{"id":4205,"date":"2005-11-09T17:16:48","date_gmt":"2005-11-09T21:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/11\/09\/bending-the-facts-to-get-to-t"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:54:25","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:54:25","slug":"bending-the-facts-to-get-to-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/11\/09\/bending-the-facts-to-get-to-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"bending the facts to get to the truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The new edition of Frogpond<\/EM> — the journal of the Haiku Society of <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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America — has a number of haiku by Carolyn Hall, some of which <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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are included in an Essay entitled “To Tell the Truth,” in which <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Carolyn discusses whether a haiku must always tell exactly —<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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literally — what happened (<\/FONT>Frogpond<\/EM><\/FONT><\/A> XXVIII: 3, at 57).  She says:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“I believe the purpose of haiku is to touch us at the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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core.  We write haiku to record our experience. We <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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put our haiku out into the world in hopes of sharing <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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our emotional response with others.  And sometimes<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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that requires fictionalizing the haiku just enough to <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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stay true to the moment but also to communicate <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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to our audience the full impact that experience had<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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on us.”<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Carolyn then gives several examples of situations where a  \"fishing<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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little bending of the facts helped her better recreate her <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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emotional <\/FONT>response to a situation.   She concludes:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“A truthful observation in seventeen syllables or <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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less does not (necessarily) a haiku make.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Sometimes it is necessary to distance oneself <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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physically, emotionally or temporally from the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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‘facts’ in order to enable an audience to share <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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in your emotional experience.  In short, truth <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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in haiku sometimes requires bending the truth.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Ever so slightly.”<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Here are four of Carolyn’s instructive haiku:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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endless drizzle<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the hairdresser shows me<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the back <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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                                      \"umbrella<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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baiting one fish <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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with another<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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autumn dawn<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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war news <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the underbelly of a moth<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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pressed to my window<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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cloudless sky<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the baaing <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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of penned sheep<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Carolyn Hall<\/FONT><\/A><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“endless drizzle” – <\/FONT>Frogpond<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A> XXVIII: 3<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“baiting one fish” –  The Heron’s Nest<\/A><\/EM> (IV:11); Frogpond<\/EM> XXVIII:3<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“<\/FONT>cloudless sky<\/FONT><\/A>” – The Heron’s Nest<\/EM> VI: 7; Frogpond<\/EM> XXVIII: 3<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“<\/FONT>war news<\/FONT><\/A>” – The Heron’s Nest<\/EM> (V:11); Frogpond<\/EM><\/FONT> XXVIII:3<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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p.s. To lawyers and law students:  Carolyn’s lesson holds true <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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in the practice of haiku, not<\/EM> in the practice of law.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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potluck<\/STRONG><\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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 \"spotlight\" Our buddy Prof. <\/FONT>Steve Bainbridge<\/FONT><\/A> seems to be sorely missing <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the <\/FONT><\/FONT>adrenaline rush of being a Public Intellectual, now that the Harriet Miers <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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spotlight has been extinguished.   If we were the praying type, we’d be <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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asking St. Jude to find him a new cause celebre<\/EM>.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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