Words are mere symbols and thus can only approximate action. Looking backward or looking forward (by virtue of their inherent removal, they possess no present), either as history or prophecy, words are overblown or mangled, tacked together with all nuance broken off, heaped in a pile and lit on fire to give some reprieve from the always encroaching blackness. In light of this, the virtue of honesty is eclipsed by the impossibilities of language. This is not to suggest that communication is inevitable deception; rather, reality is more multi-faceted than can be expressed, always containing both clarity and obfuscation.
"This journal is not a mere literary diversion. The further I progress, reducing to order what my past life suggests, and the more I persist in the rigor of composition--of the chapters, of the sentences, of the book itself--the more do I feel myself hardening in my will to utilize, for virtuous ends, my former hardships. I feel their power." --Jean Genet
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