Bumble: Pierre Machery: A Theory of Literary Production

People always say use Tact. Using tact is in essence leaving out certain words. Is it lying though?

“If the author does not always say what he states, he does not necessarily state what he says” (Machery 19).

This actually raises a question, what is the truth? Is telling the truth just saying truthful words, or is it revealing all? Wording is everything, a statement can be said with tact and might leave out some of the words. Is this lying or telling the truth? I guess it depends on how you translate it, as everything is open to interpretation. According to Machery, “it is impossible to dissemble the truth of language” (19). For example, lets say you are telling a story to your parents and you tell them what you did in the afternoon… do you tell them everything? If you leave out certain bits and pieces are you therefore lying? It is actually practiced in every day life to leave things out of our stories and recounting of our lives.

When someone asks you, “Oh what did you do this morning?” you don't say "well, I woke up and put one foot on the ground, then the other one, then I stood up, then I walked one foot in front of the other to the bathroom, where I then picked up my toothbrush with my right hand and turned on the faucet…” We would be able to go on forever, we always leave things out of the equation that are clearly decipherable. You can say, “well I got up and went to class,” and people would assume and can piece together for him or herself what happened in between. So, is this hiding of words in essence lying? It can be if it is used for, “diverting attention.” People have motives and will put a positive or negative to the same words, by putting in more words or leaving more out, we can get entirely different meanings.