The late Professor Michael
S. Reynolds, a Hemingway scholar who seemed to metamorphose into the writer
along the arduous path of composing five volumes of biography, once told my
American Lit' classmates and me, “There is no such thing as truth.” “Cool,” I
said to myself, “This dude’s so cool.” He confessed in the same lecture that he
was feeling particularly good that evening because his anti-depressants were working.
I just wanted to hug the guy! Then, he shared a story from his Hemingway
research days when several of his colleagues had convened with him along the
Michigan shoreline, an area that acts as the setting for a number of
Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories. “Adams was right here,” one of them said
excitedly. The group apparently nodded in agreement and shared enthusiasm,
except Professor Reynolds. “No, my friends,” he contradicted. “What you’re
referring to occurs on page forty-nine.”
When you enter the main library at Georgetown University,
the Latin words pictured above greet you. The school is one of several Jesuit
universities around the country, and the Jesuits take their truth about as
seriously as one can. In fact, the famous protesting priest from the ‘60s,
Daniel Berrigan, who co-founded the Plowshares Movement and was on the FBI’s
most wanted list with his priest brother, Philip, is a Jesuit, as is Father
John Dear, another proud, vocal, and busy peace activist. The Berrigans used
civil disobedience, the bullhorn, and the pen to tell the world that the
Vietnam War was wrong, and J. Edgar Hoover didn’t like it.
So, what is this truth that sets you free? Most
Christians, I imagine, would say generally that Jesus (as noted by John, 8:32,
in the Christian New Testament) refers to the freedom gained by accepting him
as one’s savior. The words officially posted over the gateway to the university
library, however, must refer to any truth gained from within the bound contents
stacked throughout the building, from Marxism to evolution to neuroscience to
Balzac. Or maybe knowing truth is like what Supreme Court Justice Stewart
famously said about pornography, that he couldn’t define it, but he knew it
when he saw it. When I speak with friends of freedom gained from truth, I usually mean
hearing what your body, your true self, tells you. If you quake at the thought
of some proposed plan for your future, and you know it isn’t simply nervousness
but dread, that’s truth. You may not like what that truth means for your
future, but eventually, you enjoy the acceptance of it and feel its freedom.
The body knows its nature. Then, of course, there’s the Keatsian version of
truth, that truth is beauty. And vice versa. And it’s all we need to know.
It seems Professor
Reynolds spoke the truth.
I love that quote of Nick Adams being on page 49, rather than at the Michigan shoreline because I always wonder about that notion of reality. Is Nick Adams not real because he never actually walked this earth as a person? Or is he real enough because he lives in the hearts and minds of so many people. I've wondered about that in connection with Sherlock Holmes - that guy is real enough, isn't he? He's the model for all detectives after him, whether in fiction or in real life. How can he not be real?
ReplyDeleteI know you were talking about truth here but somehow you got me off on the subject of reality :-) I do agree with you, though: Truth lives within us, and we spend our entire lives learning to listen to that inner voice. Whenever we are courageous enough to listen to that inner voice, we fare well.
As my father used to say, "What you say is fraught with truth!" :0) Characters do live. It's the beauty of literature. And listening and courage are the keys to faring well. Thanks so much for reading and caring, Annette!
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