Yeah, back then, the visions, yeah most of the time I was convinced… Shit… I’d lost it. But there were other times… I thought I was mainlining the secret truth of the universe.
– Rust Cohle, True Detective

If God Did Not Exist, It would be Necessary to invent him
– Voltaire

I mean, as you’re probably aware, Barthes said, “The cultural work done in the past by gods and epic sagas is now done by laundry detergent commercials and comic strip characters.” It’s a big leap you’ve taken.
– Birdman

The pen is mightier than the sword… if the sword is very small and the pen is very sharp.
– The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

The pen is mightier than the sword, except when the sword tells the pen what to write
– Milan Gupta (aka me)

Construction of Storytelling

As Yuval Noah Harari says in Sapiens, humanity is a world of storytelling. The dominant ideas in our times are just facts molded into stories.

The Voltaire quote talks about god, but in the post-truth post-modern 21st century, this applies to just about every construct in society. Very few stereotypes (if any at all) are accurate, and yet it is necessary for society to create these stereotypes to function. Then these stereotypes clash.

Every nation is defined by its sense of Other. India’s definition depends upon a definition of Pakistan as the enemy. That’s a point that Amitav Ghosh was making in Shadow lines as well.

The construction of God in the 18th century that Voltaire talked about has made way for the construction of concepts such as Surf Excel’s ability to make a child happier (as their commercials so happily pronounce).

Is the Pen More Powerful than the Sword?

I think the rise of microblogging has highlighted how the pen is essentially a reflection of what the sword would like the world to be. The powers-that-be determine what is the acceptable discourse. I think this question of Discourse-and-power is exactly what the French rockstar Philosopher Michel Foucault talks about in his writings. I have been fascinated with Foucault ever since college in IIT Delhi, when I read Foucault’s ideas as part of Edward Said’s Orientalism. Ever since then, every college course seemed to have a shadow of Foucault lurking around it.

That’s where the Rust Cohle quote comes in. There’s no other time I feel I am mainlining the secret truths of the universe than when I am (trying to) read Foucault.