{"id":92808,"date":"2015-12-11T12:06:22","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T17:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=92808"},"modified":"2015-12-11T12:06:22","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T17:06:22","slug":"true-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/11\/true-story\/","title":{"rendered":"True Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_92811\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/anker_grossvater_erzahlt_eine_geschichte_1884.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92811\" class=\"wp-image-92811\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/anker_grossvater_erzahlt_eine_geschichte_1884.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/anker_grossvater_erzahlt_eine_geschichte_1884.jpg 782w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/anker_grossvater_erzahlt_eine_geschichte_1884-300x244.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-92811\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Albert Anker, <i>Der Grossvater erz\u00e4hlt eine Geschichte<\/i> (detail), 1884.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One of the least endearing human verbal quirks is the \u201ctrue story.\u201d You know the drill: someone is telling some anecdote and at the end, the raconteur pauses dramatically and says, \u201cTrue story.\u201d In every single case, you\u2019d had no reason to question the story\u2019s credibility. In every single case, the story has been interminable. In every single case, the teller delivers the line with the air that he\u2019s certainly blown your mind. He\u2019s never blown your mind.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It seems to me that these true stories are often told in situations where you\u2019re trapped: on planes, in taxis, on line. Sometimes the person will say, \u201cI swear to God,\u201d or \u201cI shit you not.\u201d If you say, \u201cSeriously?\u201d\u2014trying to communicate the proper level of reaction\u2014he\u2019ll say, \u201cSerious as a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Usually you don\u2019t say \u201cSeriously?\u201d though. Usually you say, \u201cWow,\u201d or try to make your face look really impressed. You wonder momentarily if they don\u2019t say it when they\u2019re lying or if they only say it when they\u2019re lying.\u00a0And you wonder what it would be like to have the confidence to be a \u201ctrue story\u201d teller\u2014to believe you had the power to blow minds daily. It must be kind of scary.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the\u00a0<\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the least endearing human verbal quirks is the \u201ctrue story.\u201d You know the drill: someone is telling some anecdote and at the end, the raconteur pauses dramatically and says, \u201cTrue story.\u201d In every single case, you\u2019d had no reason to question the story\u2019s credibility. In every single case, the story has been interminable. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[17036,20533,20531,10438,20532],"class_list":["post-92808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-anecdotes","tag-annoyances","tag-raconteurs","tag-storytelling","tag-true-story"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cTrue Story\u201d: Some Advice for the Raconteurs of the World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 11, 2015 \u2013 One of the least endearing human verbal quirks is the \u201ctrue story.\u201d You know the drill: someone is telling some anecdote and at the end, the raconteur\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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