my copy. This was around the time I've been writing stuff left and right because friends were asking. A quick check over my files and my handwritten journal points precisely at the time I introed "Formless rocks, blank canvasses, untouched tints and unknown beauties". I know it was telling me, "Yes you are".

Most of my readers are writers I know personally. Pasting their works in the lay-out for more or less two issues leaves me no place for doubt regarding their skills. I don't know for them but I am sure I am.

Neil Gaiman was always someone who impressed me. He seems so full of ideas that I wasn't very much prepared when he admitted in an interview the writer's block is something so real to him. He's someone who really knows how to respect his trade. And when he said "Writers are liars", I felt like something's gone wrong.

Pondering a little more on this, I've realized I am wrong and he is right. Already I see the lie in Harry Potter, Sandman, Stardust, The Thief Lord and such like works.

Do you know that I am quite gaga over copyright laws/rules despite my advocacy for free software? That being the case, I always read the copyright page first and foremost before I start on any piece. I know you've often seen this sequence of words, sometimes even in the most fantastic and most out-of-our-atmosphere works. I'm talking of the disclaimer that goes something like "This is a work of fiction. Similarity to real life is purely accidental and unintentional".

Yes I've often seen that. But the disclaimer which says "Description of feelings, reactions, experiences and such like recorded in this work are NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY as this work ONLY TAKES YOU AS FAR AS PRINTER'S INK" is something I yet have to see.

There lies the lie. No matter how much you've read, it will still shock you when the things you read about come out of the books and face you in real life. Nothing--absolutely nothing--can prepare you for the tangible things that lie ahead. Written works, literature, can only give you tips, sort of brace you, but often times you don't really remember them when you're down with your guts.

Created worlds, created securities--they are lies. They are only real since your mind decided they are but in the end it is still from someone playing god, deciding the rules. It is often told that books provide good company but I've learned that friends still provide the best kind as they help you write your own story in the backdrop of reality.

But there are certain things writers can't lie about. Things like beauty, love, passion and dreams--the things that make life wonderful. Amidst the manual-on-how-to-do-this-and-that-presented-in-story-format, these things stand out. The tips just point to them, something like the Polaris, only starkly numerous. And when you've finally navigated to where all those words point, you see the invitation to live life for the things that make it wonderful. I hope I make myself clear.

And I guess the best of liars are immortals since (a) they have their works to immortalize them and (b) those who keep the ability to see beauty never grow old.

"Fantasy isn’t just about wizards and silly wands. It’s about seeing the world from new directions"-Terry Pratchet, as quoted in the Wikipedia entry about him, taken from a BBC article about his awarding of the Carnegie medal.

Precisely Mr. Pratchet (who, by the way, co-authored Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch with Neil Gaiman). Harry Potter isn't about the myriad flavors of Bertie Bott's or the spectacular sight of dueling wands. It is about accepting death as a cycle we all go through because there are other things worse than death. Lord of the Rings isn't about the epic battles. It is about choosing what's right over what's easy in face of temptation. Narnia isn't about medieval lore and fantastic talking beasts. It is about looking at things with childlike wonder, always being open to the surprises a God (such as Aslan) will bring.

A writer must make you dream. That is one of the purposes of Literature after all. But above all, writers are tasked to tackle important issues in their works.

The revving computer scientist in me takes one more stint (hopefully not the last) in the realm of fiction. And suddenly I realized that we don't really write from what we've experienced. The idea presents itself unto us and we interpret it through our experiences. That's it. I maybe mistaken of course.

And I leave you to decide if the SkyWalker is lying with the words from his head you just read.