Paradoxes in Writing

catian · Feb 14, 2012

I came across this Shakespearian paradox:

'the truest poetry is the most feigned'

which I am still trying to understand.
I am assuming one can apply it to say :

'the truest story is the most feigned'

since poetry or story writing come under literature.

I was wondering how many of you distinguished writers use paradoxes in their writing and do you have one to share here.

Thanks!

Orchestra · Feb 14, 2012

Well, the whole business of writing is a sort of paradox. We write pages and pages full of lies to tell something that could be described as a truth.

Theo81 · Feb 14, 2012

I wouldn't say that's a paradox.

The full and proper quote is:

“The truest poetry is the most feigning;
and lovers are given to poetry; and what they swear in poetry
may be said, as lovers, they do feign.

From Sparknotes:

When Orlando claims that he will die of love, Rosalind disproves him with one of the play’s most famous and delightful speeches. Her insistence that literature has misrepresented and unduly romanticized the world’s greatest lovers is a stringent antidote to Orlando’s mewling, and supports Touchstone’s earlier observation that “the truest poetry is the most feigning, and lovers are given to poetry; and what they swear in poetry it may be said, as lovers, they do feign” (III.iii.15–17). After dismantling Orlando’s model of love, Rosalind goes on to assail the men who follow the model, claiming that the greatest romantics are transformed by marriage into inattentive, uncaring dictators. In addition to the jesting, there is a serious element of self-preservation in Rosalind’s famous observation that “men are April when they woo, December when they wed” (IV.i.124–125). When, on two occasions, Orlando is late for their appointment, Rosalind fears that her lover’s devotion might not be steadfast, but she also knows that the thrill of romance is short-lived. Over time, love weathers and even dulls, an unhappy but inevitable truth that only Rosalind stops to consider: “the sky changes,” she admits, “when [maids] are wives” (IV.i.126–127).

If you wish to understand a quote from a play, I suggest reading the play and understand the context in which it is said.

catian · Feb 14, 2012

Orchestra said:
Well, the whole business of writing is a sort of paradox. We write pages and pages full of lies to tell something that could be described as a truth.

Interesting Ochestra.
I like your name by the way

I actually consider writing as an imagination floating on paper.
I would not call it lies but just stories written for fun something different.

catian · Feb 14, 2012

Theo81 said:
I wouldn't say that's a paradox.

The full and proper quote is:

“The truest poetry is the most feigning;
and lovers are given to poetry; and what they swear in poetry
may be said, as lovers, they do feign.

From Sparknotes:

If you wish to understand a quote from a play, I suggest reading the play and understand the context in which it is said.

Thank you Theo81.

Question · Feb 14, 2012

I guess stories are lies that replicate/emulate/represent some element of the truth... in a way. To me, stories are just lies intended to evoke specific emotions. Wanting to feel those emotions (happiness, fear, love, intellectual satisfaction) are the reason why we read stories. Showing the truth in the form of a 'lie' is simply a means to that end.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 14, 2012

I don't know about paradoxes, but feigned, yes, I think good writing is often feigned, and good poetry is often feigned, which, to me, means not genuine/faked.

Again, for me, it comes when writers say you have to feel what you're writing. If you don't, who will? But I don't have to cry when something sad happens in my writing, or laugh when a character makes a joke, or be emotionally wrapped up in the story at all.

Writing, for me, is an intellectual exercise, a pack of damned lies that gets at the truth, but does so because I'm good at feigning the emotion, good at carefully setting landmines in places I know the reader will step.

I'm not feeling when I write, I'm thinking, planning ways to make the reader feel whatever I want to to feel, when I want him to feel it.

So when I say I'll die for love in a story, I don't really mean it, but I want the reader to believe I do.

dangerousbill · Feb 14, 2012

Jamesaritchie said:
I'm good at ... setting landmines in places I know the reader will step.

Now why didn't Shakespeare just say it that way instead?

randi.lee · Feb 14, 2012

A lie to me is something masquerading as the real and honest truth. How can it be a lie if it is clearly marked as fiction (non-truth)?

Jamesaritchie · Feb 14, 2012

randi.lee said:
A lie to me is something masquerading as the real and honest truth. How can it be a lie if it is clearly marked as fiction (non-truth)?

Because non-truth is a lie. I think good fiction is always a lie that reveals a truth.

I always thought Lawrence Block had the perfect title for one of his how-to books. Telling Lies For Fun and Profit.

Paradoxes in Writing

catian

Orchestra

practical experience, GTFO

Theo81

catian

catian

Question

Soon I will be invincible

Jamesaritchie

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

randi.lee

Certified Non-Genius

Jamesaritchie