By: Franca Driessen,
on 4/17/2016
One of the most famous, and most widely discussed, paradoxes is the Liar paradox. The Liar sentence is true if and only if it is false, and thus can be neither (unless it can be both). The variants of the Liar that I want to consider in this instalment arise by taking the implicit temporal aspect of the word “is” in the Liar paradox seriously.
The post Temporal liars appeared first on OUPblog.
By: David Elzey,
on 9/1/2015
by Davide Cali illustrated by Benjamin Chaud Chronicle Books 2015 Excuses, excuses, but it's the SIZE of the lies that impresses here. When asked why he was late for school a boy goes into a lengthy, imaginative journey into all the obstacles in his path. From a story perspective it's exactly what one teacher once described as "one dang thing after another," and the twist on the last page
By: RachelM,
on 7/6/2015
Words have meaning. We use them to communicate to one another, and what we communicate depends, in part, on which words we use. What words mean varies from language to language. In many cases, we can communicate the same thing in different languages, but require different words to do so. And conversely, sometimes the very same words communicate different things in different languages.
The post Lies, truth, and meaning appeared first on OUPblog.
By: [email protected],
on 5/10/2015
Pig the Fibber, Aaron Blabey (author, illus.), Scholastic, May 2015. Okay, Pig fans! He’s back! And he’s up to a whole lot of mischief…again! Award-winning author / illustrator, Aaron Blabey, is renowned for his ability to create books with clear morals, but particularly his distinguishable style of outlandish characters in farcical situations…mostly self-inflicted! […]
Add a Comment
By: Alex Guyver,
on 1/11/2015
One of the central tasks when reading a mystery novel (or sitting on a jury) is figuring out which of the characters are trustworthy. Someone guilty will of course say they aren’t guilty, just like the innocent – the real question in these situations is whether we believe them.
The guilty party – let’s call her Annette – can try to convince us of her trustworthiness by only saying things that are true, insofar as such truthfulness doesn’t incriminate her (the old adage of making one’s lies as close to the truth as possible applies here). But this is not the only strategy available. In addition, Annette can attempt to deflect suspicion away from herself by questioning the trustworthiness of others – in short, she can say something like:
“I’m not a liar, Betty is!”
However, accusations of untrustworthiness of this sort are peculiar. The point of Annette’s pronouncement is to affirm her innocence, but such protestations rarely increase our overall level of trust. Either we don’t believe Annette, in which case our trust in Annette is likely to drop (without affecting how much we trust Betty), or we do believe Annette, in which case our trust in Betty is likely to decrease (without necessarily increasing our overall trust in Annette).
Thus, accusations of untrustworthiness tend to decrease the overall level of trust we place in those involved. But is this reflective of an actual increase in the number of lies told? In other words, does the logic of such accusations makes it the case that, the higher the number of accusations, the higher the number of characters that must be lying?
Consider a group of people G, and imagine that, simultaneously, each person in the group accuses one, some, or all of the other people in the group of lying right at this minute. For example, if our group consists of three people:
G = {Annette, Betty, Charlotte}
then Betty can make one of three distinct accusations:
“Annette is lying.”
“Charlotte is lying.”
“Both Annette and Charlotte are lying.”
Likewise, Annette and Charlotte each have three choices regarding their accusations. We can then ask which members of the group could be, or which must be, telling the truth, and which could be, or which must be, lying by examining the logical relations between the accusations made by each member of the group. For example, if Annette accuses both Betty and Charlotte of lying, then either (i) Annette is telling the truth, in which case both Betty and Charlotte’s accusations must be false, or (ii) Annette is lying, in which case either Betty is telling the truth or Charlotte is telling the truth (or both).
This set-up allows for cases that are paradoxical. If:
Annette says “Betty is lying.”
Betty says “Charlotte is lying.”
Charlotte says “Annette is lying.”
then there is no coherent way to assign the labels “liar” and “truth-teller” to the three in such a way as to make sense. Since we are here interested in investigating results regarding how many lies are told (rather than scenarios in which the notion of lying versus telling the truth breaks down), we shall restrict our attention to those groups, and their accusations, that are not paradoxical.
The following are two simple results that constraint the number of liars, and the number of truth-tellers, in any such group (I’ll provide proofs of these results in the comments after a few days).
“Accusations of untrustworthiness tend to decrease the overall level of trust we place in those involved”
Result 1: If, for some number m, each person in the group accuses at least m other people in the group of lying (and there is no paradox) then there are at least m liars in the group.
