Is It a Lie if You're Acting?

by Gigi

I've admitted before that I'm the girl who moved the Ouija board. You could look me in the eye, and without blinking, my 12-year-old self would swear I didn't move the placard. Even though of course I did.

I was also known to have hidden a friend in the closet to make other kids think the house was haunted. It wasn't Halloween.

And as soon as I got my license at 16, I would scare the uninitiated with  Orange County urban legend 'The Brea Bum' as we were approaching the secluded spot where he 'lived.'

These were the lies of a creative child -- or so I tell myself.

In college, while I was writing bad fiction in creative writing class, I was also doing mock political debates in politics class. During one debate, students from Pitzer (my college) and Pomona (another Claremont College in our 5-college consortium) debated each other. I assumed the accent of the politician from the state I represented. I never once broke character. There might still be former Pomona College students out there who think I've got a thick South Carolina accent.

When I'm acting -- be it in the theatrical productions I acted in during high school and college, or in the roles I assumed above -- I can lie without breaking a sweat.

But when it comes to real life, I can't lie to save my life.

If I were to lie to you right now about something serious, you'd see it written all over my face. I'm so bad at real-life lying that you'd probably see right through me if I wrote a lie that I didn't intend to write as fiction. If I ever want to tell even a white lie, I'm better off keeping my mouth shut all together.

The good news is that I can have a blast telling stories -- be it in person, on stage, or on the page -- as long as I'm assuming the role of storyteller. Anyone have a Ouija board handy?

Here Lies Martha

When I was in (Catholic) elementary school I spent 30 minutes every morning in chapel, an hour each Wednesday in school religious service, an hour every school day in religious studies, a few hours every Sunday in community church, and 15 minutes after school in prayer.

Yet. Somehow. I came away with the belief that when you die, you sorta sit around in your body, rotting underground, until Jesus' second coming when you're judged and get shuffled off to Heaven or Hell.

If you know the real Catholic afterlife belief, then you got me. I obviously don't pay attention in class. Or before class. Or after class. Or on Sundays.

But onward...

I believed this purely and literally. I had no doubt in my mind that after I died, my soul would sit around in my body until the second coming.

Thus, I became very obsessed with the second coming.

How long was it going to be? Two years? Twenty years? A millenia? (Ok, fine, I didn't know the word millenia back then.) What about people who had been dead for tons of years? What were they doing?

I was convinced I would be horrible at being dead. I wasn't, and am still, not good at sitting still. I'm antsy. So I began to practice.

I would lie (lay? Adrienne, help me out here) on my back, close my eyes, and think to myself, "I'm dead. Now what?" Could I still sleep? Or would my soul be "on" all the time? What could I do with that time? Wouldn't I just go nuts? What about my mom and dad? Could I visit with them?

In my considerable prayer time, I would ask, beg, and plead for Jesus to hurry it up already and come while I was still alive so I wouldn't have to be dead and lie-ing (lying? laying?) around waiting for him. What the heck was he waiting for anyway? Now's a good as time as any, right?

I'm not sure when I shook this belief, but habits die hard and when I go to sleep at night and close my eyes I almost never find sleep because as I lie (it is lie, right?) there in the dark, I still think to myself - now what?

The Lies People Tell

by Lisa Hughey

In my personal life, I hate lies. With a passion that borders on obsessive. I strive to be as honest (without being cruel) as possible in my dealings with people. Of course there are the random small omissions usually in the quest to spare someone’s feelings that could be considered lies but even those I try to avoid. I don’t like to lie and I absolutely hate being lied to.

I think that’s why in my fictional life I’m so drawn to the world of espionage. The world of spies is built on lies. Exploring characters whose ordinary world is predicated by lies and half-truths is particularly fascinating to me. Writing about characters with a moral compass that excludes veracity provides a backdrop for countless twists in plot and character exposition. The character has a code of justice and so their motivations are inherently true. Yet finding the truth among the lies is a maze-like experience for both the reader and the author.



Photo courtesy of ilovememphis on Flickr

Sometimes the author is just as surprised by the things the character is hiding. The piecing together of the past and the reactions to the events in the story are less than straightforward and the mental puzzle of determining why a character behaves in a certain manner adds another layer to a likely complicated espionage plot.

