Big fish notes:
He’s never told me a single true thing – when talking to his wife after hearing the story about how his parents met
• really? Wasn’t it all story truth?
Not everything your father says is a complete fabrication
 like getting lost in the war
 but did make up other parts of it to make the story truth
What purpose did his stories serve?
• kept those memories (and the people involved in them) alive because his son will tell them
 and they’ll remember the story truth because they felt it
Giant story – someone who doesn’t fit in and is misunderstood
• and Edward thought he was too big for his town, was restricted by the town
Leaving that perfect little town
• sometimes people don’t understand that you just have to leave
• and without shoes? Might hurt a little, but have to do what you think is right
 not being around for his family?
Meets back up with giant because he took some detours in life, but always got back on track eventually
Meeting his wife at a circus – didn’t really happen, but what is the story truth there?
• had to find her amongst all the craziness of life?
• and had to work really hard to get her
• and got her by getting the crap kicked out of him -- persistence
Dog/Circus guy that attacks him just like the giant he befriended … some people just don’t have the social skills
• just needed his help
 think about the detail that he added to this totally made up story
Traveling salesman – to help explain why he was gone so much?
 story truth was that he didn’t want to be gone, but his work skills led him away from his family (social person), and didn’t have any other options as a vet who was dead
Robbing the bank
• story truth: take a risk like that but it doesn’t always pay off through no fault of your own

Never meant to end up here: that’s the story truth about the two times he made it to that town in Alabama
Story truth of that town — that he cares about people from his past and that he’s not a greedy man
Why make up part of fishing w/ wedding ring rather than the fact that he couldn’t be there for his son’s birth?
• truth is wouldn’t have mattered where he was because he couldn’t have been in there anyway in those days, so he was out chasing his dreams (of getting his family a white picket fence)
What about the story that the son makes up about leaving the hospital?
 what is the story truth of it? What does it keep alive about his dad? o The friends he had, like the giant clearing the way for him o The people who he has had an impact on all waiting for him

And that his son is getting it, the magic of stories o Slightly exaggerated, but any less true?

His father was larger than life, and story truth is that his dad was a very big fish in a lot of people’s lives

Can die because knows that his stories now live on with his son
• he tells the stories so many times that he becomes the stories
• can never die, immortal
-- like that big fish
Giant tall, but not that tall
Chinese twins, just not connected
• just exaggerations to make you feel the story truth of both of them
 that the giant feels like an outsider, a freak, wehter he’s 7 feet tall or
20 feet tall
GOOD STORYTELLING: look at all the detail of mom clearing the way for them
• brand new red charger, doesn’t weigh anything
• avoid church traffic