Dear csteele,

I thought the picture was a still life.

Actually there is no absolute frame of reference in the universe so whether the picture is still or moving is dependent on the frame of reference. There is no absolute truth about its motion as its motion is dependent on the frame of reference.

Having checked online with the LA County Museum of Art, the frame of reference for 'The treachery of images' is a simple wooden longnose ogee with mitred corners.

I always found 'still life' oxymoronic... if what was depicted really was still it couldn't be described as quick so wouldn't it be dead?

But it would be true to say it was 'still dead'.

<< There's no contradiction >>

But Poirot, if you adamantly assert that it is not a pipe, then by exactly the same reasoning, it is not a picture of a pipe either that we have looked at.

We have looked only a computer-generated image of a picture of a pipe, have we not?

Or if you consider a computer-generated image to be a picture, then it would be a picture of a picture of a pipe!

Going by your super-strict interpretation of the truth, we could only call it a picture of a pipe if we were standing in front of Magritte’s original artwork.

Any other reproduction, in a magazine or on television for example, would be a picture of a picture of a pipe.

Csteele, I note that you didn’t comment on my statement:

< You [Poirot] say that there are three truths here. But csteele says that there are not multiple truths. >

But at the end of your last post, you say:

<< There is only on absolute truth >>

So… do you agree with me that Poirot is not correct when she said… er … wrote… that;

<< 3 out of 4 ain't bad >>?

Do you agree that by her reasoning and yours that what we have been looking at could only be a computer-generated image of a picture of a pipe…and not a picture of a pipe, per se?

Ludwig,

It's an "image".

It's a "picture".

Frankly it's just semantics you're playing at.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/image?fromAsk=true&o=100074

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/picture?s=t

But it's not a pipe.

<< There is only on absolute truth, the picture is not perfectly still. >>

Yes it is!!

Csteele, if Magritte’s wonderful work of art is hanging on some wall in some gallery somewhere, then it is in all probability perfectly still!!

Compared to its surroundings, it would not be moving. And this would be the parameter in which most people would consider its stillness or non-stillness!

Sure, if you compare it to the sun or the centre of the Milky Way or to the Andromeda galaxy, it is not still…. and is actually hooting along at a mind-blowingly huge speed!

So again, there are multiple truths here, depending on how you define the parameters.

There is often more than one truth!! !! !!