Faldoni, parts 3076 - 3079

 3076. You know yourself that the old man never said anything of the sort, and no matter how you wanted to stretch or distort his words, you could never arrive at anything like such a prognostication.

 3077. But although the Jailer could not read or write, somehow or other, don’t ask me how, Caesar’s words in Latin had made their way into his mind. Caesar said, “Men believe anything they want to believe.” And the Jailer extrapolated that idea to the entire world of the spoken and written word. Then and now, things mean what we think they mean, or what anyone wants them to mean. 

 3078. “But,” you say, “that is a very cynical attitude, and implies that truth does not even exist.” No, truth exists, but it is not composed of words. Truth is not composed of images either. Truth, blind deaf and dumb; is understood only in retrospect.

3079. As the Jailer expected, the statement that Faldoni was destined to raise the dead with his paintings had the desired effect. For some reason, raising the dead is important to religious people, I don’t know why that should be.