David Shields
David Shields
David Shieldsis an American author of fiction and nonfiction...
long novel built
The novel is dead. Long live the antinovel, built from scraps.
art reality economic-models
Copies have been dethroned; the economic model built on them is collapsing. In a regime of superabundant free copies, copies are no longer the basis of wealth. Now relationships, links, connections, and sharing are. Value has shifted away from a copy toward the many ways to recall, annotate, personalize, edit, authenticate, display, mark, transfer, and engage a work. Art is a conversation, not a patent office. The citation of sources belongs to the realms of journalism and scholarship, not art. Reality can’t be copyrighted.
everything-happens-for-a-reason stories want
Story seems to say that everything happens for a reason and I want to say, No, it doesn’t.
book should endure
A book should either allow us to escape existence or teach us how to endure it.
art reality poetry
The beauty of reality-based art - art underwritten by reality hunger - is that it's perfectly situated between life itself and (unattainable) "life as art".
narrative nonfiction labels
Nonfiction, qua label, is nothing more or less than a very flexible (easily breakable) frame that allows you to pull the thing away from narrative and toward contemplation, which is all I've ever wanted.
genre-is prison minimum
Genre is a minimum security prison,
narrative plot resolution
Resolution and conclusion are inherent in a plot-driven narrative.
reality talking nonfiction
To me, the moment you're talking about nonfiction you're talking about reality.
teaching editing miracle
Thomas Jefferson went through the New Testament and removed all the miracles, leaving only the teachings. Take a source, extract what appeals to you, discard the rest. Such an act of editorship is bound to reflect something of the individual doing the editing: a plaster cast of an aesthetic-not the actual thing, but the imprint of it.
narrative allies honest
I'm not interested in collage as the refuge of the composition-ally disabled. I'm interested in collage as (to be honest) an evolution beyond narrative.
believe writing data
Everything I write, I believe instinctively, is to some extent collage. Meaning, ultimately, is a matter of adjacent data.
groups care littles
In my own little way, I feel like I'm part of a group of writers who care deeply about pushing the essay forward.
momentum narrative mosaics
Momentum, in literary mosaic, derives not from narrative but from the subtle, progressive buildup of thematic resonances.