Result 2: If, for any two people in the group p1 and p2, either p1 accuses p2 of lying, or p2 accuses p1 of lying (and there is no paradox), then exactly one person in the group is telling the truth, and everyone else is lying.
These results support an affirmative answer to our question: Given a group of people, the more accusations of untrustworthiness (i.e., of lying) are made, the higher the minimum number of people in the group that must be lying. If there are enough accusations to guarantee that each person accuses at least n people, then there are at least n liars, and if there are enough to guarantee that there is an accusation between each pair of people, then all but one person is lying. (Exercise for the reader: show that there is no situation of this sort where everyone is lying).
Of course, the set-up just examined is extremely simple, and rather artificial. Conversations (or mystery novels, or court cases, etc.) in real life develop over time, involve all sorts of claims other than accusations, and can involve accusations of many different forms not included above, including:
“Everything Annette says is a lie!”
“Betty said something false yesterday!”
“What Charlotte is about to say is a lie!”
Nevertheless, with a bit more work (which I won’t do here) we can show that, the more accusations of untrustworthiness are made in a particular situation, the more of the claims made in that situation must be lies (of course, the details will depend both on the number of accusations and the kind of accusations). Thus, it’s as the title says: accusation breeds guilt!
Note: The inspiration for this blog post, as well as the phrase “Accusation breeds guilt” comes from a brief discussion of this phenomenon – in particular, of ‘Result 2′ above – in ‘Propositional Discourse Logic’, by S. Dyrkolbotn & M. Walicki, Synthese 191: 863 – 899.
The post Accusation breeds guilt appeared first on OUPblog.
.jpeg?picon=3655)
By: alethea aka frootjoos,
on 1/24/2013
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 9/17/2012
Add a Comment
By: April Henry,
on 3/16/2012
Do people who write non-fiction essays or memoirs, or who are oral storytellers, have the duty to report things accurately?
And where does the line lie? Or where do lies begin?
Everyone knows that fishing stories are often tall tales. But what about an episode of This American Life? This American Life has retracted an episode about Apple factories in China featuring storyteller Mike Daisey..
Turns out some of the most sensational aspects of his story were made up.
From The Business Insider:
"I'm not going to say that I didn't take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard," Daisey tells Schmitz and Glass. "My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism, and it's not journalism. It's theater."
Daisey's interpreter Cathy also disputes two of the most dramatic moments in Daisey's story: that he met underage workers at Foxconn, and that a man with a mangled hand was injured at Foxconn making iPads (and that Daisey's iPad was the first one he ever saw in operation). Daisey says in his monologue:
He's never actually seen one on, this thing that took his hand. I turn it on, unlock the screen, and pass it to him. He takes it. The icons flare into view, and he strokes the screen with his ruined hand, and the icons slide back and forth. And he says something to Cathy, and Cathy says, "he says it's a kind of magic."
Cathy Lee tells Schmitz that nothing of the sort occurred.
By: April Henry,
on 11/22/2011
Remember that spy novel that turned out basically to be a bunch of other spy novels stitched together, with a few names changed? Well it sure looks like another novel drew heavily from a much older novel on the same subject: Edgar Allen Poe's cousin/wife.
Here's just one of many examples:
O'Neal (old book): "She would smile and, if the ladies were not looking, reach for his hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. The trip, something over 20 miles, took about an hour."
Hart (new book): "During the rare moments the ladies weren't looking our way, I'd slide a hand along the seat behind the swell of my skirts, capture Eddy's fingers, and give a quick squeeze. Petersburg lay 20 miles distant. 'The trip should take little over an hour,' he informed me."
The author claims that these accusations are being made by someone who attacks anyone who writes about Poe, and that any similar phrases are because they relied on the same primary sources.
Uh huh.
Read more here.
By: April Henry,
on 9/7/2011
Since I write mysteries and thrillers, I’m fascinated by lies.
There are different ways to trip up liars. One is by analyzing facial expressions.
Several facial cues suggest that someone is faking an expression, among them:
• The muscle contractions on the left side of the face differ from those on the right side.
The expressions start and stop in a jerky manner.
• The person holds the expression for too long.
Eye movements also provide information. Someone looking downward may be sad, while someone looking down or away is more likely feel- ing shame, guilt or disgust.
