The only truth I can understand or express is, logically defined, a lie. Psychologically defined, a symbol. Aesthetically defined, a metaphor....
I am not predicting, or prescribing. I am describing. I am describing certain aspects of psychological reality in the novelist's way, which is by inventing elaborately circumstantial lies.
In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find- if it's a good novel – that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changed a little...
The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words...
Lots to ponder!
4 comments:
What does this mean for the christian?
Was Jesus was a great spinner of fiction (by this definition) in his parables?
Well, yes. His parables were not 'true' ... but they were deeply true. RIght?
There never was a Good Samaritan, and that's partly the point.
An introduction to Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged' states: art is a "re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments." By its nature, therefore, a novel (like a statue or symphony) does not require or tolerate an explantatory preface; it is a self-contained universe, aloof from commentary, beckoning the reader to enter, perceive, respond.
The Objectivist view - to keep pondering...
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