Saturday, May 15, 2010

On truthiness


One good thing about having a blog with few readers is that I have been able to pretty much count on no one I know seeing what I write, and in turn not being offended by it. The only person from my 4-D world who has known about this blog from the beginning is The Wobbler, and the statute of limitations may not have expired on many of the stories I would tell about him, so he doesn't show up in my posts that often.


Over time, more friends and colleagues have discovered my blog, and I think one or two of them still read it. Since I have no imagination, I am more or less forced to write about people I know (or used to know) and things that have happened, setting up the possibility that someone is going to read a story in which they played a significant role. The awkwardness could be amplified by the fact that my posts may be more "based on historical events" than actually true.


My father firmly believed that one should never let inconvenient facts stand in the way of a good story, though he never would have admitted it. I feel somewhat honor bound to carry on that tradition. Plus, my memory is fading fast, so many of the events from my life have big gaps in them. It is possible that there is a pensieve in the house somewhere, but if there is, I have stored within it the memory of where I keep it.


So if you read a story here that seems very much like something that happened to you, but without the fairies and gunfire, let me just apologize in advance and assure you that it's nothing personal. And by nothing personal, I mean I will try to remember not to use your real name. I will also do my best not to reveal any dark secrets. In other words, if I write about it, be assured that I've already told all of our mutual friends.


And if there are stories you know you would rather not have published on the interwebs (possibly with pictures), then you should probably let me know. Because otherwise, you know it's just a matter of time before I write about that one time when we were all at that place with those people and that thing happened.

6 comments:

  1. i have several friends who 'cross streams' into the blogosphere, and a few friends from the blogosphere who have entered my real world, either through face-to-face meet ups, facebook, or phone sex. just kidding about that, although i suppose it could happen...

    the only glitch? i had been writing trashtalk about my last theatrical production, and it wasn't hard for a few theater friends - the ones i'd forgotten that i'd told of the blog - to pin down who i was writing about... fortunately? the reason they nailed the characters is because i was writing with complete truthiness, and the individuals involved deserved a trashing....

    oh, and that thing with the goat costume? no pictures, please...

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  2. tis okay -- wait, did something get said?? I'm planning a blog that may have you gritting your teeth but just remember it's the past and you know we're all good....I am going off line to write you now...

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  3. p.s. Did that coon come from your yard? One of ours must've migrated to visit a cousin-- I wondered why (haha) we were down to 20 last night...

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  4. daisyfae: the goat pictures all came out blurry, so no worries.

    wonder: I've been meaning to write this post for a while, and this seemed like an opportune time. and no worries writing about me. I'm sure I deserve whatever you will say. also, the raccoon is one who comes to graze under our bird feeders every afternoon.

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  5. Family and Friends know about my blog. And somehow both of my ex's have found my blog. I blogged ONCE about an ex and he sent me a horribly ugly, nasty email! Lol. I didn't remove the blog post. I thought it was nice enough but he told me I had NO right to mention him, even if I didn't say his name, just implied. He needs to get a life, no?

    Otherwise, when I'm at a family/friend function and something funny happens, people immediately say, "OH oh, you've just been blogged by Aleta" hehe. They know me now, so, how can they complain? On one vacation, my brother actually said, as I was taking out my pen to jot down what happened, my brother said, "I wanted to be quoted on this..." and he literally told me what he wanted to go in the blog post. Hilarious!

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  6. As far as I know, the only person who knows me AND knows I have a blog is my partner - but that's OK because he doesn't speak/understand English. Which is exactly the way I intend it to stay (anonymous, I mean)

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