Before you think I have gone completely mad. The title of this blog did not come from my mouth!! I was working with a group of kids in my class and we were making notes on foxes which led to a discussion on wolves. This is when one came out with, “Werewolves are real..they live in America and Africa and come out at night.” As you can imagine, I had to work very hard not to laugh as, as you can imagine it’s not something you expect someone to believe- even if they are 8.
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I asked if he knew what a werewolf was and he replied that it was a wolf which came out on a full moon. I then had to explain what a werewolf is – a person who turns into a wolf- and his eyes widened. Oh no...Had I said the wrong thing? I then had to carry on and explain myths and fiction etc etc. The kid seemed quite happy after the group chat as others were also explaining the whole not real werewolf situation. After the chat he was still mumbling quite happily to himself, “ WOW! Werewolves are cool!”
To be honest I can see where some of these problems come from. There are so many different shows, stories and films etc these days which can and do influence kids. I think that this is where the lines of reality and make believe blur. How many times have you watched something and thought... ‘This may be crazy but what if, just what if this IS real?’ Now I’m not saying everyone believes this, it’s generally a curse of people like me who have an overactive imagination.
When I studied Media during my comprehensive days I watched ‘The Truman Show’. If you haven’t seen it, it is basically about a man who lives in a big brother life without knowing. All people in his life are actors, his world is a fake reality and everything is 'perfect'. He has no idea that his illusion of truth is actually the complete opposite. Even the sun is controlled. This film always has and always will freak me out. It gets me thinking- “What if my life is scripted and fake?” I catch myself panicking if I see the same two days in a row at the same place (which happened this week).
In some ways I think a lot of our lives are not as real as we think and we blur the lines constantly ourselves on a daily basis. An example of this is a conversation I had with Miss Twin about the fact that women wear heels to be taller, push up bras to enhance and make up to cover flaws and change our look. This is not exactly the huge blur of reality that poor Truman faced but I wonder if we all need some kind of lie to keep us happy and get us through our daily life?
When watching True Blood tonight, Jason Stackhouse came out with something to the effect of:
‘Telling lies doesn’t mess a life up, if you really wanna fuck someone’s life up tell them the truth.”
Maybe this is right? Who knows... I think I can live with a few little reality blurs every now and again but please, if I am in a Truman Show... and you are watching ... tell me via the medium of blogging!
Image from: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/627739
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