Thursday, August 24, 2017
A Minute Meditation
In the arts, one must distinguish, of course, between the lie and the tall story that the audience is not expected to believe. The tall-story teller gives himself away, either by a wink or by an exaggerated poker face: the born liar always looks absolutely natural.
-- W. H. Auden --
from his Introduction to The Complete Poems of Cavafy
Born liars look like they are telling the truth and that they actually believe what they are saying, even to the point that contradictory lies never bother them. They just blame the ones who expose their contradictory tales.
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piquant quote... did Auden like Cavafy? i guess he must have or he wouldn't have written the Intro... i've never read any of his poetry, but i remember he had some sort of connection with Kazantsakis... i think...
ReplyDeleteMudpuddle--yes, I presume he did. I wasn't aware of the connection between Kazantzakis and Cavafy. I was first introduced to Cavafy by Lawrence Durrell, in his Alexandria Quartet where he referred to him several times. The link leads to a post containing several of Durrell's poems that refer to Cavafy.
Deletehttp://tinyurl.com/ybjqzfd9
Kazantzakis wrote "Julian the Apostate" and Cavafy wrote the "Julian poems"... other than that i distinctly remember reading somewhere and time that they co-operated on something, but i have no idea what... the above info is from Google...
DeleteMudpuddle--thanks for the information. I wasn't aware of that.
DeleteI often teach classes to newly hired folks at my company. I usually tell them a ridiculous story early on (one of my favorites is how an unfortunate employee was killed by the many geese that are very numerous around our building). I tend to tell the story in a serious and deadpan way. It is amazing just how many folks either believe me or are just not sure if it is true or not. I eventually tell folks the truth. I think that I take on the exaggerated poker face however.
ReplyDeleteBrian Joseph--I think your situation is perfect for that. They are new and know little or nothing about the place. They don't expect you to deceive them. Why would you lie them?
DeleteBut, still, some are doubtful.
Brian: that's pretty funny... i imagine some get rather annoyed with you... the hirees, not the geese, although it would informative to get the latter's opinions...
DeleteGeese can be foul-tempered and sassy -- there's that. The story would have taken on a whole different flavor had it been a child and not an employee.
DeleteShadow--from what I've heard, that's certainly true. The Romans supposedly used geese as watchbirds since they were so quick to react to intruders, which included just about anybody and anything.
DeleteI agree--a child would have turned it into a real horror story.