Emily Dickinson's idea that the truth can be told “at a slant” is a new one to me. New to think about but not new in practice; when I think about it I've been telling things at a slant as long as I can remember.
The real trick is telling it slanted just perfectly, catching the optimal angle and rolling with it. The perfect slant catches the truth at it's most interesting. Engaging and enthralling the listener or reader but not going so far as to make what is being presented seem fantastical. At the perfect angle, no one can tell there's a slant at all.
The fact that this quote came from Emily Dickinson is also interesting because, as a poet, everything she writes has a strong poetic slant to it. The poetic slant approaches the truth from a much different angle that what I discussed in the previous paragraph. Poetry, depending on the interpretation, can always be the truth at a slant, prose on the other hand is ether slanted truth or just completely slanted with some truth interspersed throughout.
Which brings us to our next question: What is truth?
Is truth beauty? Is it something tangible, that you can show and prove? Is it your feelings and emotions? How we define truth determines how we tell it and therefor how we slant it.
I personally don't have a concrete definition for truth, so I have no idea what truths I might tell.
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