“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.
Mark Twain.
Fiction stories come from imagination and we as human beings want or believe that everything that exists has a reason and purpose, so while imagining fictional things we give reason and explanation to everything. The reality or truth does not have to make sense or have any explanation because that happened and that is the truth and no one can change or alter it.
Such as the movies based on true stories do not have to have a reason no matter how strange or weird it could be whereas fictional stories have to have an explanation for each and everything and even the character’s behavior and choices are given reason.
Truth or reality contains the strangest possible things while fiction is limited to the possibilities of the person’s imagination.
Whenever we think of a worst-case scenario or a best-case scenario, truth or reality can always overrule our cases of imagination and leave us stunned.
It even happens when sometimes when we are down and think that we are never going to get through a problem, the truth comes right at us with a big slap on our faces and tells us that time passed and it all went away and maybe in the most unexpected ways.
TRUTH VS FICTION
as per the definition in the dictionary, fiction refers to books and stories about imaginary people and events. in other words, fiction is a story made up of imagination rather than real events. on the other hand, the word ‘truth’ holds an opposite meaning. the truth about something is the facts about it. there is no space for imagination in reality.
as we step into the twenty-first century, we realize the truths of life are stranger than any fictional novel. we all know imagination runs wild and by giving imagination the encouragement to run wild, we can feel that there are glimpses of fiction in every real event that occurs. even when reading a novel, fiction or non-fiction, we can relate to one character in the least.it is common human psychology to try and relate truth with fiction.
when we are being able to relate, then it should mean that there is a connection between imagination and reality.
looking at a person from the outside, we can never judge his inside but we can keep imagining stuff. and when we come to know something of substance about that person, it may seem that truth is stranger than fiction. certain events occur in our lives too which make us think about it for a prolonged period, which is similar to the aftereffect of reading fiction. we keep wondering why these are happening to us..these strange things. and then one day we wake up and realize that this is life, the reality, the truth! life is never what we imagine it to be.
it can be well concluded that the truth behind every event of life has a strange story of its own, quite similar to or even stranger than fiction itself.
WHY PEOPLE OFTEN FIND TRUTH IS STRANGE?
Every person on earth loves to hear compliments or good things about them. They rarely love to hear the bitter truth because a lie is more soothing and comfortable. We have become so immune to hearing false promises, lies, wrong information, dishonest feedback, etc. that we have become strangers to the truth. Truth has become more stranger than fiction, an imaginative made-up account or story about something or someone, that no one dares to speak of it.
People have become so scared to speak the truth. Some are subdued from speaking the truth while some do not speak the truth because they don’t want to offend another person. Numerous conditions have restrained people from speaking the truth that it has gone farther from the grasp of humans today. Instead, lies and made-up stories are gaining more attention and favor because it soothes the listeners.
Imagine fiction becoming more favorable than the truth. Where are we heading in life? Are we all living in our imagination that we don’t want to face reality? We have become accustomed to hearing so many lies that we think it is normal. Therefore, the truth has become a stranger to us. We don’t dare to speak the truth anymore nor do we want to face them.
Here are some examples of some truths that are stranger than our imagination how myths and disinformation lead us to wrong facts.
1. IS TOMATO A FRUIT OR VEGETABLE?
There was a big fight over tomatoes in the past if it’s a fruit or vegetable. Let’s see in brief what’s all this fuss about!
John Nix founded the John Nix & Co. fruit commission in New York City in 1839. The company became one of the largest sellers of produce in New York City at the time and was one of the first companies to ship produce from Virginia, Florida, and Bermuda to New York.
In 1883, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, requiring a tax to be paid on imported vegetables, but no fruit. The John Nix & Co. company filed a suit against Edward L. Hedden, Collector of the Port of New York, to recover back duties paid under protest. They argued against the tariff by pointing out that, botanically, a tomato is a fruit due to its seed-bearing structure growing from the flowering part of a plant.
So it was a legal case filed in the court about tomatoes being fruits, not vegetables. here is what the US court said about it,
The court unanimously decided in favor of the respondent and found that the tomato should be classified under the customs regulations as a vegetable, based on how it is used, and the popular perception to this end.
So due to the tax on vegetables, tomatoes are considered as a vegetable. Let’s see what science says about it.
TRUTH: To a botanist, a fruit is an entity that develops from the fertilized ovary of a flower. This means that tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, corn kernels, and bean and pea pods are all fruits; so are apples, pears, peaches, apricots, melons, and mangos.
So the US government chooses tax over science and we also consider tomatoes as a vegetable. Truth is strange…
Here is the second example of it which I recently knew of It’s strange for me and I almost didn’t believe it until I saw proof.
2. ARE HIGH HEELS WERE ORIGINALLY MADE EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEN!
High heels were originally made exclusively for men! Can you believe it? Nowadays, stilettoes and heels are broadly associated with female style and female sexuality. However, men used to wear heels long before women started wearing them. High-heeled shoes were first worn by Persian soldiers in the 10th century to elevate their feet, giving them stability while shooting their bows and arrows. Since then, men’s heels have symbolized high social stature, military power, and fashionable taste.
Then the Persian riders also wore one-inch heel shoes to signify it as a symbol of wealth and power. Persian soldiers and migrants brought the shoe trend to Europe, which was considered fashionable. Later, the European aristocrats adopted the new trend as a powerful military tactic to appear taller.
Louis XIV was famous as the king of heels. Under his reign, it was considered that the higher and redder the heel, the more powerful the wearer. However, he passed a law in 1670 that only the nobility should wear heel shoes. The king used to wear shoes with red color heels or soles. The members of his court are also allowed to wear red heels.
