Wall Street Journal photo
Lincoln Michael at The Rumpus has written one of the most interesting and compelling responses to Reality Hunger, by David Shields, that I’ve come across. And that includes my three blog posts stimulated by the “manifesto.”
Michael writes:
[W]hile Shields praises the same qualities I look for in my art, the book is framed by a somewhat incoherent thesis that fiction is dead, narrative is pointless and the premier literary form of the now is the lyric essay (with memoir, it would seem, being a close second). I cannot be the only one to read a supposedly radical manifesto—the book jacket labels detractors as mere defenders of “the status quo”—and be a little disappointed to learn that the novel is dead (again?) and the literature of our bright, hectic future is the lyric essay and memoir. Even the terms “lyric essay” and “memoir” feel dusty sandwiched between discussions of hip-hop and cell phone stories.
I think he’s right that, essentially, Reality Hunger elevates personal taste to a movement. Something is going on, with communication and culture and all, but something is always going on. Fiction has just as much or more claim on this new reality, it seems to me, as does nonfiction, though creative nonfiction sales and buzz now dominate publishing.
Michael’s complete review is here. Another very interesting essay on Reality Hunger, “Plotting a Revolution: The novel is dead. Long live the anti-novel, built from scraps,” by Sam Sacks, appears here on the Wall Street Journal‘s website.
I haven’t read Shields’ book, but thumbed through it at the library. What immediately came to mind is that this book is a literal incorporation of the idea of intertextuality proposed by post-structuralist literary theorists that I studied in grad school. Those theorists, in general, were obsessed with the death of the author.
Interesting point, Todd. It certainly fits Shields’s hyper-intellectual approach to literature.
[…] Lincoln Michael at The Rumpus has written one of the most interesting and compelling responses to Reality Hunger, by David Shields, that I’ve come across. And that includes my three blog posts stimulated by the “manifesto.” Michael writes: [W]hile Shields praises the same qualities I look for in my art, the book is framed by a somewhat inco … Read More […]