Discussion Questions
Truth and Other Fictions
1) The book opens with a quote from Lawrence Durrell: “Truth is what most contradicts itself in time.” How do you interpret this quote, and how might it be applied to the book as a whole?
2) “Green Is the Most Difficult Colour” opens with a quote from Picasso: “Art is never chaste.” What do you think Picasso meant by this? Do you agree?
3) How does the first story (“Green Is the Most Difficult Colour”) set the stage for the following stories?
4) “No Ordinary Eyes” is a “portrait of the artist as a young man.” What does the story imply about the process of becoming an artist?
5) Tihanyi uses many images throughout the book, and some of them recur in different ways. For example, “fish” appear in “No Ordinary Eyes” and “Horoscopes”; “dolls” appear in “Green Is the Most Difficult Colour” and “No Ordinary Eyes”; “birds” appear in “Tigers Either Way,” “The Art of Dying,” and “Hemingway and the Buddha.” Discuss the use of imagery in the book. What other recurring images do you notice?
6) “Body and Soul” relies on juxtaposition to tell the story. What comparisons are drawn between Mary Leakey and Billie Holiday? What does the story suggest about science and art?
7) How is the title “Body and Soul” relevant to the story and its themes?
8) What cultural assumptions are evident in “The New York Times Cook Book”? Have these assumptions changed since the sixties? Have the roles of women changed since then?
9) In “Words and Music” how does the narrator’s perception change as she gets older? Has your own perception of life (and language in particular) changed with age?
10) “Words and Music” is a “portrait of the artist as a young woman.” Compare and contrast it with “No Ordinary Eyes.”
11) Discuss the title of “Tigers Either Way.” Have you ever been caught in the same position?
12) The importance of context is evident in many of the stories (for example in the Durrell quote on p. 63 and the reference to Ponzo’s Illusion on p. 125). What are some other examples of how context affects what is perceived? Do you agree with the implied notion that “context is all”?
13) What conclusion does Meg seem to reach at the end of “Hemingway and the Buddha”?
14) Discuss the artist-model relationship explored in “Glacial Erratic.” How do you yourself see the artist-model relationship?
15) When describing the Body Worlds exhibit in “The Art of Dying,” Sara refers to the paradox of the show as “a matter of holding two opposing ideas at the same time, in this case the notion that one moment a person is alive, and the next, dead.” How does the exhibit become a metaphor for the death of Gwen and Sara’s relationship?
16) What does “Truth” imply about the information age we live in and the effects of the Internet (Google, Wikipedia, blogs, etc.) in particular?
17) In each of the thirteen stories, a relationship between women and art in its various forms (painting, photography, music, literature, etc.) is demonstrated. Discuss this female-art connection as it appears in each story. What overall themes emerge?
18) All of Tihanyi’s previous books have been poetry. How are poetic devices used throughout the book?
19) In “Body and Soul,” Mary Leakey observes: “You dig for one thing and you find something quite different. There are so many stories to be discovered. And every one you find is different from the one you expected.” All of Tihanyi’s short stories explore the relationships between lovers, friends, and family and ultimately reveal or investigate a “truth” for the main character, one that the character does not necessarily expect. Is this a fair representation of how we discover relationship truths in our own personal stories?
20) Perspective is everything. The stories in Truth and Other Fictions are told in first, second and third person by narrators of various ages. Is truth, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder?
21) If you had to live in one character’s skin for a day, which one would you pick? Why?
22) Senses are incredibly important to all the characters in Truth and Other Fictions. Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are key elements of our daily experience and frequently associated with events or people in our lives. Which sense do you most frequently tie to memories and did that sensory preference have an impact on which story appealed most to you?
23) While most of the stories deal with relationships gone awry, the protagonist usually explores ways to improve the situation. In “Horoscopes,” for example, the narrator chooses to end her destructive relationship, while in “Tigers Either Way” Kendra chooses to stay in hers. Is one of these choices preferable to the other? Are there other alternatives?
24) Picasso in “Green Is the Most Difficult Colour” and Brassai in ‘No Ordinary Eyes” are very different creators. Discuss how each approaches his art and his models.
25) We frequently express our personality through the creation of food—either impulsively or with order. The same can be said of our lives. “The New York Times Cook Book” offers a story of structured creation evolving into the unexpected. Do you prefer the structure in your life or the unexpected?
26) The Zen strawberry story in “Tigers Either Way” celebrates grabbing the best of life while you can, while “Hemingway and the Buddha” explores how it is necessary for us to leave some things behind. Are the choices we make conscious and deliberate or unconscious and impulsive?
27) Our lives are sometimes dashed and not always through major events. The epiphany of realization (“And once you know something, you can’t un-know it”) comes for the protagonist in “Ecstasy” not as the result of a major event, but in the course of a conversation during a car ride. We frequently have life-changing momentsin the minutiae of our lives. What moments do the other characters have in their stories?
28) Character development can sometimes prove challenging for short story writers with little space to flesh out personalities. Yet Tihanyi manages to create a series of complex protagonists through whom we recognize some universal “truths” about women. Where do you recognize yourself in these stories?
* Thanks to Wendy Ward for questions 15 and 19 to 28.