At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)
Not sure why lying is suddenly on my radar. Perhaps I watch too many TV shows where main characters lie. Or perhaps the students' usual MO has gotten to me. Anyway...
What if you found yourself unable to utter a lie?
(Yes, I know there was that one Jim Carrey movie with this as the premise.)
I'd just pray I didn't get the 'Does this make me look fat?' question.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with what Alex said :) I am really careful not to lie; there are some things I smooth over and not say much about, which may be construed as a lie, but I did have a lying problem in my youth and I didn't want to be known as one, so I've worked really hard to try to tell the truth; no matter how painful it might be :)
ReplyDeletebetty
Interesting. Was it hard to stop lying? What "woke you up"?
DeleteI think that would be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteDepends on the situation, I imagine.
DeleteOMG-does this mean lying by omitting? Some lies are good....like when my mom, who has dementia, asks something that would hurt her, I have been trained by the Alzheimer's society about "the noble lie." Now if someone asked me how that dress looks on them and it looks like crap...I'll tell them. If someone told me to lie for them...nope, won't do it.
ReplyDeleteThere are people that I would wish this upon!!
ReplyDeleteOh, that would be an interesting curse...
DeleteThat's easy. Tell the truth. In such a way that others think it means something completely different. It's not a lie if it's technically true.
ReplyDeleteDoes this include not telling the complete truth? Let's assume it does. There are going to be a lot of hurt people out there when social lying is no longer possible. Including, I suppose, me. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteUh oh...
DeleteMy mouth is always going before my mind gets a chance to stop it, so lying is not normal. I just blurt out what I am thinking, and yeh sometimes this gets me into trouble.
ReplyDeleteWell, then, you really wouldn't worry. Because it would be business as usual. Not a bad thing.
Deletetons of people would then know they suck :)
ReplyDeleteI generally always speaketh the truth, so I probably wouldn't have a too big of a problem.
I don't lie as a rule (of course, rules do get broken and bent upon occasion...)so this wouldn't be too much of a hardship - until someone inevitably asked a question I might not want to answer with the whole truth...
ReplyDeleteIt could definitely land you in some awkward moments if white lies were included. Sometimes a little fudging of the truth isn't a bad thing exactly and is more a kindness thing.
ReplyDeleteIt would also make book reviews rather interesting for some who fudge their true feelings. Whew boy!