David Shields
David Shields
David Shieldsis an American author of fiction and nonfiction...
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.
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.
book should endure
A book should either allow us to escape existence or teach us how to endure it.
genre-is prison minimum
Genre is a minimum security prison,
long novel built
The novel is dead. Long live the antinovel, built from scraps.
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.
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.
distance rumor matter
I don’t know what’s the matter with me, why I’m so adept at distance, why I feel so remote from things, why life feels like a rumor.
thinking literature serious
I take literature as a really serious human activity. It's not just a playful thing. It can be hilarious and wonderful and performative, but I think it's really serious.
novel mediums prose
My medium is prose, not the novel.
memories fiction
Anything processed by memory is fiction.
farm potato seen since
I've never seen a potato farm since I've been down here.
compensate field giant hard less super
It's hard to compensate for a super giant field with something much less than a super giant field.