Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Before we fully commit to our revival of fiction, which may or may not happen this week, I thought it wise to address an issue that arises more often than you’d think. The question usually comes packaged differently, though the sentiment almost always condenses to these five words:

What’s real and what’s fake?

Man, some of these questions. Man. Did this happen? Did that happen? Do I actually believe in elves? Is this truly a business? Is this a religious cult? I’m going to offer a two-part answer. No, we haven’t gone public yet and yes, I fellowship with elves on a regular basis. We sup over mushrooms and the healing power of kindness, but only when we run out of acorns.

The confusion, I’ve come to realize, is mostly my fault. Our legacy boasts many things, and coherence isn’t one of them. That’s my explanation, anyhow, because candor? I believe it’s there, most of the time, even in the fiction. I’ve thought about adding a little symbol next to each conversation to signify its rough coordinates on the plane of reality, which of course would be unnecessary and just a little demeaning. All you need to remember is this: the default voice–normal mode, as it were–sounds kinda like the one tonight. You know, the snotty one.