The Truth of Fiction. Of fake Bishops, Cassocks, and Buttocks. Seriously?

Chinua Achebe's reflection in "Truth of Fiction" helps us distinguish and understand the value of two forms of fiction. The author begins by grappling with Picasso's idea that all art is false because "it cannot be a carbon copy of life" and then applies this idea to a more specific form of art: fiction. He suggests that "we invent different fictions to help us out of particular problems" and that fiction is created by human imagination.

Achebe writes that fiction allows us to take leave of reality to ease the passage into the real world. The Doyen of literature went further to suggest that "fiction is like two very young children saying let us pretend." Achebe adds that one of the perpetual reasons for racism is that some of our white relatives cannot discern the fuzzy line between beneficial and malignant fiction. Achebe writes further, "What distinguishes beneficent fiction from such malignant cousin is that the first never forgets that it is fiction, and the other never knows that it is.

What do you say when adults play the pretense play of children? If imagination is man's equipment to create fiction? What kind of thinking produces a horrendous fiction of adult playing house. Could this image be a fruit of a damaged thought process? As a person with a highly fertile mind and sometimes "wonderful" imagination, I occasionally try to imagine what stream, structure, and flow of thought produce an action. Still, it hurt my mind to process this. One way my sister-mum prevent me from this activity of trying to figure out the thinking that produces an outcome is to say, " Rosemary, ma riro, girl yen stupid(stupid and idiot are the strongest word that my sister-mum uses)

Achebe writes further that the maker of malignant fiction never says, "let us pretend; they assert their fiction as a proven fact and a way of life. Holders of such fiction are really like lunatics; for a while, a sane person might act a play now and again, a madman lives it permanently." Prophet Achebe further writes, "when a desperate man wishes to believe something, however bizarre or stupid, nobody can stop him; he will discover a willing and enthusiastic accomplice in this imagination. Together they will write the necessary fiction, which will bind him securely to his cherished intention."

Pardon me for quoting Achebe extensively; books are one of the ways my mother used to curtail my alleged "gbogbonise" (read how I became Vice President of MMBMI). Could it be possible that we can't tell the difference between our play, pretense, and other stuff? Can we consider if this is why people can't distinguish between Nollywood Actress and Director Funke Akindele, that acted in films, and one contesting for election? Or why when Nollywood Actor Kanayo Kanayo released his book titled " The testator," some people ask him if it was about ritual money? While there could be a sense where people enjoy and assign their film character to reality, I think there ought to be a boundary.

I love Achebe, and I have often said that the man should continue to receive his flowers in his grave. It seems to me that to protect the innocence of children, we need to separate the pretending games of healthy children from this charade that we call the electoral process, which to my mind, assassinate the solid reputation of what election means in places we use to revere until now(if you remove voters suppression and other matters).

When I read about this cassock thing, I said in my Burna boy voice, "shey you dey whine mi ni? Seriously? I wonder why people who do aesthetic surgeries from vaginal and bolok reconfiguration to enlargement will be honest to own up to their choice while grown adults stammered nonsense. Are we serious in this country, or we can't distinguish between reality and let us play?

Let me go to my bo ji o ji mi.

Posted on Facebook on July 21, 2022

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