Throw in a villain with his or her own set of lies and it just gets more interesting. My villains of choice tend to be Russian. There is no underlying meaning or ill-will toward Russian people, it’s just that the documented lines of misdirection, misinformation, and outright lies between the Russian and American espionage community is truly gripping.

American Intelligence has buildings full of people devoted to analyzing and deciphering bits of information collected from a variety of sources and putting together a logical explanation of events. They have to sift through hours of communication intelligence, human intelligence (that would be people sources), rumors, innuendoes, and misinformation to distill the information down to usable intelligence. In my mind, when you consider how much information is out there, it’s a miracle that any intelligence findings are on the mark.

For research, I’ve read some riveting and completely fantastical plots that are so crazy, if you read them in a book, you’d throw it across the room and consider the story implausible. That’s part of what makes writing about lies so much fun and in the end the hero and heroine always find their way to the truth.

Lisa

Big Lies and Public Education Wars

L.G.C. Smith

It can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between lying and storytelling, but the most fundamental difference is obvious to five-year-olds. Stories come with embedded messages that signal “This is a story. It’s made up.” Lies don’t.

There are, of course, more and less subtle means of alerting audiences to story contexts. Lies can be subtle, as well, exploiting small distinctions. Then there are sledgehammer lies, those that are so outrageous, so blatant, and so clearly malicious that it’s hard to believe anyone gives them credence. Yet someone always does, frequently uttering the adage “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” as they give authority to something they shouldn’t. Self-interest is usually a big factor in this sort of lie, too, both in the telling and in the unwillingness to challenge liars outright.

Everyone reading this knows all about all this since we all read and write about the failures and triumphs of the human condition. Most of us are also very, very good at letting people know when we’re telling stories because we understand their power, and the difference between the power of a well-told story and a lie.

I’m trying really hard to avoid preaching because I’m mad as hell over a vicious lie my husband’s supervisor told about him.

My husband is a middle school PE teacher. He’s been teaching 22 years. His school district is working very hard to fire him because it costs less to pay a new, inexperienced teacher. Not only are their salaries lower, they don’t get the same benefits, and they can be fired more easily when the state cuts district budgets yet again. There are many administrative advantages to getting the experienced teachers out of cash-strapped public schools. But to get rid of them, the districts have to prove they’re incompetent or unfit to teach.

Now that there’s no limit on the size of PE classes in my husband’s district, almost every one of his periods has 55 or more students. With that many students, the administrators at his school have been reprimanding him when students don’t dress for PE, when they wander off to the bathroom during class, when there are fights, and when there are pantsing incidents. None of those things should be happening. That goes without saying. But what do administrators think is going to happen when the teacher/student ratio is 1/55? Seriously. There are going to be problems. The other teachers are having problems, too. There will likely be more problems with inexperienced teachers.

My husband has been placed on Notice for being unprofessional because of too many nonsuits, a kid getting dropped into a dumpster last year (thanks, Glee), two pantsings, and an argument between students that he kept from escalating to actual physical contact. He will be dismissed, the union tells us, no later than May 15th no matter how well he does in addressing the alleged deficits in his performance.

This places us in dire financial circumstances, but honestly, it’s happening to a lot of people. We don’t take this too personally. Neither do we take it lying down, but this is a trend that isn’t completely about my husband’s job performance. Up to a point, the district has used story-telling techniques to paint a picture of a teacher who isn’t in control. Strictly speaking, they’re lying, but if they keep to the legal parameters, there’s not a great deal we can do about it.

After several instances of not-quite legal behavior on the part of the administration, two weeks ago, the vice-principal came into the PE office at the beginning of one period and told my husband that there had been an accusation from another staff member (probably the inexperienced ‘aide’ they want to hire after they get rid of my husband) that my husband had used the “N” word six times in the PE office.

That’s right. The N word. Only slightly less loaded than an accusation of sexual abuse, which would involve the police.

My husband, terribly upset at this shameless lie, had to go immediately into class. There was no time to address the matter without leaving students unattended. At the beginning of the next period, both the principal and the vice-principal showed up for an unannounced observation.

