Class Discussion

"The final belief is to believe in a fiction you know to be a fiction."



This quote seems to have extensive implications. It says that the only truth that exists is the one that each individual sees. It says that perceptions are all that matter--there is nothing else. There is no one way in which to see the world, in which to experience the world. The only "good" and "bad" that exist in the world are the ones that are determined by each individual. It seems to say that "the world does not control me, I control the world." Reality is not something that stands alone, but something that is invented constantly by each individual.

This statement continues with the adage that the most knowledgeable thing someone could say is to admit that they know nothing. Just as Socrates jokes in the Symposium. It seems that knowledge is everything and nothing at the same time. The world is a paradox that cannot be solved. This dichotomy seems to be at the heart of reality.



This quote can also be used to discuss beauty. There was some questions raised about how something like Ovid's Metamorphoses can be considered beautiful when it is comprised of violence and horror. Using the quote is could be argued that beauty and ugliness are not two separate entities. The world is too entangled with both beauty and ugliness to rationally be called by either name. It takes a fiction to see the true beauty. This fiction is, of course, recognized as a fiction, for this is much ugliness in the world. Yet, with this fiction, a person may now call the world beautiful and be able to believe it. Maybe truth is not all that we are searching for. Maybe truth is fiction. Maybe the only way to see complete beauty, even in the presence of morbid ugliness, is to pretend that it is there and believe in it with all your heart.