Exploring the Theme of Truth & Lies in Storytelling

 

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I'm currently working on a novella that focuses on the theme of truth and lies. It started as a way to help myself heal from something that happened online where the person lied to a community to which I belonged. The scale on which they lied was vast, and I found it difficult to believe anything they said thereafter, more so because it was all online where it's already hard to trust people.  

For a while, I was just writing the story, trying to get it out of my head and heart. When I was able to stop and look it over, I noticed the theme of truth and lies, which I realized I relate to on various levels:

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Astrology

I am a Libra, which is the symbol of scales. Scales are held by Lady Justice who must weigh the truth and lies to provide a just sentence. I'm often weighing my options, my actions, my words and those of others. While Libras are predominantly indecisive, it's because we can usually see both sides of an issue and that's what I would say causes our indecisiveness. (However, I can only speak from my own experiences. I match what is commonly said about my sign, so that is why I am generalizing here.) A Libra's "split vision" and indecisiveness results in a love for compromise to either pacify all individuals in an issue or to have the best of both worlds. When given Options A and B, we (I) often look for C. As a result, I love duality, and that duality often consists of opposite or extreme elements.

Take for example, Stuart Mackey's videos below. 

@heyitsstuart These characters are delicious 😳 I need a Lydia #actingchallenge #actortiktok #irishactor #teenwolf #stiles ♬ original sound - bella😐

This video and the next both demonstrate a duality of extremes that reaches more people than if only one emotion were shown. A lot of Stuart's videos are meaningful for me, but this one struck me the most because I can identify with the raw anger since I never expressed it, but feel anger to that degree. Stuart could have ended the video with that. He fulfilled the point of the video. But instead, he kept the ending where he switches from the character back to himself. Showing his personality, and that he is a well-rounded human being, makes the video much stronger. Seeing his mask removed lets the viewer take a step back and laugh with Stuart. It promotes connectivity. I will discuss theater and masks farther down in the blog, 

@heyitsstuart Goofy ending! 😂 #Povacting #teenwolfstiles #irishactor #herecomestheboy #actor ♬ original sound - bella😐

This strong attraction to duality connects to my passion for mysteries and morally grey characters. 

Mysteries 

I am a mystery lover. I have a whole shelf dedicated to Nancy Drew books and other items, a whole shelf for my mystery books including Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and other versions of the characters, a book on behind-the-scenes of Murdoch Mysteries, two Agatha Christies, Enola Holmes, and Tom & Liz Austen, to name a few.

I think I love mysteries because it's up to the reader most of the time to distinguish truth from lies and determine the true narrative. It's a challenge to see if you're smart enough and creative enough. While doing research or interrogating suspects, that sense of discovery of an alibi that doesn't match or the location of treasure is gratifying. Mysteries appeal to my passion for story writing; you plot out various paths the culprit could have taken that resulted in the murder, theft, or whatever happened. Like in the TV show Sherlock, mysteries have drama that make it interesting, from a stormy night and power outage to masked robbers and car chases.

At the heart of mysteries, the biggest question people want answered is "Why?" Why did the person feel they had no choice but to commit a crime? Mysteries are full of questions, which reminds me of Keats' poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn," specifically the final lines of:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,— that is all

Ye know on earth , and all ye need to know.

While the truth can be beautiful (as well as ugly), there are some mysteries that don't necessarily need to be answered because then, life would become boring. On the other hand, timing is sometimes a crucial element in discovering the truth. As Savannah Woodham says in Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water's Edge, the main difference between truth and illusion (or lie) is time. An illusion can't last forever; there will be a time where it reveals its secrets. It's like watching a play or television show; the deception lasts a certain period before you're returned to reality.

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Theater

I have never felt comfortable being in front of people or a camera, less so if I have to act. Group projects at school were always tedious for me because I knew it would look amateurish no matter what we did, and I could never get into the spirit because I knew it wasn't real. High school was the worse period because I was so self-conscious. You want me to yell and scream or deliver lines like I just killed the king? I'll pass. I'm already not a dramatic person.

Interactive theater and art exhibits are also things I have never enjoyed. I like being in the background, in the shadows, observing. And I don't like being forced to do something or pressured into it. Another reason I hate both interactive theater and art exhibits is because I can see through the lie and don't know how to keep the charade going or how to respond. I can't come up with stories or appropriate comebacks on the fly, so I end up being awkward and anxiously looking for a way to escape.   

On a whim, I bought some eyeshadow and wore it twice to work. I had never worn makeup, always resisting when people told me to wear some. I was in college this time, and since I wanted to do it of my volition, I did. No one at work mentioned it even though it was an obvious color (turquoise), making me wonder if I had even put it on correctly. The third time I was applying it, I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that I didn't like it. I felt like I was wearing a mask, like I was pretending to be someone other than myself and it was uncomfortable. From there on, I went back to never wearing makeup, except for red lipstick on occasion.

I have recently decided to make videos on TIkTok, but again, I attempted to 'act' and found it incredibly hard for myself to be expressive and pretend I hadn't heard the same lines over and over again. Check out my duet with Stuart Mackey.

Inspiration

From Superman to Sailor Moon to The Doctor, truth and justice are powerful themes to which I connect. DannyPhantom.exe is another source of inspiration for me. His Danny x Danny series on TikTok is entertaining. It shows the evolution of the relationship between two opposing sides of his personality: the "Boy Next Door" and the British Sophisticate. The fact that Danny himself is a Gemini adds a little to the narrative.   

In writing this post, I think Disney's Beauty and the Beast is one of the earliest stories I watched that contained duality, truth and beauty. While it's my favorite Disney story for many reasons, it's duality is a strong attractor for me, especially when somewhere along the way the idea that beauty and the beast could be both blew my mind. That was Option C and it spoke to me. 

And so, in seeing the themes I have woven into my novella, I can make it better now that I have more of an idea of where to take it and how to shape characters and situations to come. 

Happy writing!