This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
public tender biddings
as duly established
Apr 28, 2011 17:13
13 yrs ago
English term

Lies are not rooted in the mind in the way truth is.

English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature
She let me hide behind her chatter. The less I say about myself, the better. Lies are not rooted in the mind in the way truth is. Some think I am some relation of Martha's, a niece, or a granddaughter. We let them think what they will.

* * *

the heroine doesn't want the people to know much about her, so she is hiding behind this Martha person
but I don't get the meaning of the phrase about truth and lies
do you suppose it means that lies are easier to believe in?
or that it's wrong to plant lies in people's heads?
please help!

thanks
Responses
4 +8 Lies are easy to forget; the truth is easy to remember.
4 +1 The less she says the better; otherwise she might say the truth.
3 a self justification for not correcting certain lies/untruths
3 lies would be recognized more easily because a story involving lies is not as consistent as th truth

Responses

+8
7 mins
Selected

Lies are easy to forget; the truth is easy to remember.

The heroine is saying as little as possible because the less she says, the fewer lies she utters. She is protecting herself from having to remember precisely what she lies about.
Peer comment(s):
agree Jack Doughty
1 min
agree Signe Golly : That is how I read it, too. edit: In the words of Guster from their song "Demons": Honest is easy Fiction is where genius lies ;-)
29 mins
agree Sheila Wilson : Every lie about your past has to be actively remembered. The true fact that your mother hated lemons doesn't - it's just there in your mind forever!
1 hr
agree Suzan Hamer : On an editing list I subscribe to, a man named David Jones just quoted his father: "If you don't lie, you never have to remember what you said."
6 hrs
My former boss, whose household staff of 22 (!) would use his drunken moments to make personal requests. When sober, they would remind him of what he had promised. He would say "Yes, that sounds like me" (or not), and deal with the request appropriately!
agree Phong Le
6 hrs
agree Thuy-PTT (X)
10 hrs
agree B D Finch
15 hrs
agree Arabic & More
18 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+1
9 mins

The less she says the better; otherwise she might say the truth.

The more one speaks, the more details one gives. If these details are lies, it is difficult to remember them (truth is rooted deeper in the mind than lies) and one can give contradictory information that eventually reveal that the person is lying. Therefore, she hides behind the empty chatter of another person rather than trying to have genuine conversation.
Peer comment(s):
agree Lirka : yes, that's another interpretation, IMO.
16 hrs
Cheers and thanks, lirka.
Something went wrong...
11 mins

a self justification for not correcting certain lies/untruths

In this text, I think that the character is saying this to justify her decision to not correct or contradict things that she believes that others believe (about her) that are not true.

I think she is calling on the more profound idea that truth has greater sticking power (are rooted in the mind), and in that sense have more power than lies. Lies are sometimes easily uprooted like a shallow rooted tree.
Something went wrong...
17 hrs

lies would be recognized more easily because a story involving lies is not as consistent as th truth

and it is not as consistent because lies are not as rooted in the mind, meaning that inconsistencies are more likely.

Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search