Read more here. (Scroll down for the most interesting part - it has lots of photos.)
And here’s more on seeing and even hearing lies here. In the story, the reporter was asked to pick a number between 50 and 100. Then a law enforcement consultant read the numbers very rapidly and was able to pick out which one she had chosen - even though she didn’t say a word.
.jpg?picon=139)
By: Scott Laming,
on 10/16/2009
Not sure if any of you read the advertorial op-ed column in the New York Times last week where Google Technology President Sergey Brin voiced his thoughts on the Google books campaign but one sentence really irked me.
He cannot possibly believe that? All you have to do is type "Out-of-print books" into his own service and see AbeBooks, Alibris, Amazon, Biblio, BookFinder, etc offering more OOP options that you could shake a virtual stick at. The rest of the article reads like a cheap advertorial.
I'm not even versed enough in the whole Google Books rights controversy to say whether i'm for or against it (note: book lunch with Charlie, learn more) but this essay is trash.
[Now Reading: Our Man in Havana by Grahame Greene]
A lie was so tidy, like a small box you could make with nails and thin pieces of wood and glue. But the truth lay sprawled all over the place like the mess up in the attic.
– Paula Fox, ONE-EYED CAT
Besides liking this metaphor because it captures something I recognize*, I like this because it’s the opposite of that “Oh, what a tangled web we weave…” adage, which I first learned from a CHARLES IN CHARGE episode built around it. When I stop to think about it, it is astounding and horrifying how much of my basic cultural education comes from terrible ’80s sitcoms.
* And am I the only one who sometimes tells small, irrelevant lies, especially to strangers, for exactly this reason? Except then they sometimes spiral out of control and suddenly your tidy little box that you only constructed in the first place to avoid making small talk more complicated than interests either party is like a faulty Jack-in-the-Box of conversational pitfalls that could leap out at any moment and this is what I was saying about not being able to construct metaphors.
Posted in Fox, Paula, One-Eyed Cat, Wednesday Words
By: Stacy A. Nyikos,
on 5/11/2009
This weekend supplied me with countless material for an edgy teen novel, or at least, a realistic one.
It all began when my husband and I decided to live life on the edge and go away for a weekend. We have two kids, seven and ten. So, we needed a responsible person to take care of them. We asked our really great grad student babysitter who is awesome with the kids. Only hitch was, she was graduating this weekend. We went to option B, a high school senior we've known since age 12, who's babysat for us for about six years. She's been to Europe with me, on author tour. However last year, she went a little teen nutty when she got into her first serious relationship. Still, she's graduating in a few days, and I thought, she's almost nineteen, what sort of trouble could she possibly cause in a day-and-a-half?
I learned this weekend that you never, never, never ask that question when a teenager is involved.
The kids are all right. The house didn't burn down. However, I've had a few eye-opening experiences into today's teenage world.
Said babysitter snuck her boyfriend in for a sleepover of her own. I say snuck because I was never asked. Also, he "left" when the kids went to bed, but his truck stayed parked in front of our house all night long. He "returned" at 7:15 by letting himself in through the front door. And she told her parents he didn't stay over. And I guess she figured no one would ever be the wiser.
WHAT?????
Doesn't she realize there are no secrets in a house with children? (Diane Sutterfield made a whole book around that very idea, The Thirteenth Tale)
Didn't she ever see Bill Cosby perform stand up or watch his TV show, even in reruns?
The seven year old is the informant.
Did she forget my husband and I were teenagers once as well?
My husband knew all of the right questions to ask our seven year old. And I did a little around the neighborhood investigative journalism. It was pretty easy to put the pieces together and figure out what went on.
It didn't get worse from there, just consistent. She didn't ask if she could have a girlfriend come over and spend the night Saturday night. She told my girlfriend, who's daughter she took along with mine to the movie, the girlfriend was just visiting.
She call me and didn't ask what she should feed the kids when the glaring leftovers in the fridge, the fresh bread, the milk, the fruit, the cold cuts, the ready make mac and chees, pasta, cans of tomoato sauce, frozen pizzas my husband stocked the fridge with on Friday left her without a clue. Instead, she called her parents and told them I hadn't really left any food in the house for my kids and she needed money to take them out to dinner.
She didn't ask if it was okay to go into my bedroom and use my bathroom repeatedly for long baths.
She didn't bother to refill the dog's water bowl and put the dog outside for six hours, then told me she did refill it when I called and asked.
