Vladimir Nabokov's comments on the merit of truth in his speech reminded me of Tim O'Brien's comments in The Things They Carried. Both Nabokov and O'Brien believe that truth isn't necessary to a story and it isn't expected to be. However, Nabokov argues that literature is deceptive as a result of its mirroring of nature. He argues that literature is inherently deceptive and literature has simply adopted its misleading condition. O'Brien, on the other hand, argues that truth is subjective in storytelling and relies on the perspective of the speaker to discern what truly happened and what didn't.
I find the notion that truth doesn't exist in storytelling to be "true" for the most part. It is impossible for any person, regardless of their perspective, to obtain complete knowledge of the situation. It is impossible for a person to relay the completely accurate information of an event without some type of bias or inaccuracy, caused by lack of omniscience. The fact that every story that I have ever heard is not completely true is somewhat disturbing, but not the least bit surprising.
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