The Treachery of...

Words and images, René Magritte believed, could both be poetry. He didn't want to be known as an artist– he wanted to be a poet philosopher. He told stories with his dreamy paintings. Like other surrealist painters, his art was often unsettling and strange.

The Treachery of Words is, on the surface, I think one of his most mundane pieces. The first time I saw it, I don't think I liked it. But it stuck in my head. I couldn't stop thinking about it. If it wasn't a pipe, what was it?

I know that Magritte was making a comment about how we use words and images because he said as much.

"It’s quite simple. Who would dare pretend that the representation of a pipe is a pipe? Who could possibly smoke the pipe in my painting? No one. Therefore it is not a pipe."

But I've had nightmares my whole life about things that are not what they appear to be. I know a mimic when I'm shown one.

If it isn't a pipe, what is it?

"Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see."
– René Magritte

Everything we do depends on how we interpret reality. How we react to what see, smell, taste, hear, feel. But what if we're not seeing it right? What if we only have part of the story? What if we're willingly ignoring all the signs that would tell us this is not a pipe.

I mean, we do that every day, don't we? We put on rose-tinted glasses so the red flags look pink. We tell ourselves "this is a good house, this is a strong marriage, this is the life I want."

At least, that's what Rainey, the main character in my upcoming novellete "Safe as Houses" tells herself. I was hoping to find a better segue, but it wasn't coming to me. The pre-order is up on Amazon, if you use such services. I'm hoping to get it available on other platforms eventually.

And if you want to check out the other stories in this series, here's the linktree.

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