Stacy Wyatt 1-27-04 Creative Non-Fiction Fact and fiction are often presented as clear opposites. They are, however, far more complicated than black and white defining either end of a spectrum. More often they are a matter of degree, a way of showing comparison, as one might see a gray, a gray lighter than that gray, and darker than a third gray. Upon further inspection, taking the palette of grays into another room with a brighter, more revealing light source it may be found that one of the grays is vaguely yellow, another—barely, but most definitely—pink tinted, and the third is in fact a pale mint green. If you present these newly revealed colors to a colorblind friend they will see it in their own way. They may be able to tell the difference in colors. Depending on the severity of their colorblindness may be able to tell you what the colors are, though you will remain uncertain of what the difference between your green and theirs is. (Although, if you think about it, there is no guarantee that green or any other color is processed the same way by any two brains… You get the idea.) But back to the supposed grays: these vaguely related shades could continue to reveal even more deviation from each other as they are more closely examined, a process that, with a growing collection of technologies for magnification, separation, and revision, could continue indefinitely. This continual branching out of the “known” is the elusive reality behind the terms of “fact” and “fiction.” Having at this point basically devalued the fore-mentioned terms in the realm of theory, I’d like to point out that that there is still an area of conflict within my own mind and beliefs based on the question of what constitutes fact, as I’ve stated this isn’t necessarily the sort of title of judgment that has a clear, sharp border or exact guidelines for either distinction. Through this crucible items have been judged on either side that may seem in general appearance to have been misjudged. I think fact has more to do with the kind of truth you can put a capital “t” in front of; it’s a kind of truth I’m not even sure I believe in. I do believe in relative truths, that they may in fact even point at a Truth. Regardless of any other person’s values and judgments, I have tried to weigh truths of my own. A mixture of fact and fiction can at times fulfill the necessities of pursuing truths far more than bare facts alone. Fiction allows for examinations of points of view and reasons behind events that we cannot know absolutely, but that may allow us to understand events and actions in a new light, which regardless of weather or not they are True, do allow for an expansion of possibility within our perspective of what the facts may be. If Truth cannot be known the next best thing may be expanding the possibilities we allow ourselves to entertain. With the expansion of possibilities we allow ourselves, comes a secondary function: the necessity of reevaluation items we had previously judged as true or false, tucked comfortably away in cubbies of fact and fiction. Therefore with constantly expanding possibilities there comes a need for constant reevaluation of what we believe we know, and so even our truths are only possibilities. Hence there is no Truth and truths are never left unquestioned, at least not in an ideal state (an ideal state which by definition is not the standard reality for the mass of humanity.) Definitions of fact, fiction, and truth are games intellectuals play while the rest of the world lives. They are questions for everybody; we write and live as if we were sure of our half-answers.