Reality Hunger

David Shields

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Feb 23, 2010 - Literary Criticism - 240 pages

A landmark book, “brilliant, thoughtful” (The Atlantic) and “raw and gorgeous” (LA Times), that fast-forwards the discussion of the central artistic issues of our time, from the bestselling author of The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead.

Who owns ideas? How clear is the distinction between fiction and nonfiction? Has the velocity of digital culture rendered traditional modes obsolete? Exploring these and related questions, Shields orchestrates a chorus of voices, past and present, to reframe debates about the veracity of memoir and the relevance of the novel. He argues that our culture is obsessed with “reality,” precisely because we experience hardly any, and urgently calls for new forms that embody and convey the fractured nature of contemporary experience.

Contents

• al overture: 3
• books for people who find television too slow: 20
• trials by google: 32
• e reality: 45
• blur: 63
• h now: 81
• J hiphop: 87
• in praise of brevity: 126
• Q thinking: 140
• S persona: 158
• t ds: 166
• W risk: 184
• y manifesto: 198

About the author

David Shields is the bestselling author of twenty books, including The Thing About Life, Reality Hunger, Black Planet, Remote, and War Is Beautiful. He and his wife live in Seattle, where he is the Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington. His work has been translated into twenty languages.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Reality Hunger
• Author: David Shields
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010
• ISBN: 0307593231, 9780307593238
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Books & Reading; Literary Criticism / Modern / 21st Century; Social Science / Essays