In those times, women craved to adopt masculine elements in their fashion sense like trimming hair shorts and wearing hats. So, women start wearing heels as a part of adopting men’s style in their clothing. Women’s heels were narrower, ornamental, and higher than men’s heel shoes.
In the 17th century, men started abandoning colored clothes, jewelry, and exquisite fabrics for practical and sober clothing. They started to emphasize practicality and rationality over luxury and fashion which was known as the Great Male Renunciation. Since then, distinguishing between men and women through their appearance has been a dominant trend.
The intellectual movement has started to stereotype men as rational and practical, while women as sentimental and foolish. By 1740, men stopped wearing heel-shoes. The demand for sophistication, practicality and to put on simple dresses has stopped the high-heeled shoe fashion among men.
Heels came back in the mid-19th century when men wore low-heeled cowboy boots and platform shoes. Moreover, the era of men wearing high heels is long gone. Men on heels used to symbolize power, wealth, and masculinity but it was pushed to the gender biases in today’s world.
So again strange!! I have one more for you. You all think pink is a feminine color right? Let’s see the strange truth of it in our history.
3. THE COMPLICATED GENDER HISTORY OF PINK:
When you think about the color pink, you are probably conjuring up images of little girls in pink dresses, with pink toys like Barbie or a Disney princess in a pretty gown.
The color is overwhelmingly associated with delicacy and femininity.
That, however, is a recent development.
“If you go back to the 18th century, little boys and little girls of the upper classes both wore pink and blue and other colors uniformly,” said Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York.
In fact, pink was even considered to be a masculine color. In old catalogs and books, pink was the color for little boys, said Leatrice Eiseman, a color expert and executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.
“It was related to the mother color of red, which was ardent and passionate and more active, more aggressive. Even though you reduce the shade level, it was a color that was associated with boys,” Eiseman said.
An article titled “Pink or Blue,” published in the trade journal The Infants’ Department in 1918 said that the generally accepted rule is pink for boys and blue for girls. “The reason is that pink being a decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy,” it said.
So when did the reversal happen?
Lack of consensus
According to Steele, the gendering of pink in America is complicated.
“In America by the 1890s and the early 20th century, manufacturers attempted to sell more children’s and infants’ clothes by color-coding them,” she said. Some manufacturers branded pink for boys and blue for girls, and vice versa.
In 1927, there were a lot of regional differences reported between how stores characterized the color, Steele said. Stores like Best & Co. in Manhattan and Marshall Field in Chicago branded pink as a boy’s color. Others like Macy’s in Manhattan and Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia identified pink as a girl’s color.
“There was no unanimity at all,” Steele said. “People were starting to think by the 1920s, because of the manufacturer’s attempt, that there was a distinction between pink and blue for boys and girls.”
Steele believes that the acquisition of two 18th-century paintings by American millionaire Henry Huntington started turning the tide in favor of pink being a girl’s color. “The Blue Boy” depicted a boy dressed in blue, and “Pinkie” portrayed a girl in pink attire.
Huntington’s purchase was widely publicized in the American press, Steele said. People started thinking that for hundreds of years, blue had been for boys and pink had been for girls. But this wasn’t true, she said.
“If you look back, little boys in the 18th century wore blue and pink, and grown-up men wore blue and pink, and ladies and little girls wore blue and pink,” Steele said.
Today, a boy or man can’t wear pink without it being some kind of statement, said Jo Paoletti, academic and author of “Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America.”
Paoletti said that if a male friend of hers was wearing a pink tie or pink shirt, they would point it out. “If it was just a color, you wouldn’t have to do that. You are using a pink tie to show that ‘I am a feminist or that ‘I am not tied to gender roles.’ “
Eiseman agrees that there has been a steady growth in the usage of pink for men. “But it does take a man who would look at it and say, ‘I am not threatened by wearing pink’ or ‘I don’t think I am going to be viewed by other people as being too effeminate if I wore pink,’ “ she said.
However, researchers at Pantone found that the color pink is being adapted more by men than it ever had been before, Eiseman said. Shirtmakers like Pink in London and Ralph Lauren’s pink polo shirts have helped make it a popular color among men.
Eiseman said that for some men, the bias against pink comes naturally. But things are changing.
“I think in general, the younger generation simply don’t have some of the prejudices about certain colors that perhaps the fathers and grandfathers do, who were raised with that idea that pink is only for little girls or a boy should never wear pink,” she said.
Paoletti believes we haven’t yet reached the point where pink is just a color, but she is hopeful this can change. She noted that in the late 1800s if a young woman was wearing black, people would assume that someone had died and that she was in mourning.
The psychology of black and why we’re scared of the dark
“Now, we see young women wearing black all the time, and nobody asks them who died. It’s just a color,” she said.
Paoletti is hopeful that pink may eventually be just a color, but it won’t happen unless men stop justifying or defending wearing it.
See how strange the truths are in our history and how our society or some businessmen change our perception for their advantages. So from now don’t just accept all the things as someone said but start questioning…
I have so many examples like jellyfish reproduction(immortal jellyfish), having more than 2 kidneys, tobacco smoke enemas that resuscitate victims of drowning and so many things that change my point of view to see the world differently than I used to see it before. If you like to know more then DM me anytime. Happy to share with you all.
SUMMARY
Not all the things you imagine are right, Truth is stranger than imagination.
So always believe and pray that truth will be in your favor and that your imagination is always growing in a good way from which you could benefit.