Telling the Truth- The concepts (1 Viewer)

[Owyn]

I know this may seem a redundant post, considering this should have been worked out along time ago, but nevertheless if you havent mastered the actual concept yet( like myself) it will be very hard to answer the question and actually get a valid point across. So Im making a topic for everyone to dump what they know about the truth, whether its just a simple 1 line thing, or a long thesis. Anyways i may aswell get the ball rolling.

Concepts-
The truth can be manipulated by someones motivations.
The truth is decided by those with power.
How we percieve if something is true can be manipulated, eg the bookcase for the physcology student.

Ok, i'll come back and add and more i can think of, but all of you please add your own thoughts

 

[glitterfairy]

Well, you've got the gist of it

Truth can be told in a variety of different ways for a variety of different reasons. For starters, the line "Truth is merely a perception of something that exists/somethat that happened" is worth thinking about, much the same way that "truth is merely the generally-accepted tale of events".

Truth can be manipulated for a variety of reasons - to generate more empathy, to dramatise a story, to portray/emphasise a particular point.

It's a bit easier to get a grip of in the context of your prescribed text. I'll use mine as an example: Birthday Letters.

Whilst this collection of highly personal poems is not neccessarily an autobiography, some would say it comes close. But does it? Upon closer inspection, the "details" Hughes has avoided saying for so long appear fuzzy over memory being distorted through time (I'm not sure whether he specifically says "Or was it?" but I remember him implying as much).

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the whole Hughes/Plath thing. Hughes would be an idiot if he didn't know that he'd get flamed for saying something like "THIS is the truth!" so instead, he claims it as his memory of events - "As I remember..." etc. It's not "the" truth, it's merely what he remembers happening. The reader is left to judge for themselves what they wish to believe, but at least this time around, they have both sides of the story to work from.

If you're studying Frontline, I guess you'd want to look a lot more about why truth is distorted (rather than debating the existence of truth like you might in Birthday Letters). Well, ratings, anyone? Excitement, entertainment, and all that jazz. Newslots are normally only about 5 or so minutes long to get a point across, so I imagine they have to work pretty hard for the audience to remember what they're saying (not to mention remember that it's important).