I was never asked. It was the "better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission" weekend.
I'm ranting. I know. I feel incredibly violated. I feel really disappointed. I feel hurt. And I feel like it's my fault. I should have known, right? What can I say in my defense? She used to be a decent kid. I mean, I've known her for almost seven years. My kids adore her. She's never, to my knowledge, exhibited this kind of irresponsible behavior before when work was involved. And I know kids go through trying times. I was a teenager, however long ago it was, but I remember when I was working, man, I tried to up my game, tried to seem responsible at least.
And this kid, she's almost nineteen. When does maturity and responsibility kick in? My husband said this is teen reality today. They don't have to be responsible. They lie for convenience sake. This is their life.
I am so out of touch.
As a human being, I ask myself, where are we going? And, how did we get here? As a parent, I ask myself, is this what I'm going to be up against? As a writer, I ask myself, is this my readership?
Because if it is, man, I've just had an intensive weekend seminar on how some teenagers at least function, what's important to them, and what to write about. It's gonna take a while to process all that. Reams of material.
In the meantime, anybody out there got the name of a decent babysitter???
.jpg?picon=1806)
By: Anne Rooney,
on 10/6/2008
My daughter wanted to talk about worthwhile careers - but not with me because I’m clearly not qualified to judge. Huh?
‘You’re a children’s writer,’ she said.
‘Isn’t that a worthwhile occupation?’
‘Duu-urrrr!’ (I’m not sure how to indicate that undulation of the word that carries all the weight of disdain – but you know how it goes.)
I asked what she thinks my job entails.
‘Telling lies about an imaginary bird’, she answered without hesitation.
Ever since Plato banished poets from the true Republic, writers have had to answer the charge of untruthfulness. Usually, it has been leveled against loftier works.
‘They’re not lies, they’re stories,’ I said.
‘But they’re not true,’ she countered.
I tried the line about deep psychological truth versus literal truth, dragging in Boccaccio as witness for the defence: ‘There was never a maundering old woman, sitting with others late of a winter's night at the home fireside, making up tales of Hell, the fates, Ghosts and the like … but did not feel there was a grain of truth in them.’
She eyed me suspiciously.
‘What’s maundering?’
Oh God, now she thinks I’m a maundering old woman. I wanted her to think I was Boccaccio.
‘He’s wrong,’ she said, with the inalienable confidence of the teenager. ‘They’re lies; they’re not true.’
Ah, but we know they are true, somehow. That’s why books are dangerous. It’s why books (and writers) have been burned throughout history. It’s why Arthur Miller faced the House of un-American Activities Committee, Salman Rushdie got his fatwa and the fabulous Wild Swans was banned in
But writers can’t be subversive all on their own. Writers rely on intelligent readers. If the book-banning authorities thought readers would be blind to the message, they would have no reason to worry. Writers know their readers want the key to the secret room; the best writers know how to slip them that key, even under the harshest regimes. And childhood can be one of the most repressive.
Some children feel they are in solitary confinement, locked away from anyone who can explain what is happening in their lives, to their bodies, in their minds. A story can show them that their experience is universal. Some children need not just a key, but a file hidden in a pie. A good book, whether it’s a story or a fact book, can be the pie. That’s why the job is worthwhile. We don’t only tell lies about imaginary birds – we try to hide files in pies, too. We don’t need to make the files – they’re universal – we just cook the pies. Which is lucky, as I have a cooker but not a furnace.
It's the beginning of summer vacation and Natalie Wallis is already bored. She decides to give herself an assignment to pass the time. Her task is to clock how fast that she can ride around her block. It doesn't hurt that riding around the block means passing Steven Redding's house. Natalie thinks that Steven is the cutest, sweetest boy in the whole school and she has been secretly in love with him for three years now. But it's not Steven who Natalie runs into.
Instead, there is a small, skinny boy standing in Natalie's path. "I'm gonna tell you a secret," the boy says.
Well, Natalie comes to find out that this boy isn't a boy after all, but a girl named Annie. Annie has lots of secrets, and she wants to find out more. Annie and Natalie (code names Elvis and Olive) start their secret club that day. Their task is to find out the secrets of all of the people in their neighbourhood. Natalie assures Annie that the block is boring, but Annie knows that the most seemingly normal folks, tend to have a secret or two ripe for spying.
