Gratitude Blog Day 5: Fiction As a Medium of Truth and Healing

Kala Farnham
Sep 3, 2018 · 2 min read

“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”

― Albert Camus

We go through our lives trying to make sense of things, trying to create meaning and reason out of the disorderly shuffle of cards the world throws our way.

But in the chaos and clutter of life, making sense of what we’ve been through and communicating our story truthfully can quickly become a daunting task. In my own life, I experienced the way unexpected challenges, suffering, and betrayals can shatter our concept of what’s true. This can be an unsettling experience, stealing our sense of agency and understanding in the blink of an eye. It is said that coming to a place of being able to share the stories of our traumas and recovery is a powerful source of healing, but I’ve often found myself frustrated by the feeling that there are some truths and traumas that seem too unspeakable, too unbelievable to be told in the context of ordinary language. There are truth that I want to share, but when I share them in daily conversation or autobiographical writing they leave my audience looking like a deer in headlights, uncomfortably fidgeting with their shirt cuff, and eventually excusing themselves for more pressing and less disconcerting matters.

For those difficult truths, I’ve found fiction.

The difference between reality and fiction is this: Reality doesn’t make sense. Fiction does. As a trauma survivor in recovery, lately I’ve been coming to a place of gratitude for the role fiction writing plays in my life. Fiction offers a medium through which we can strip away the excesses and confusions of real life and bring focus to the essential themes, images, and events that form a life schema. It allows us to explore and convey different aspects of ourselves and our world through characters and setting, to step outside of ourselves and view life from a broader perspective. Metaphor, fairytale, and fantasy deliver powerful and palatable representative imagery, capable of opening our eyes to concepts that are otherwise invisible and are hard to swallow in everyday language. Fiction serves to simultaneously magnify and miniaturize our world, bringing into greater focus the exquisite detail of each puzzle piece while every so often zooming out to a satellite vantage point to offer us clarity of the bigger picture. It allows us to summon our demons and angels, fears and hopes out of the closet and into the light for all to see in the safety and clarity of a alternate universe; it is a medium through which difficult and important truths can be brought to the surface that might have otherwise gone unspoken.

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”

― Jessamyn West

Kala Farnham

Written by

Creative Nonfiction Writer. Poet. Award-Winning Songwriter. Holistic Wellness Nerd. Social Justice Advocate. Counselor. www.kalafarnham.com

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