Every man be blind—
I’ve been thinking about our Truth vs. Subjectivitiy debate in class. I think that the two need to be understood together, a synthesis rather than one or the other. Maybe that means I’m for subjectivity, but I don’t think I am. Rather, that truth is too big for people. Like Emily Dickinson says in this poem:
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—
Which isn’t exactly what I mean. But it’s close.
I don’t trust people who claim to know truth but are complacent, nor people who claim truth but are militant. I guess I don’t trust many claims of truth. Any claims of truth. But listening to them, something begins to take shape that might be real.
Like, we are trusting Errol Morris in this movie. We only see two hours of carefully selected and sometimes staged footage. But we trust Morris’ portrayal of the case. What if Adams told him he had buried treasure, and if Morris got him released, he could have half of it? Morris might be clever enough a manipulator of people’s words to make that happen. After all, we didn’t see the court documents or evidence. Just testimony made by people years after the fact. We don’t even see Harris’ confession on video.
But we do trust Morris. Perhaps because we’re sheep and screen-dazed grazers of whatever is put before us. Perhaps because we trust Dr. Campbell. I don’t really know why.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I’m glad that you connected that poem to Morris too! We must have discovered a slant of Truth…
April 26th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
[...] Here Tyler gets at my idea of immediate truth, or the truth seen in cinema as well as where the power in creating that truth or reality lies – with Morris – when he talks about how the truth is hard to find even in a documentary dedicated to finding the truth because days or weeks of testimony and interviews are boiled down to two days, and that can’t possibly reflect everything that’s happened, reflect the whole truth. Tyler says one of the flaws of the film is that we don’t see court documents and we don’t see Harris’s confession on tape. I think the omission of the court documents is a possible failing, as I think that plays the biggest role in The Fog of War in depicting the truth, but I don’t think not having Harris on video is a failing. After all, as I’ve discussed throughout this post, sound is the one element that can’t be reproduced or duplicated, its reproduced exactly as it is recorded (unless its edited, but its not in the case of Harris’s interview), and I think this is the part of the film that lends the most power and truth to the film. [...]
April 27th, 2007 at 9:07 am
[...] Tyler beautifully articulates the question, “Why should we trust Morris” in his post. He says that, “listening to claims of truth [them] sometimes begin to take shape that might be real”. Our “real” then, is changed by the “real” of others. Although we may assume that we live a life unaffected by those around us, we are connected. Also, If Morris carefully chooses shots and only uses ten percent of the footage he shoots, and then he portrays a subjective real. Yet, we believe and I believe. [...]