This whole mess just became deeply, irrevocably personal. My husband is sick about it. Literally. He’s got a cold he can’t shake and the stress isn’t helping. He can’t even speak about this lie without his voice failing.

The N word.

My sister’s husband, our brother-in-law, is African American. Our niece, our beloved, cherished niece, the joy of our lives, is half Black. We live next door to them. They are family. We walk in and out of each others' houses every day. They take care of us. We take care of them. We love them.

For Bob to use this word…No. No.

I cannot measure the anger and the sorrow we feel knowing that someday our niece will learn that word. Worse, she’ll learn that having brown skin has made so many Americans less in the eyes of those with lighter skin. The world will be a darker place when that happens. It is a darker place every time it happens. It happens all the time. It happens to the children my husband teaches, children like our intelligent, compassionate, wonderful niece. This is personal and grievous every time it happens.

That word in the mouth of a white man teaching students of many colors reeks of racism, injustice and the senseless waste of dreams and potential.

This is the lie a middle school vice-principal chooses to tell about my husband.

California school districts are in financial straits. Across the country, public school teachers are being targeted as the new pigs at the public trough, a bunch of greedy thugs unwilling to shoulder yet more of the burden for public education by taking even lower wages, fewer health benefits, and worse working conditions. More lies. General, stupid, impersonal lies fostered by people who don’t understand or value public education.

But this lie was malicious in the extreme. It was personal. It was aimed at upsetting an experienced teacher as little else would immediately before an unannounced observation.

Is there anyone in this country who wants their child to attend a school where this sort of behavior is happening? My mother was a public school teacher. Three of my grandparents were public school teachers and administrators. I’ve heard plenty of backroom stories about what goes on in schools, and never anything like this.

This is wrong. This kind of lying is an exercise in vice. It wounds far beyond the person about whom the lie is told. It makes me long for a divine retribution I don’t really believe in, or instant karma and a cut-throat lawyer in my husband’s corner.

But if I had children in California public schools, I’d be worried that the people most concerned with students are under attack from their own administrators. If I were a parent, I’d spend time teaching ethics and what it does to a person’s heart and mind to tell big lies. Those lessons have disappeared from at least one middle school in the Bay Area.

Lying to Oneself

by Juliet

Way back when, before I ever dreamed of becoming a "real" writer, I used to tell people:

"When I retire I'm going to move to [insert name of great European city here] and I'll tell everyone I'm working on a novel. That way I can sit around in cafes jotting things down in a notebook, drinking espresso and cheap wine, acting as though I'm doing something...but I'll never have to actually produce anything!"

I thought it was brilliant.

Wow. Did I underestimate this writing gig. "Never have to produce anything"? Really? Now that I do write for a living, I realize that ALL I ever do is produce, or at least try to produce, day in, day out.

Still, I have a confession to make: there are days when my hardworking neighbors think I'm "writing" but I'm really walking around the lake, having lunch with friends, and maybe cleaning out the shed or working in the garden or taking in a matinee.

Not many days, but there are some.

I console myself with the thought that, as a writer, I'm ALWAYS working. I'm going over character development as I'm perusing bookstore aisles, or observing details of wardrobe for some crucial descriptive passage, or perhaps my subconscious is working out a few plot problems while downing that second martini.

And as someone who's been self-employed, one way or another, for most of her adult life, I have no qualms about taking off on Tuesday when the stores are empty and the traffic is mellow. The harsh truth is I work most Saturdays and Sundays --and most evenings-- so I don't feel guilty about my rare free hours.

But here's where things get dicey...the problem isn't when we lie to others about writing; it's when we lie to ourselves.

I did it when I was "working on my dissertation" in anthropology. I aced the classes, whizzed through my oral exams and enjoyed the hell out of my field research. But the actual writing....? Not so much. I didn't have a word count or other daily goal to keep me on track. I couldn't keep my focus--new topics became fascinating, and everything was relevant and needed to be pursued. I developed a kind of graduate student ADD, and lost my ability to keep my butt in the chair, my mind on my thesis, and to write.

