“Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.” -Alan Moore, V For Vendetta
My favorite story of the year wasn't found in a book or was on a screen. I don't even think it has received an award yet, though I'm hoping it gets something.
It is a battlefield story from here in the American heartland. Now I don't know how much of it is embellished, but it is by far better than the other stories swirling from the same event. And talk about economy, it is told by only one picture.
This is how it goes. A teargas canister catches fire during one of worst nights of the Ferguson riots. It rolls dangerously close to some kids when a man clad in a tank top with the American flag on it, grabs the canister and flings it away. The kids are saved and the man fades into the obscurity he came from. There's no press interviews, no reality shows, no tabloids. He does what he has to and is gone. Oh yes, he was eating from a bag of potato chips just before he was superman.
What grabs me about the story is that the kids are never shown or described. They could have been any color, any age, any ethnicity. The man, himself, is black but being clad in the American flag seems to take him beyond any one label. I like to think that the kids could have been any kids and that anyone with the opportunity, and a clear mind, would have done what the man did.
Of course I'm seeing in the story what I want to. But isn't that what art does? It allows the hearer or reader or viewer to build on what the creator has presented.
The idea of a policeman shooting an unarmed man rouses emotions from all sides because of histories, or perceived histories, tensions, disappointments, envies, fears, wishes for equality, feeling of having already given enough, suspicions, guilt, ambitions, depressions, the grand beautiful love of humanity that sees nothing but the plain truth of us all being one.
The players become proxies for ourselves. Much of Ferguson's celebrity comes from how deeply the person receiving can invest in the players and situations. No matter how wild the exaggerations, if we see reflections of ourselves in them we're willing to go for the ride. Sometimes even adding our own angles before passing them on.
Maybe that's why the three great holy books, the Bible, Torah and Koran have spawned so many sects and denominations. There are so many views that it is funny going to the original texts and often seeing the thing creating the divisions aren't even there.
Of course it's not necessarily bad that we imbue ourselves in stories. Most writers hope for audience immersion. It's what makes a story live and become immortal.
My favorite authors instinctively have a grip on this and use their stories to make me admit something about myself. They give me a character I can relate to and make that character, me, see and experience the world differently. These authors use fiction to lead their readers to truths that otherwise would go unnoticed and challenge preconceived notions that have fixed themselves as fact.
My favorite story of the year wasn't found in a book or was on a screen. I don't even think it has received an award yet, though I'm hoping it gets something.
It is a battlefield story from here in the American heartland. Now I don't know how much of it is embellished, but it is by far better than the other stories swirling from the same event. And talk about economy, it is told by only one picture.
This is how it goes. A teargas canister catches fire during one of worst nights of the Ferguson riots. It rolls dangerously close to some kids when a man clad in a tank top with the American flag on it, grabs the canister and flings it away. The kids are saved and the man fades into the obscurity he came from. There's no press interviews, no reality shows, no tabloids. He does what he has to and is gone. Oh yes, he was eating from a bag of potato chips just before he was superman.
What grabs me about the story is that the kids are never shown or described. They could have been any color, any age, any ethnicity. The man, himself, is black but being clad in the American flag seems to take him beyond any one label. I like to think that the kids could have been any kids and that anyone with the opportunity, and a clear mind, would have done what the man did.
Of course I'm seeing in the story what I want to. But isn't that what art does? It allows the hearer or reader or viewer to build on what the creator has presented.
The idea of a policeman shooting an unarmed man rouses emotions from all sides because of histories, or perceived histories, tensions, disappointments, envies, fears, wishes for equality, feeling of having already given enough, suspicions, guilt, ambitions, depressions, the grand beautiful love of humanity that sees nothing but the plain truth of us all being one.
The players become proxies for ourselves. Much of Ferguson's celebrity comes from how deeply the person receiving can invest in the players and situations. No matter how wild the exaggerations, if we see reflections of ourselves in them we're willing to go for the ride. Sometimes even adding our own angles before passing them on.
Maybe that's why the three great holy books, the Bible, Torah and Koran have spawned so many sects and denominations. There are so many views that it is funny going to the original texts and often seeing the thing creating the divisions aren't even there.
Of course it's not necessarily bad that we imbue ourselves in stories. Most writers hope for audience immersion. It's what makes a story live and become immortal.
My favorite authors instinctively have a grip on this and use their stories to make me admit something about myself. They give me a character I can relate to and make that character, me, see and experience the world differently. These authors use fiction to lead their readers to truths that otherwise would go unnoticed and challenge preconceived notions that have fixed themselves as fact.