Only through forgetfulness can man ever achieve the illusion of possessing a ‘truth.’ … What, then, is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms—in short, a sum of human relations, which can have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this what they are.
quoted in Breyten Breytenbach’s Dec. 2008 Harper’s essay “Mandela’s Smile.”
Wasn’t that a powerful essay – a strong voice speaking to / about Mandela / South Africa / freedom.
That’s the issue of Harper’s that my WR 323 students will have in their course bundle. What will they make of this?
That’s a great question! I’d be interested in hearing from you what they have to say when they read the issue. 🙂