1
Fiction,
it may be said,
is reality
reimagined:
the not-real
imitating the real
but unfettered
by the constraints
and complications
of reality.
Good fiction
is the not-real
packaged
with a sense
of being real
or at least
being could-be-real.
Fiction can be
an alternate reality
into which we may
escape conveniently
from life’s misery
and drudgery.
Fiction as well
could be the not-real
that mirrors the real
and thereby reveal
truths powerful
that sometimes the real
from us conceal.
Through it all
the fictionist is truthful,
accepting before one and all
that his work is a chronicle
of events in a world of not-real
crafted by his imaginative soul.
2
Yet not all reimagined reality
is fiction, speaking strictly.
Beware, my friend,
beware, oh citizen,
of those who scheme
reality to reimagine
seeking neither to entertain
nor truth to creatively reveal;
they whose motive
is to make us believe
that their reality repackaged
is really reality itself
and truly truth indeed.
Truth twisted and subverted,
facts selected or disregarded,
statistics manufactured
or tortuously reinterpreted,
even history distorted
so their agenda may be served
and their misdeeds and ambitions justified.
When reality is reimagined
and the reimagined version
is as reality and truth treated,
that is no longer fiction –
that, sadly, is simple delusion
or, worse, devious deception.
In other words, it is political misinformation.
Eric S.B. Libre
8 July 2015
(Eric S.B. Libre is a Mindanawon freelance development consultant who has done some work in a number of conflict-affected areas of Mindanao and occasionally dabbles in creative writing. He lives in Digos City, and is proud to be a senior citizen.)
