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DanielBrenton · 11-27-2008, 06:32 PM

If I may chime in here ...

I did a Toastmasters humorous contest speech a few years ago called "A Near Life Experience," where I cooked up a syndrome that effects 22.7% of us and we don't even recognize it, and how I came to terms with it. It won a division level humorous contest, but I had a woman come up to me afterwards and ask me if I really had these wild, over-the-top experiences. Inwardly I thought "You idiot -- how could you possibly think that?!" though, no, I didn't say it.

Recently I've been writing a humor column for Alien Worlds Magazine out of England, a magazine that caters to the subjects of SETI, astrobiology, and (*eh hem*) UFOs. I'm writing stuff that is poking fun at the UFO memes of the time. My sense of humor is kind of dry, but I'm writing in incredibly broad terms, and I've gotten emails from folks who obviously have taken my material seriously and wanted more information on what I've cooked up.

So, inadvertently, I discovered it would be very easy to lie to that particular audience because there appears to be some percentage of that audience that is "thick" when it comes to humor, and "tunnel-visioned" on seeing only what it wants to. (I could name a couple of people who it is painfully obvious are exploiting that audience, but I would need to do my homework first before I started throwing accusations around.) "Gullibility" might be the word there, though the problem actually seems a little more complex.

In my opinion, the same is true of the "New Age" audience, unfortunately. Personally, I compare finding a truthful psychic to finding a good mechanic, and I'm utterly grateful when I run across those in whom I feel complete confidence -- such as Erin, who has done readings for both my wife and myself.

I recall the text of a speech Kurt Vonnegut presented, basically calling fiction writers liars and even suggesting the devil worked through them (being Vonnegut, of course, he was twisting our tail a bit). I would like to make the distinction between "fiction" and "lying," in that participating in a fiction -- a story -- is an mutual understanding between the author and the audience, whereas, whereas lying is a deliberate attempt to deceive.

I did not lie to that woman who thought my humorous speech was a truthful recanting of actual events. She just didn't "get" it.

11-27-2008, 06:32 PM	#7 (permalink)
DanielBrenton Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 74	Re: Truth and Public Speaking If I may chime in here ... I did a Toastmasters humorous contest speech a few years ago called "A Near Life Experience," where I cooked up a syndrome that effects 22.7% of us and we don't even recognize it, and how I came to terms with it. It won a division level humorous contest, but I had a woman come up to me afterwards and ask me if I really had these wild, over-the-top experiences. Inwardly I thought "You idiot -- how could you possibly think that?!" though, no, I didn't say it. Recently I've been writing a humor column for Alien Worlds Magazine out of England, a magazine that caters to the subjects of SETI, astrobiology, and (eh hem) UFOs. I'm writing stuff that is poking fun at the UFO memes of the time. My sense of humor is kind of dry, but I'm writing in incredibly broad terms, and I've gotten emails from folks who obviously have taken my material seriously and wanted more information on what I've cooked up. So, inadvertently, I discovered it would be very easy to lie to that particular audience because there appears to be some percentage of that audience that is "thick" when it comes to humor, and "tunnel-visioned" on seeing only what it wants to. (I could name a couple of people who it is painfully obvious are exploiting that audience, but I would need to do my homework first before I started throwing accusations around.) "Gullibility" might be the word there, though the problem actually seems a little more complex. In my opinion, the same is true of the "New Age" audience, unfortunately. Personally, I compare finding a truthful psychic to finding a good mechanic, and I'm utterly grateful when I run across those in whom I feel complete confidence -- such as Erin, who has done readings for both my wife and myself. I recall the text of a speech Kurt Vonnegut presented, basically calling fiction writers liars and even suggesting the devil worked through them (being Vonnegut, of course, he was twisting our tail a bit). I would like to make the distinction between "fiction" and "lying," in that participating in a fiction -- a story -- is an mutual understanding between the author and the audience, whereas, whereas lying is a deliberate attempt to deceive. I did not lie to that woman who thought my humorous speech was a truthful recanting of actual events. She just didn't "get" it.