{"id":192,"date":"2015-09-13T00:59:53","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T00:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/?p=192"},"modified":"2015-09-14T15:34:51","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T15:34:51","slug":"talking-about-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/talking-about-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking about Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When almonds sit in water they become easier to chew. When
\nalmonds sit with grapes and raisins they may taste like grapes and
\nraisins.<\/p>\n

—a largely true remark of Kimberly Adams’<\/p>\n

Gina<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love it: truthiness.<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n           Oh do you now?
\nI googled it. It was not as I wished,
\nThis project, to which I set my labour.
\nI dreamt dimensions in’t that never were,
\nPolitics for’t that never yet have been.<\/p>\n

David<\/strong><\/p>\n

A great woe.<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

     Great, and more than great, bizarre.
\nIts first concern is with the years of Bush—<\/p>\n

Ruby<\/strong><\/p>\n

A fair fine firstling, ha! But pray tell on.<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

—where I had thought it to be laid about
\nThe decade of the sixties; very odd.
\nAnd I, so thinking, brought this German stuff,
\nWhile no one can read German!<\/p>\n

Vignesh<\/strong><\/p>\n

               In the world?<\/p>\n

Kim<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, no one can read German in the world.<\/p>\n

Eoghan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not ev’n, I hear it said, in Germany.<\/p>\n

Ruby<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh stuff and nonsense, all! Let’s hear from Chad<\/span><\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now I shall tell you what I shall tell you,
\nAnd what I know I know is true I’ll tell,
\nAnd that is this: my study is of truth,
\nOf tales and screeds and literatures that claim
\nTo speak a truth, make claims about the truth.
\nFor how can tales speak true, being tales? How screeds,
\nWhen every word that’s writ is scarce the truth?<\/p>\n

Anna<\/strong><\/p>\n

(aside<\/i>)
\nA pretty speech. What is this beer he drinks?<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ll tell of nineteen-sixties magazines
\nAnd authors ten—no, twenty—years past that,
\nOf journalists (suspend your prejudice,
\nI’d say, were I as yet a partisan
\nOf causes long since lost), vain journalists
\nCalled \u201cNew\u201d—<\/p>\n

Bérengère<\/strong><\/p>\n

       Soi-disant?<\/i><\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

            Who can tell? The truth’s
\nA weird, persnick’ty thing; that’s what they said
\nAs well, back then: \u201cNo truth is to be found
\nIn wretched novels and the wretched men
\nWho write them! Don’t you know the novel’s dead,
\nAnd narrative, and sundry Kennedys?
\nKeep up. The novel died when Bellow died
\nIn artistry; a corpse since Herzog, yes?\u201d
\nAnd so they wrote the real, the truth, the true;
\nGot at it (so they said) through that same thing
\nCalled Social Realism in the schools,
\nBut which they called an electricity
\nWithout which no machine of art could run.<\/p>\n

Gina<\/strong><\/p>\n

What rot! Who are these men?<\/p>\n

Anna<\/strong><\/p>\n

               And women too?
\nIs Joan among them?<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

           Mistress Didion
\nCould hardly not be of this party, yes!<\/p>\n

David<\/strong><\/p>\n

And Tommy?<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

       Yes, he’s of them, Master Wolfe.
\nI’ll tell of all these people, all these things,
\nIn every last particular, fear not,
\nDown to the colour of their hair at root,
\nBut first let’s hear from someone else but me,
\nWho’s writ of truth, and those who tell, or don’t.
\nHis words are ciphers cut with diamond knives,
\nHis eyes as firecoals, and he speaks the tongues
\nOf serpents, sibyls, anything with fangs.
\nWiser to run, to hide, but wise we’re not:
\nTake up your scrolls and read Michel Foucault.<\/p>\n

They read.<\/i><\/p>\n

David<\/strong><\/p>\n

He’s clever, but I wonder…<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

              Soft, not you!
\nWe’ll hear at first from Kim<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Kim<\/strong><\/p>\n

This word he writes, how do you say’t aloud?
\np\u028c\u02c8\u0279i\u02d0\u0292\u026a\u0259? p\u028c\u02c8\u0279u\u02d0\u0292\u026a\u0259? Oh God,
\nI fear my Greek is not quite what it was.<\/p>\n

