All entertainment is role-playing.
It’s easy to understand the roles in sports and other games.
But music?
Literature?
Art?
What’s the role we assume when looking at the Mona Lisa?
Role-playing in the arts is more subtle. The difference between arts and games is the presence of a creator, also known as an author. Sports generally don’t have an author. We assume the stories in sports are organic. This is debatable as sport stories are told through announcers and sports writers and documentarians. There’s also the idea of scripted sports, but that’s a topic for another time.
Generally, art has an author. Sports don’t.
But who is this author guy?
What’s the big idea?
Hey! I’m walking here!
I’m an Italian in New York now.
Buongiorno!
Arrivederci!
Mamma mia!
Who’s this author guy? Tell me who he is and I’ll give him an ol’ kiss with my fist. This is New York!
Stromboli!
Moving on.
This author guy is a confusing character.
When I say confusing, what I really mean to say is that he lies about everything.
All authors lie.
Including me.
I’m the author of this blog, technically.
But it’s not really me because I assume a voice that isn’t my own. In my post “El Dinosaurio,” I was lying. I am sorry to say that the assistant named Jerry isn’t real. I wasn’t actually running a talk show formerly known as the “Reading Hour with Jason.” Both Jerry and the talk show aren’t real. I made it all up.
But you already know this. Yet you chose to accept it. Why?
Because you read and listen and watch stories like these all the time. Star Wars isn’t real. George Lucas is a liar. He’s also a dirty thief. Go read my “Hot Take.” But mostly he’s a liar because, as far as we know, there is no such thing as a “galaxy far, far away.” It’s all made up. But you choose to accept this lie as truth to enjoy the story.
You play pretend for the sake of fun.
You suspend your disbelief.
Suspension of disbelief: an intentional avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something surreal, such as a work of speculative fiction, to believe it for the sake of enjoyment.
Wikipedia
So, author’s lie and we choose to accept it. But only briefly for the sake of the story.
As much as we’d all like to be Jedi, deep down we know Star Wars isn’t real.
We pretend to believe because the idea of a war in the stars is fun.
But suspension of disbelief goes beyond fiction. Every story ever written is, to an extent, a lie we choose to accept as truth.
History books lie. Biographies lie. Auto-biographies lie so much they should be considered fiction. And journalists are the biggest liars of them all.
The idea of non-fiction being a lie seems oxymoronic.
Fiction equals fake.
The opposite of fake is truth.
The opposite of fiction is non-fiction.
Therefore, non-fiction must equal truth.
But look at the definition of non-fiction.
Non-fiction: any document, or content that purports in good faith to represent truth and accuracy regarding information, events, or people.
wikipedia
“Purports in good faith to represent truth.”
The difference between fiction and non-fiction is not truth. The difference is intention.
Fiction intends to lie.
Non-fiction intends to be true.
That’s not to say non-fiction is true. Non-fiction does its best to be true with the information given. But every history book, journal, biography, and news article has its authorial bias. Objective truth is not possible.
And that isn’t the point.
The point is to tell a story in an attempt to find truth.
Truth, in this sense, is the human experience.
Both fiction and non-fiction attempt to find truth in different ways.
The story of Star Wars isn’t true, but the feelings of love and family and rebellion and justice and war are all very true. Star Wars is a metaphor for World War II. World War II is a real thing that happened. The point of Star Wars is to have fun, but it also contains an analysis and criticism of the Allied Power’s prolonged inaction during a mass genocide of innocent people.
That is truth.
I prefer the fiction way.
So, what did we learn?
All authors lie.
But that’s still not it.
This is going to sound crazy so humor me.
I don’t think authors are real.
Authors don’t just lie; authors are the lie.
The author is dead.
The author died a long time ago.
We’re on our own now.
We’ve been on our own for some time.
Confused?
So am I.
Let’s do this again tomorrow.