Thursday, February 09, 2006
of half-truths and lies. and some fairytales
school's been busy. not busy-notimetoeatorsleep-busy, but more of busy-wherehasallthetimegone-busy. don't ask me what i've been up to, i don't really recall myself.two things remained etched on my mind though, namely gambling, and marketing. two forms of making money. although i must state for the record that i absolutely abhor accounts.
anyways, LAWR (legal writing) has been teaching me so many new things lately i just had to share it. like how our innocent childhood fairytales aren't what we thought them to be. and ethics and morals for lawyers (i skipped that lecture though) as well as how to write persuasively.
firstly. we're all familiar with snow white and the seven dwarves. well known childhood fairy tale. everyone loves snow white, we all hate the evil stepmother, and adolescent girls dream of prince charming. but hey, maybe the evil stepmother wasn't that evil after all! she only tried to kill snow white cos the mirror kept telling her how pretty snow white was compared to her. and seriously, someone who talks to a mirror all day long and actually starts listening to what the mirror says (magical or not) really needs some help. and prince charming...well, let's see what he's like. random handsome young man comes riding along, sees a dead young girl in a glass coffin and falls instantly and madly in love with her. i don't know about you, but i suspect most girls wouldn't exactly be thrilled with a guy who's particularly enamored of dead young things. oh, and i do apologise for irrevocably dashing the dreams of all the girls out there. (but this is, after all, merely one's perspective of events)
next, we learnt about persuasive writing (note how i skipped the lecture on ethics in lawyering) it was basically the story of the three little pigs. told from both sides. for those who haven't heard it before (where have you been all these years??), here's the summarised version. 3 pigs, 3 houses. straw, stick, brick. big bad wolf, tries to come in, huffs and puffs and blows the house down. eats the pigs. save for the clever little pig in the brick house. but hey, here's the wolf's version of events! wolf was having a cold, and kept sneezing. poor chap sneezes rather violently, and might sneeze himself to death, so he rushes for help. all he sees is this run down shack of straw, so he knocks on the door for aid. no reply there, so while knocking, he's seized with a sudden onslaught of sneezing. and promptly sneezes the house down, killing piggy in the process. same facts, different version of events. really screwed up renditions of fairytales.
bottomline: lawyers never lie. they merely write/speak persuasively.
reminds me of a line i once saw in a sandman comic: "writers are liars"
but that's a post for another time.
wen was dreaming at 10:30 PM