Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. Musings from someone who sees stories everywhere.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

foolish thoughts



It's April Fool's Day. Writers, especially the 'creative types', are perceived as generally fooling around and never engaged in anything remotely connected to serious pursuits. Even 'serious' writers tend to look down upon the foolish dreamers. The other day, a well known consumer rights activist, musician and author of seven books told me, "Only one of my books is a collection of short stories. The rest are all on serious subjects such as biography and music."


If, as my friend Bob Sanchez says, fiction is based on lies, then why do we lie? Are more likely to add colourful touches to the truth with those we know, rather than with perfect strangers?
People lie for several reasons. We desire to protect our public selves, and consciously try to mould the impressions we convey to others. We also lie to protect out private lives and our sense of self worth.

We lie to escape from reality, and sometimes, we also lie in an effort to uravel the web of half truths that entangle reality.


2 comments:

sanju said...

Hello Monideepa,

It was ineresting but as you know not very enlightening. For any one who writes like you or try to write (like me) knows how difficult it is to get your writings see the daylights. At times, it is prudent to distribute your writings in a writing group and get a delight in reading them.

In any case, I enjoyed reading the piece.

Sanjaya

monideepa sahu said...

You're totaly right about writers' groups, Sanju. I'm a member of several, and value the feedback and support I receive.