A Blending of Styles

So far in Reality Hunger, so much has stood out to me. I really can’t even express how many things I have highlighted and scribbled next to; so many things have intrigued me. I am fascinated by the idea that the distinction between fiction and nonfiction fades and actually becomes irrelevant. I think many people want to resist it because they want clear-cut answers and they always want to KNOW, but that’s the fun part of the concept of collage that we are playing with this semester. When I was reading through much of the text, I kept thinking about my Nonfiction writing class that I’m taking and we discussed in our first couple of classes about how when writing personal essays we sometimes have to stretch the truth or even maybe make things up to fill in holes, which is something that Reality Hunger points out, so it was particularly relevant to me. Like I said, I think many people fear or detest the idea and may find it to be a literary atrocity of sorts, but I think it is an interesting way to approach writing.

When I started the book, I didn’t know what to expect because the set up was so odd and scattered, but it works because we can see how perspectives on the same subject blend and diverge at the same time. Shields takes so many outside sources and brings them together to create such a comprehensive gathering of the ideas he seems to be trying to get across to the reader.