[thechat] LOTR!

[Martin]

On Thursday, December 27, 2001, at 07:56  pm, Joe Crawford wrote:

> Teaching a child that certain things are /false/ is quite comforting 
> somehow.

True, but it's hard to do that definitively. I was at a talk by
Umberto Eco and he was telling how he was having problems
doing this with his daughter.

IIRC, it went something like (in Italian and with
some simplification):
"Daddy, look at what the TV says"
"Ah, the TV tells lies."
"OK Daddy... look, it's the news - that's a lie?"
"No, the TV news is true"
"Oh, OK. Look that's a politician - it's true?"
"No, politicians on the news tell lies"
"Oh. Hey, it's the Pope - he's a politician so lies?"
"Well, he's a politician who tells the truth"
"ah I see. Oh look, now it's adverts... is that true or not..?"

Cheers
Martin
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