True Lies

I saw V for Vendetta last night and was inspired to write. I saw plenty of connections to our class, but I found one very relevant to writing in general.

“Writers use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to hide the truth.

That concept is a very powerful one for me. I remember talking in class about the Shaman from Authentic Fakes, who was basically a complete religious fake who still deserved some respect for what he did. He did a lot of acting, and probably employed tactics of lying to make people believe what he believed. This might seem unfair to those who listen to him and believe what he says, but we writers do the same thing in every composition. We basically make up events and prove points that seem logical to prove a larger point of view. This isn't wrong in any way, it's just the method art uses to get the job done. When Diego Rivera used his art to further his communistic ideas or Chuck Palahniuk wrote Fight Club to prove a point about society, they were lying with the intention of exposing of what they saw as the truth. Next time you think an artist is trying to lie to you, just realize it's part of a much larger truth. Of course we can also learn from the movie that this only works in art, not politics.