Truth and Lies

[pegkerr]

The girls and I have been listening to the BBC radio production of the Lord of the Rings on the way home each day (it's 13 CDs in all, so it takes a while to get through it). One line really jumped out at me last night, from the scene where Frodo and Faramir meet. Frodo tells him: "I told no lies, and all the truth that I could."

I've been brooding about that line all day, and I talked with kijjohnson about it when we talked last night. It seems to me that this line rather neatly sums up a quality that I strive for in living my own life in general, and in approaching my writing in particular. No lies, yes--but it's not enough to simply say "I will tell the truth." Sometimes truth is difficult to know, and so you have to take the effort to discover it. Sometimes you need to work hard to work up the courage to say it, and perhaps your courage isn't quite there yet, but keep trying and it will be. Sometimes unfolding the truth is an ongoing process: you keep learning more and more as you go, and you must keep adding to it. And sometimes you can't tell all of it that you know, for other reasons: perhaps it will hurt other people, or perhaps, like Aslan says, it's not your truth (or story, as Aslan put it) to tell.

But, yeah. I will tell no lies, and all the truth that I can.

That's the new subtitle on my LiveJournal

Comments

[jbru.livejournal.com]

Something that made a deep impression on me was a character (representative of his people) in Janet Kagan's Hellspark who does not lie. People in his culture are given metal bracelets to symbolize their accomplishments in telling the truth (I don't recall if these are age-based or what). Their statements are punctuated by the *shing* of their bracelets; they are putting their reputation and honor as truthful people on the line every time they speak. At one point in the story, the character has a frustrated silence in answer to a question; he cannot allow himself to speak because he is not convinced that what he is saying is true.

Anyway, Frodo's statement to Faramir reminded me of that. I agree it's something to aspire to.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I find these sorts of philosophies simplistic, as they don't deal with the reality of "white lies" as social lubricant.

B

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[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

But on the contrary, I think it is extaordinarily flexible: don't you see the ambiguity in "all the truth that I can"? If you read that scene, you'll see it's actually quite complex what's going on: Frodo has to keep certain things from Faramir, while trying to remain scrupulously honest in what he does say. Faramir asks if he was friends with Boromir (Faramir's brother), and Frodo says, "Yes, I was his friend, for my part"--leaving out, by necessity, that the last time Frodo saw Boromir, Boromir tried to kill him.

Interestingly, we get insight into Faramir's character when he is smart enough to see through what Frodo says ("You were not friendly with Boromir--or at least you did not part in friendship"): although he doesn't figure out the chief thing that Frodo is hiding (that Frodo is carrying the Ring) until Sam blurts it out by mistake.

I agree that sometimes white lies are necessary. I think that the best kind of white lies are the ones that are judicious choosing words that still reflect at least part of the truth ("Yes, I was his friend, for my part.") That is telling "all the truth that you can."

I am also reminded of the exchange between Richter and Katherine in Mary Monica Pulver's The Unforgiving Minutes:

"You don't mind coming for a walk with me?"

"Gordon [her teacher] always told me never to lie unless you have to."

It was only until he was in bed that night, thinking over the conversation, that he saw the ambiguity in her answer.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That BBC series is marvellous. My daughters and I have listened to it over and over on our long car rides.

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[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I adore it, too. I have often thought that the book, the BBC radio production, and the movie each have slightly different takes on the story, and that for me, the three of them work to give a three-dimensional depiction of the story in my imagination, making it seem more real.

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[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

We have listened to the BBC series so many times that it has become inextricable from my interpretation of the book. Although I enjoyed the movies, I have trouble reconciling them with the other two versions. By the way I thoroughly enjoyed the link you posted to the "historical" breakdown of the ring story, but the writer forgot to include the BBC version!

[pameladean]

That's one of my very favorite passages in The Two Towers, which is how I know that the BBC production changed the line. In the book, it's "I told no lies, and of the truth all I could." Less epigrammatic, but more like Frodo, I think.

Pamela

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[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Huh. Thanks for the correction. I've made the change!

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[pameladean]

I saw the change before the comment. 8-)

It wasn't exactly a correction. One of my lasting uneasinesses with the movies is that so much of the dialogue was changed, it all sounds just wrong, but it's not correctable -- that's how it was in the movie. So what you originally had was how it was in the BBC production, unless the actor just misspoke or something. I tend to want to stick to the books, always, but it's so hard to say when some other version is actually wrong.

Pamela

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I feel about truth pretty much the way I feel about belief: those absolutes are not part of my approach to the world. I generally don't say I "believe" anything; the furthest I go is "This is my opinion, based on experience and information to date." As for truth, I'm not sure I even understand the concept. It seems that a "truth" is either something that, as far as I can tell from my subjective viewpoint, every sane and/or adequately informed human thinks is so, such as that the sun "rises" in the east and "sets" in the west; or it is something that someone else wants me to "believe." In most human interactions, I think, there is unlikely to be such a thing as "the truth."

[folk.livejournal.com]

Great line, Peg, thanks for sharing. :)