Not True

I’ve been asking people how they would feel if they found out that a Carapace story wasn’t true (thanks to a suggestion from Randy) and have gotten a range of interesting answers. Will related this story about hearing untrue stories at another event:

I went to a Titans of Talking

that was supposed to be

this sort of like,

they’ve done a show

under the title Titans of Talking

the year before,

and it was sort of a collection of like

The 500

and Carapace

and Stories on the Square

and Write Club,

and it was sort of like

a show-case

for the Atlanta

literary community,

and it was awesome,

and I loved that idea,

and I loved

that sort of celebration

of the community.

And then the next year

they did it again.

And this year it was

sort of supposed to be a

memorial/fund-raiser

for this person,

Gaspar,

and I don’t remember what last name they used.

And I’m like,

“I never heard of this person!” And

they had Myke Johns and

like Bernie

from Naked City, and

all these other people,

and I watched it with Sarah Zureick Brown

and her husband, David,

and we were like maybe in the front row,

maybe in the second row

at the Earl, and

you know, the,

each story

was like,

it was almost like the person was

completely different.  

I’m like,

“Oh this is so interesting,

this really says something like about like, our perspective

of people,”

and then when it got to intermission;

Sarah was like

“So there’s no person Gaspar, right,

this is all completely made up.”

And I’m like “(Gasp!)

God-dammit you’re right!”

Will had a strong reaction to this:

And I was so pissed off!

So pissed off!

because it was supposed to be

this person had, like,

gone missing,

his family didn’t know where he was,

and like,

I’ve had like

Chris Berry went missing,

and I didn’t hear from him

for years,

and then I found out that he was still alive

and I’m like,

I was so

angry!

And I was so upset!

For like such a cheap joke,

The stories were presented as true, but weren’t. But also, to Will, this was not a topic that you joke about. You don’t joke about a person going missing, because people do go missing, and it’s upsetting.

And this experience made him suspicious of other fundraiser performances:

And it was

horribly timed,

because a week later,

there was like

a benefit

for someone,

like, in the arts community in Atlanta

who had cancer

and who needed help paying bills,

and I’m like,

I don’t know, is this person real?