Natalie likes being around Annie even though she knows that Annie is a liar. Annie is not like the other girls in her private school. She is brave and a little dangerous too. Before too long it becomes apparent that some things are secret for a reason, and that while spying is fun, being spied on is not.
Stephanie Watson has written a gem of a story about friendship, truth, family and trust. Annie is a character who is flawed all over the place, yet likable just the same. Readers get to watch Natalie become braver, which is always a fun thing to do! This is the kind of story, however, that gives me the after-school special feeling in my stomach...you know when you see something bad coming, and you are yelling at the character on the television not to do what you know they are going to do? Watson really does have you wanting it all to be okay.
By: The Class of 2k8,
on 1/14/2008
By: April Henry,
on 9/23/2007
When is a lie not a lie? I guess when it's "an error in judgment."
And what a strange error it was. This guy self-publishes his third book and decides to claim that is was selected for Oprah's Book Club.
In the real world:
- Oprah is only now choosing a few more or less contemporary books, but not brand-spanking new ones, after the fallout from choosing The Commitments (Franzen disdained it) and A Million Little Pieces (which turned out to have at least a half-dozen big lies).
- Oprah has a zillion eagle-eyed fans. I know people who have been on her show, and they get stopped in airports and asked if they can be photographed. Because the fame has rubbed off.
- Oprah, I'm sure, has a huge publicity staff that monitors mentions of her.
- An Oprah pick means printing another 800,000 copies.
To make matters even more bizarre, the guy features a "transcript" on his Web site, on what looks like Oprah letterhead, five pages of Oprah complimenting him on his book.
And he worked in PR! Hello!
Predictable fallout:
- He explains what occurred as an "error in judgment."
- He loses his job.
- People blog about him.
How could anyone think this was not going to blow up in his face?
Read more right here.
Subscribe with
JacketFlap's
Children's
Publishing
Blog Reader
By: Rebecca,
on 8/30/2007
Th
roughout the novel Huckleberry Finn tells a series of lies about his family. For example, he tells the woman who feeds him in Chapter 11 that his name is “Sarah Williams” and that his/her “mother’s down sick, and out of money and everything…” (52).
Later, in Chapter 16 Huck leads two men in a skiff on the river to believe that he is traveling with his family and that they are sick with small-pox. “…because it’s pap that’s there, and maybe you’d help me tow the raft ashore where the light is. He’s sick–and so is mam and Mary Ann” (83).
What do these series of lies reveal? (more…)
By: Kelly Herold,
on 2/21/2007
Dana Reinhardt created a splash last year with her charming and brilliant first novel, a brief chapter in my impossible life. (review) I'm happy to report that her second YA novel, Harmless, is equally accomplished.
Harmless is much darker than a brief chapter in my impossible life. In the grand tradition of I Know What You Did Last Summer, it's the story of a lie and its consequences.
Three ninth-grade girls narrate the story and tell the lie--that they were attacked and one of them nearly raped. Each of the girls is insecure and unsure of herself. Anna is a coddled and much-loved only child who has never been popular. Her best friend Emma was transported to their small town--a town anchored by a college and CompuCorp--and misses New York City desperately. Like Anna, she has two loving parents. Unlike Anna, her parents argue, and they moved away from the city a few years earlier because of a sexual harassment charge against her father. New girl Mariah shows up at Orsonville Day School because her mother marries a wealthy man Mariah does not like much.
Mariah rebels by hooking up with a public school kid named D.J. When she invites Anna and Emma to a party, the lies begin. At first, Anna and Emma tell their parents that they are at one another's house. When they're finally caught, the lie is told.
Reinhardt is particularly skilled at first-person narration. Each girl's voice is so distinct, that I no longer had to read the chapter title by the time I was halfway through the novel. Emma is confused and hurt. Anna is intelligent and self-absorbed. Mariah is angry and desires attention, but is good at heart. What I especially appreciated about Harmless is that these girls are recognizable. Yes, they've each had a problem or two, but nothing drastic or unusual enough to explain away their lie. As Mariah says:
Harmless is highly recommended for teen readers ages thirteen and up. There is some sexual content.
=============================================
Review copy supplied by the publisher.
this one sounds really unique. i can't think of a ya book that has anything to do with holy orders. maybe grave mercy but that's different. hadn't heard of this one but you've definitely piqued my interest.
I actually prefer this to her first book (which I already thought was good and rated 4/5 stars; the only thing I didn't like was the cover. But I didn't dislike it enough to even take a star off, haha :)