THE FISH JOHN WEST REJECT

To borrow a phrase, “we don’t see the world as it is, we see the world as we are.”

We all have our own paradigm through which we view the world and which governs the way we will react or respond in any given situation. Naturally, we believe our way of looking at the world is the right way, and why can’t everyone else just get their act together and do things our way then everything will be fine, the world will be a better place, and there’ll be no reason for any conflict.

From simply working out which TV show to watch with your family to negotiating with world leaders around the globe, people unfortunately have this annoying habit of having different agendas and points of view and personal philosophies which constantly get in the way of harmony.

Having just finished reading The Writing on my Forehead by Nafisa Haji, yet another good debut novel I’ve picked up from the specials table of my favourite book store, I was reminded of this fact through a particular passage dealing with the differences between journalism and fiction. The central character Saira attends a lecture given by Majid Khan, a journalist and novelist, and what follows are some snippets from the lecture which I assume would be Haji’s own views on the subject told in the context of the story.

“…fiction is truer than journalism. But journalism is more powerful, and more dangerous. Journalism is based on facts…but to help people understand… journalists are in the habit of putting facts together so they make more sense…to construct something out of chaos. But when you build a story, you choose which blocks to use, which not to use. You decide how they are to be arranged, what shape they will take.

Those facts we dismiss because they do not fit into the pattern of the stories we write, they cannot be eliminated…I am a product of my own specific culture, and in that culture I find justification for my point of view, already formed…The kind of journalism I aspire to practice…is merely to bear witness. Not to make sense, not even to understand. Because when I try to do those things, I become an architect, a constructor of meaning and truth, a storyteller…you have to maintain your distance. You can’t bear witness if you’re…blinded by emotions.”

I imagine these words ringing true for aspiring journalists as they embark on a career determined to pursue the truth, uncover injustice, expose corruption and get to the core of whatever issue is simmering just below the surface waiting to be revealed. You would think the pursuit of the facts and the pursuit of the truth would be one and the same, but however objective we might like to think we are, we all succumb to the constraints of how we view the world, much of which is beyond our control, and attempt to make sense of what is happening around us in the light of that view.

So how do you overcome that. Is it even possible. What do you do with all the facts you don’t want, those pieces of information, those interactions, people, and events which make us uncomfortable and confirm the world is beyond the construct we would like to create. The old adage of ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story’ may be sufficient for some, but however naïve, there is something in me which still wants to believe what I read in the paper and what is on the evening news. Not being privy to the gathering of the facts though makes you wonder what has been rejected.

Think I’ll stick to my attempts at writing fiction. The facts can be irrelevant, but the all important quest for truth will win in the end.