As months faded into years, I realized I enjoyed the idea of writing my dissertation a lot more than the reality of it. Being a doctoral student was fun. I garnered sympathy/respect/pity from the general public, was granted full university library access, managed to travel extensively, and even worked on a BBC documentary film. And I learned a hell of a lot. There were lots of perqs to the lifestyle.

But it was one thing to lie to others about what I was doing....quite another when I started lying to myself. That's when I knew I was in trouble.

I think lies have their place. In the eighties, when I traveled a lot, I told everyone I was Canadian (still a handy ruse). And every April 15 I insinuate that I need to buy all these art supplies for my business. If I'm bored on the plane, I might mention to my seatmate that I'm visiting my pen-pal prisoner fiance who currently resides in Vacaville Maximum Security.

But lying to myself about what I'm doing -- or not doing-- to fulfill my dreams? That, I will no longer do.

When I finally admitted to myself that I had been pursuing my PhD for all the wrong reasons, I pulled up my big girl pants and dropped the dissertation. Amazingly enough, the world did not end. No one's head exploded. After all those years, it was surprisingly easy to leave the lie behind.

So now, when I actually move to [insert name of great European city here] and sit around in cafes jotting things down in notebooks, drinking espresso and cheap wine...I'll be producing words that become sentences that lead to books. Honestly.

Rachael Used to Lie More

I think I used up all my lies back when I was a kid, because I'm a terrible liar now. I blush and stutter and, worst of all, forget what I lied about, so I have a pretty strict policy of truth (except, of course, for those social white lies that keep our worlds on course--I think those are sometimes necessary, and I'm pretty good at those).

But when I was a kid, I was AWESOME at lying. I sometimes made up lies just to see how big a whopper I could get away with. I remember describing my first French kiss to a friend in third grade, when in actuality I had no idea what one was, nor had I ever seen one, let alone had one. (I thought it involved a certain nibbling technique, which seemed much more French to me than the whole tongue thing that I learned about in fourth grade while watching two classmates wrestle mouths.)

The worst part about lying is how far you'll go to defend the lie. I think perhaps the difference between young Rachael and not-as-young-as-she-was Rachael is that I won't go to lengths anymore. If I lie, and I'm caught, I admit it. "Yep, you're right. I do mind that you didn't like my first chapter. I was lying when I said I didn't."

But as a kid, whew. I couldn't lie fast enough and I took it to the mat. Maybe it was my way of making up stories? I always knew I wanted to write fiction, but when I put words on to the page, I knew they weren't right, so instead, I'd lie.

And worse, I'd back my lie all the way into the corners they'd get stuck in. Like my Roomba which just got stuck under the couch, spinning its wheels futilely, blurting statements of error, I'd keep lying harder and lying bigger, hoping there was some way out.

A memorable lie of my youth also went with another sin: thievery. At the age of six, I stole my mother's ruby ring. I remember making the decision. I knew she never wore it and would never miss it. Where I thought I would be able to wear it, I don't know. To all my six-year old functions I didn't attend with my mom? Sheesh. I was a pint-sized idiot as well as a liar and a thief.

My mother discovered the theft quickly, perhaps within the same day or two. She was scary-good that way. She sat our small family in a circle on the kitchen floor. It was me, my five-year old sister, my father and her. "Someone in this room stole my ruby ring."

"Not me!" I piped. How could she know that it was me, after all? I was safe. She would blame my sister. Or even Dad! Maybe she'd think he stole it!

But she didn't seem to be falling for it. She didn't even look at Christy. "And that someone has tonight to replace it into my jewelry box, otherwise she'll be punished tomorrow."

"Not me," I said. Then I wept, deeply wounded that she would ever think such a crime of me.

"Put. It. Back. Or else. Whoever the thief is, Rachael, must put it back."

I sneaked into her room while she was cooking and put the ring back. She never said another word about it.

Until I graduated with my Master's degree. I opened a tiny wrapped box from her, and inside was the ruby ring. "Do you remember . . . ?" I didn't, couldn't, finish the sentence.

She laughed. "Of course. I figured at least now you'd earned it."