Note: A prologue and thematic intoduction to the non-speculative story cycle Winesburg, Ohio. It depicts an old man bringing to mind various people he has known, each of whom in his mind has something "grotesque" about them: "It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood."