dandaman10470

puzzlement & fabricating...i wracked my brain for this one

iborrowedthisid

Jesus Christ...To be honest, people, I will feel so vindicated when the correct answer is edifying, because simply believing that fable is always a fake story is hard to accept....I mean, every dictionary and NY times reference define fable as a story from which to learn something... Falsewhood is like secondary or tertiary definition for that...

P.S: I believe the narrator expresses his concern about representing something false about his father (or fabrication if you guys would like to use) but while that was the general context, he was using metaphors to contrast - his jumbling "rough sequence" is enigmatic (hard to understand) and it is not fable that he expected (something to learn about his father). Peace.

iwaswalking

fables edify, its what they do

Gryffon5147

^ Just because the words connect together doesn't mean it's used properly in the context of the question.

Threehittolumby

Tell me what lesson he's learning, and i'll agree with edifying for fable. Till then, puzzling-fabricating ftw.

iborrowedthisid

"Filling blanks" wasn't meant to refer to the fable as falsehood. It was referring to his jumbling biographical pieces of his father, which, when completed, was a riddle (enigmatic).

Oh by the way, what did you guys pick for the meaning of "rough" (rough sequence in the passage) in the context?

jcy2009

enigma and edifying! everyone else is wrong because i said so!

iborrowedthisid

To threehittolumby: he wants to learn about his father, simple as that.

Edify is usually meant to "enlighten". Read J.D. Salinger's "For Esme with Love and Squalor" and it's on the first page.

karajanhra

^I put "approximate" because all the others were wrong.

gigahertz205

Enigmatic/edifying

l Taz l

puzzlement & fabricating

highopes

Rough was approximate.

And he's not learning a lesson, he's learning more about his dad through what's left behind (essays, stories from mom, etc.) He speaks out against filling in the blanks, against fabricating ideas about his dad.

iborrowedthisid

hey, highopes, you got it exactly right. He wants to learn more about his dad. He needs to be edified, but he suggests that such fable is not available to him.

And he was not criticizing himself for fabricating. In fact he was not fabricating at all. He said he was making a rough sequence of biographical facts, which is as unintelligible and enigmatic as a riddle.

highopes

I thought about that question for awhile when I was taking the test, and went with edifying. In retrospect, I wouldn't change it. That's always a good feeling, right?

Quicksandslowly

I was down to "fabricating" and "edifying."

I chose "edifying."