True Enough discusses the importance of experience, and how no one can ever remove him/herself from any situation. Two people may be able to watch the same football game, but the account of the event afterwards will never be exactly the same. People are shaped by everything around them. Every image, dialogue, emotion, etc. is catalogued for future reference. Nothing can be felt or seen objectively. The past never leaves us. The idea of not having an identical reality is frightening, I think, when first confronted with it. I admit that having first read about the jumbling mess of realities was disconcerting. But my reality is never exactly the same anyone else’s. Every experience in someone’s life changes him or her; they cannot erase any experience in order to inhibit subjectivity in the future. I think True Enough is a little heavy, and I am rather sick of reading about the Swift Boat Veterans, but I think the premise is a valid one. Every truth is true, probably, but not every truth belongs to everyone else. We can watch the same football game and none of us will come away having seen the same game. Our truths are true enough for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment