The class title “Truth, Lies and Literature” seems to be fairly black and white; we distinguish whether what we are told is true or false. However, Supernatural “The Monster at the End of this Book” exposes what we will probably see in the coming weeks of class: that the truth is not just black and white. We are influenced by our own perceptions and values, and as Supernatural makes clear, we are also influenced by faith. Faith is an essential channel in an individual’s pursuit of the “ultimate truth.”
In Supernatural, brothers Sam and Dean seek an ultimate understanding of how and why their lives are being told word for word, emotion for emotion in a fictitious series. To comprehend the situation, the brothers attempt to find the dividing line between truth and lies. However, through personal experience, the viewer most likely realizes that this line is frequently fuzzy. For this reason, Dean and Sam struggle to find answers, while the author that they confront grapples with the newfound knowledge and responsibility that he has complete control over others’ lives. All three characters feel lost as they find that what they assumed about their own lives to be true was really a lack of complete understanding. The characters turn to one another for clarity; they hope that by putting together all of their thoughts and ideas that they can reach a complete understanding of why their three lives intersect as they do. As the three men realize that their own answers are not enough, they realize that faith is the missing piece of the puzzle. Faith is the extra variable that seems to give one access to a satisfactory, ultimate truth.
“Of course you have to have faith in order to find truth,” one might say. This is very valid; in order to separate truth from lies, one must believe what they are told, whether by word of mouth, through the media, books, or in what they witness. However, in addition to that necessary “material” faith comes a more “sacred” faith. In the Supernatural, Sam, Dean, and the author must establish a certain level of faith in order to grasp what they feel is the ultimate truth. An explanation is offered to them: that the author is a prophet protected by an archangel, sent from Heaven to record what will be the new addition to the Book of Gospels. Surrounded by divinity, the brothers are forced to establish their level of faith in order to reach the complete truth about their connection to a series of published and unpublished books. After a great deal of questioning, scheming and bickering, Sam and Dean seem to reach the highest level of faith; trusting that God is the explanation for their storybook lives. However, one does not need to have complete faith, or any faith for that matter in order to reach an ultimate truth.
We personally decide when we have reached the “ultimate truth;” once we are satisfied individually. This is directly related to faith; what one believes will alter the truth one perceives. In a situation similar to the episode we watched, individually we most likely would have come to different conclusions of the ultimate truth behind the story because of what we are each willing to believe. For some, the idea of a higher power may be a stretch, for others it may be the perfect fit, but it is our level of faith that allows us to accept what we think is the ultimate truth. Some may argue there is no ultimate understanding, others may argue there is, but it seems that there are truth, lies, and a whole lot in between.
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ReplyDeleteI was in a discussion with someone once about faith. It was a long time ago and they were using a username anyway otherwise I would do more to credit them, but in any case the gist of what they said was this: people accept things on faith every day.
ReplyDeleteIt is impossible to get evidence for every possibility you encounter. I have never been to India, but I believe it exists because it seems silly to me that every person I've known could be lying to me about it. I can not prove that Martin Luther King Jr. was a real person, or that the television works for any other reason than magic as I do not have a good understanding of electronics.
In my anthropology textbook I have read that human beings are one of very few lifeforms that have a sort of collective memory, that pass down knowledge from generation to generation. One could think of it as the collective truths of our society, and it is different from culture to culture. This could not happen if each generation did not accept a little of the basics about life on faith. Our entire world is built on the insights and perspectives of our ancestors.
To make sense of the world around us, to be able to function in day to day life, and particularly to try to find a deeper meaning to our existence, we pick and choose our truths even without a definitive understanding of what ‘truth’ and ‘lies’ mean.
Are these truths the same? Absolutely not. Everyone perceives the world differently, and as you said, from person to person our views on "ultimate truth" differ. Do these personal truths enhance our quality of life, and perhaps lend us some real understanding even though they sometimes contradict each other? I would wager to say, "absolutely".
As Neils Bohr said: "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."
The nature of truth may well be shifty and hard to follow. Yet, the human experience is entirely made up of perspectives on it. This does not have to be a bad thing, and faith is not necessarily foolishness. It is simply our natural medium for dealing with life, and to me, that medium is beautiful.