Complex Numbers

Honest

PROMPT September 24th

Today, the prompt is from Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline !

When was the last time you were dishonest, and why?

Dishonest? ME??! I'm never dishonest!

Okay, I only wrote that so that I could honestly answer the prompt question: The last time I was dishonest was about 30 seconds ago, when I typed the previous paragraph, and "why?" For (hopefully) humorous effect and to make a point.

There's a well-known language paradox, and it goes something like this:

Everything I say is a lie.

If that statement is true, then it is false; but if it is false, then it is true. In fact (heh), it demonstrates that a) language can be manipulated in arbitrary and illogical ways and b) while we think that there is always a binary (Boolean, even) choice between "true" and "false," but some premises, such as the above, are neither.

And I'm dishonest quite often. If you've read my fiction, you know this. Because that's what fiction is. Yeah, everyone involved knows that it's fiction (okay, well, I've had a few readers think I was being autobiographical, but most readers are in on the ploy; the spaceships and/or unicorns should have given it away).

I also outright lie to beggars on the street. "Spare some change?" "No." "I hear it jingling in your pocket!" "Um, those are, um my keys bye good luck!"

And I use hyperbole, which is a type of dishonesty, approximately 150% of the time in my comedy.

But right now I gotta go - I have a movie to act in and a trip to outer space planned, because I'm a movie star and an astronaut.