We all talk story, right? We talk openly about what we want to be seen, or understand for that matter, and we disguise what we're desperate to say, but don't quite grasp. I love to read fiction…I find it relatable, even in its most far fetched worlds. There are emotions spoken that one doesn't readily admit, they are raw and acceptable in the forests of fancy.
"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures." -- Jessamyn West
Have you ever looked at a word search wracking your brain because you can't possibly find the elusive words that some stranger hid in a maze of letters? So you flip the puzzle upside-down and the words miraculously appear. You manipulate what is acceptable or "normal" to find the answers.
Sometimes I find my answers in fiction. I find the emotion that I couldn't quite put my finger on, the thought articulated in such a way that I could say to myself, "that's it!" Once I find these answers, these elucidations, I feel like I can come to terms with them and release them to the breeze that will carry them away. The thing is, I have to take what I've discovered and do something with it. I can't linger in the fantasy and live vicariously through the "braver than I'll ever be" heroine.
So sometimes we use fiction to explain reality. Reality can be riddled with pressures, stress, activity, and distractions. It can be difficult to thumb through it while we are in it. We have to turn the puzzle upside-down to identify what reality has inevitably obscured. The words are there, plain as day. So we read them, accept them, and move on. Because we are no longer staring blindly at a cage of letters that we are hoping will bring meaning to what seems to be jumbled. We can now understand why we kept working on the puzzle in the first place.
“Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps,
but still attached to life at all four corners.”
-- Virginia Woolf
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