Creation and Lies

Yesterday I considered that perhaps I should stick to fiction instead of attempting to delve into the minds of forgers and liars, but then today I came across this article which seems to cover both. Most of the article discusses what are called "honest liars," those who make up stories to fill empty space caused by brain damage, usually to the part of the brain "responsible for self-regulation and self-censoring." I never before considered lying as produced by a lack of self-censorship, and the consideration of this is a revelation to me. Part of my obsession with liars and deceit stems from my near-inability to lie myself, and after reading the article I'm convinced that this inability is connected to my extreme self-censorship, though I hadn't considered them connected before. I suppose that the opposite of extreme self-censorship, or always believing you are not quite right, is always believing you are absolutely right no matter what lies you tell.

But then we come to fiction and creativity. It can definitely be argued that the best actors and fiction writers are those who lie the best, and perhaps for that reason I don't act or write fiction. The article eloquently finishes with the following:
Of course, unlike Aitken, actors, playwrights and novelists are not literally attempting to deceive us, because the rules are laid out in advance: come to the theatre, or open this book, and we’ll lie to you. Perhaps this is why we felt it necessary to invent art in the first place: as a safe space into which our lies can be corralled, and channelled into something socially useful. Given the universal compulsion to tell stories, art is the best way to refine and enjoy the particularly outlandish or insightful ones. But that is not the whole story. The key way in which artistic “lies” differ from normal lies, and from the “honest lying” of chronic confabulators, is that they have a meaning and resonance beyond their creator. The liar lies on behalf of himself; the artist tell lies on behalf of everyone. If writers have a compulsion to narrate, they compel themselves to find insights about the human condition. Mario Vargas Llosa has written that novels 'express a curious truth that can only be expressed in a furtive and veiled fashion, masquerading as what it is not'. Art is a lie whose secret ingredient is truth.

I'm not sure I can put it better, so I won't try to make something up.