Eoghan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Slack-twisted Kimberly!<\/p>\n

Kim<\/strong><\/p>\n

            Oh you may jest,
\nBut what if he were here<\/em>, and judging one?
\nAt any rate I’d like to know how he
\nWould say the word.<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Most often I pronounce—<\/p>\n

Anna<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most often you pronounce. Can you define<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well he defines it thus—<\/p>\n

Anna<\/strong><\/p>\n

            Who cares for that?
\nHe feints, he feigns. Where is your<\/em> scholarship?
\nMy dear befuddled mollycoddled friends,
\nCease this game of ring-around-the-proses.
\nThis is no jest, nor jape, nor escapade,
\nExcept for him who waits (And who knows where?)
\nAnd creeps and rears and springs and snaps and—thwack!
\nNo fun to be beheaded by Michel
\nWho judges one, as Kim so rightly says.
\nSo read the French and Greek and English words
\nAs never scholars read the words before:
\nAnd some must watch the windows; some, the door.<\/p>\n

Vignesh<\/strong><\/p>\n

What for?<\/p>\n

Eoghan<\/strong><\/p>\n

     Monsieur who bears a sword, of course!<\/p>\n

Sam<\/strong><\/p>\n

All clear, no murd’ring misters at the door.
\nAnd now to crack the Frenchman’s wily code—<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well I’ll make use of etymology!<\/p>\n

Kim<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I, rhetorical analysis.<\/p>\n

Eoghan<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know a scholar woman in a wood,
\nFarouche and strange, who wrote her PhD
\nOn rhetoric. Perhaps you two could speak?<\/p>\n

Gina<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wait, what was that?<\/em><\/p>\n

Anna<\/strong><\/p>\n

          What, what?<\/em><\/p>\n

Ruby<\/strong><\/p>\n

               Oh, what was what?<\/em><\/p>\n

David<\/strong><\/p>\n

All clear. You know, I think we ought to speak
\nOf Hegel.<\/p>\n

Ruby<\/strong><\/p>\n

     David dear, you always do.<\/p>\n

Gina<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think Descartes is what we must discuss.<\/p>\n

Bérengère<\/strong><\/p>\n

You see this phrase? Cartesian. This one too.
\nI know my countrymen\u2014perhaps too well.
\nThis room’s so cold: you’re sure the window’s closed?<\/p>\n

Alexa<\/strong><\/p>\n

All clear. No axemen Frenchmen entering here.<\/p>\n

Kim<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh stop it, do. Let’s talk of Stanley Fish,
\nBiography and bias, presidents,
\nAnd presidential candidates and things,
\nAnd problems of philosophy in Greece
\nIn times ere Dualism and Descartes
\nHad worked their woeful work. Or Wittgenstein!
\nI really wouldn’t mind. Let’s even talk
\nOf Palin, Sarah Palin, anything
\nMore cheerful than this waiting, watching fear.<\/p>\n

Vignesh<\/strong><\/p>\n

A bunch of ninnies, that’s what you lot are.
\nThis is the very painting of your fear!
\nThe Frenchman’s dead; the doors are shut; calm down.
\nReally, sometimes—<\/p>\n

David<\/strong><\/p>\n

         Oh God the page, the page!<\/em><\/p>\n

Kim<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who’s that? Who’s that? The pronouns! Where’d they go?<\/em><\/p>\n

Anna<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh look at them, they creep, they rear, they rise!
\nOh, your hand at the level of your eyes!<\/em><\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

HE’S<\/p>\n

Eoghan<\/strong><\/p>\n

    HERE<\/p>\n

Ruby<\/strong><\/p>\n

       AH GOD<\/p>\n

Bérengère<\/strong><\/p>\n

           AH GOD<\/p>\n

Gina<\/strong><\/p>\n

                AH GOD<\/p>\n

All<\/strong><\/p>\n

                     AH GOD.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

                     Fin<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When almonds sit in water they become easier to chew. When almonds sit with grapes and raisins they may taste like grapes and raisins. —a largely true remark of Kimberly Adams’ Gina I love it: truthiness. Chad            Oh do you now? I googled it. It was not as I wished, This project, to which I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electrictext.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}