Truth as a Moving Target

[Gerard]

"You come out of the novel knowing, like Maknazpy, that whatever the truth today, especially if it is truth as defined by the CIA, it will be different tomorrow", so says John Gaynard in his review, and he reminds me of the thoughts milling around my head when I was struggling to make progress with this book, about a year ago.

The standard practice in books like this is that there is a truth to be unearthed and presented to the reader. The truth, and its pursuit, will often be the only steady course on a rough sea.

Sam Spade's tunnel vision is forged to prove the truth about his partner's murder, and he won't be sidetracked by the threats attaining to the Black Bird nor by the allure of Brigid O'Shaughnessy.

The saintly John Truby identifies the core of Chinatown as being the duel between JJ Gittes and Noah Cross to have their respective versions of the truth victorious.

In Bladerunner, Deckard may be evading the awful truth that he himself is a Replicant.

In my Maknazpy's case, truth is never a tangible absolute entity. In his world, truth is a relative term, projected and received through the pet prisms of American, Chinese and Russian eyes, but it is also a malleable currency to be folded and stuck in a back pocket by any of the cast of on-the-make manipulators.

I read something recently, (one of those human interest stories culled from academic research conducted by an instantly forgettable university), reporting that a high proportion of successful white-collar leaders were actually sociopaths, if not psychopaths. So, whereas a highly motivated office worker might offer superior cognitive and emotional empathy (the abilities to know what co-workers are feeling, and also feel those feelings), the shark who knows what others are feeling but doesn't care may well climb the ladder of success more easily.
It isn't such a big jump, then, to suggest the high-flying banker, to take the current cypher for corruption and greed, and the underworld godfather share a similar facility for making the truth fit their immediate purpose.

To make matters worse, Maknazpy can't be sure that his own personal truth, who he is and what he thinks, hasn't been engineered by drugged interference with the processing function of his brain.

And in a world where things are never so bad that they can't be worse, as John Gaynard highlights here, even if Maknazpy could identify an incontrovertible truth, what would he alone be able to do about it?

"Right or wrong wasn't so simple," Maknazpy said. "If there was ever the luxury of making a choice then, sure, who wouldn't be the good guy? Most times, the situation doesn't give you a choice, there's nothing to think about, except to survive first and come out on top second. Somebody up above has already made all the choices.""

It is no accident that John Gaynard is one of the best reviewers you will find on Goodreads. When he isn't polishing the diamonds of other writer's work he is busy mining his own:
Green Blood is for France by John J. Gaynard

Sylvie's Story by John J. Gaynard

[Jay]

". . . the high-flying banker, . . .and the underworld godfather share a similar facility for making the truth fit their immediate purpose."

You know, when investigative committees analyzed organized crime back in the 50s and 60s, they defined it an an "extortionate monopoly." That was supposed to set it apart from lawful commerce. Ha! What was Rockefeller's railroad fortune, Halliburton's services to sustain our wars of occupation, or Amazon-dot-com? John D, a philanthopist. Jeff Bezos, a brilliant innovator. Halliburton, a multi-national field service.