04-02-2012, 08:08 AM
And how about jokes? or exaggeration? or shortening the chain to give a funny story more effect? Say someone I believe tells me some ludicrous thing happens to his mate-- if I retail it that way, it is all too far removed, and for some stories to be funny, they have to be true; so perhaps I might abridge the chain. Or if I see the full humour in something subtle, others may not, unless it is beefed up: I am doing them a favour.
Jokes can be treacherous, though. My wife and I met studying Russian, and one day, at coffee, I lay on the desks, and when s.o asked if I was not going to the canteen, I idly said no, I didn't have any money, and would not, until timber had been felled on the estate. She was v surprised when she came to see my parents, in an ordinary London suburb. It had not occurred to me that anyone believed it. And I am too lazy to remember great skeins of untruth. That's what poetry is for.
Jokes can be treacherous, though. My wife and I met studying Russian, and one day, at coffee, I lay on the desks, and when s.o asked if I was not going to the canteen, I idly said no, I didn't have any money, and would not, until timber had been felled on the estate. She was v surprised when she came to see my parents, in an ordinary London suburb. It had not occurred to me that anyone believed it. And I am too lazy to remember great skeins of untruth. That's what poetry is for.