Archive for the ‘Plato’ tag
The Early History of Metafiction
Was there metafiction in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest known epic, an encounter of a real king of Sumeria and a wild man, Enkidu? Well, the first writers were writing about their own experience of being civilized, a rather painful process we must all go through, but it wasn’t necessarily metafiction because it doesn’t highlight its own fictionality.
The Truthiness of Apples in a Basket
Absolute truth: My dad wrote in response to my blog, “There are countless absolute truths. Example: Two apples added to a basket containing two apples will make a total of four apples in the basket.” I agree absolutely. I believe in baskets and apples. I believe in reality. (What a ridiculous statement!)
Subjective truth: Let me take out the “I believe–” and say, “Reality exists.” (Was I able to remove the “I believe–”? I wrote the statement “Reality exists,” so it must be what I believe. Strangely enough the existence of reality has been in question for quite some time, maybe even some of you readers doubt reality.)
