"The official book of the acclaimed documentary film"--Jacket.
David Shields Books
July 22, 1956
David Shields is an author whose work provocatively interrogates the boundaries between fiction and reality, often described as mind-bending and brain-rewiring. His writing delves into urgent questions about life, art, and the human experience, employing unconventional forms and deep self-reflection. Through his distinctive voice, Shields challenges readers to reconsider their perceptions of the world and the very nature of creation and existence.
Reality Hunger
- 240 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Reality Hunger is a manifesto for a burgeoning group of interrelated but unconnected artists who, living in an unbearably artificial world, are breaking ever larger chunks of 'reality' into their work. The questions Shields explores � the bending of form and genre, the lure and blur of the real � play out constantly around us, and Reality Hunger is a radical reframing of how we might think about this 'truthiness': about literary licence, quotation, and appropriation in television, film, performance art, rap, and graffiti, in lyric essays, prose poems, and collage novels. Drawing on myriad sources, Shields takes an audacious stance on issues that are being fought over now and will be fought over far into the future. Converts will see Reality Hunger as a call to arms; detractors will view it as an occasion to defend the status quo. It is certain to be one of the most controversial and talked about books of the season.
Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
- 256 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Mesmerized and somewhat unnerved by his 97-year-old father's vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an original investigation of our flesh-and-blood existence, our mortal being. Weaving together personal anecdote, biological fact, philosophical doubt, cultural criticism, and the wisdom of an eclectic range of writers and thinkers - from Lucretius to Woody Allen - Shields expertly renders both a hilarious family portrait and a truly resonant meditation on mortality.