virus: Re: discipline of translation

Ken Pantheists (kenpan@lurchinvault.com)
Fri, 04 Jul 1997 19:12:25 +0000


Wade wrote:

That completely loses me- how is 'faith' a prime ingredient in
story-telling?

Are you speaking of the 'willing suspension of disbelief' required of
the
audience? I would not call that faith.
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I'm taking this from the virion Sins page-- if the definition has
changed and I haven't kept up with it, then I apologize in advance.

"Through some twist of fate western society has come to regard faith as
a virtue. To hold an idea as true despite all evidence to the contrary
is an abdication of reason. Convictions are the end of knowledge, not
the beginning; they are the enemy of truth more than lies."

I would say that if someone started to say to me that "Once upon a time
in a galaxy far, far away...this happened." I would have to exercise
faith in the process of believing that person. Granted it is not capital
"F" faith, but it *is* faith. I will accept the components of the
fantasy as real in order to glean the "truth" from it. (that good guys
win or that you should never shave a wookie.)

Wade also wrote:
Are you speaking of the adaptation to character of the story-teller?
This
also I would not call faith. (The character involved may have a great
deal of faith, of course.)
**********************************************************************

I would consider the process of adopting a narrative (perhaps written by
another or perhaps imagined by oneself) as one's own experience as an
act of faith-- you have no evidence to back it up. Maybe you create sham
evidence like showing a tooth shaped rock at the end of your story and
saying "And this is the tooth of the great beast that was slain by the
hero!" or maybe you adopt a mask and costume to make "evident" the
characters of your story.

Wade:
Faith is usually folly
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Success and Failure are both imposters (paraphrased from Hemmingway)

-- 
Regards
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