Confusion Through Clear Ideas

There are certain statements that don’t really make much sense. They appear o contradict each other or show the opposite of the first thing that was said, right after it was said. Suddenly you feel confused and try to make sense of said statement. You read it once, twice, three times, trying to make sense of it. As you keep reading you start nodding your head as if you finally understand what is being said but then you read it again and understand nothing. These statements are antithetical statements.

Antithetical statements show a sort of opposite reasoning. It’s as if the meaning of one part will become clearer with the opposite force. It’s confusing huh? To add to the fun, chapters O, P and Q of Reality Hunger were filled with these quirky little statements. Some stood out more to me than others for their antitheticalness (not a real word):

“Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings” (pg. 136, Shields)

Basically, how can you think clearly about something that is mixed? In art there is an importance for the abstract of a situation and for the obscureness of it. The idea has to be clear about what you are creating whether it is with a painting or a song, before you put the mixed feeling into it. The artist could also understand what seems complex to the rest of the world and creates mixed feelings on the person viewing the art.

“There’s nothing and everything going on.” (pg. 137, Shields)

…Okay? Well, sure we have been in this situation. For example right now as I write this blog. If my dad came in and asked me what’s going on, I would probably say “nothing”. The reality though is that there is a lot going on. I am writing this blog as I listen to music, am trying not to fall off my bed, and thinking about the other homework I have to do. Appearances can be deceiving in this sense that, I might say nothing knowing that there is a whole lot more than nothing going on.

“We’re only certain (“certain only”) about what we don’t understand.” (pg. 138, Shields)

This one is a little easier to understand. Sometimes we run into that person who just won’t accept they are wrong. Even in the topics they have no idea about ,they have an opinion and simply babble on about whatever is being discussed. On another hand, we know the things we don’t understand. We always have doubts about those things we do understand or are trying to add to them. Yet, with those things we are certain of we are more vulnerable. Instead when we are sure we are uncertain about something there is not much to go on. I am pretty sure I don’t understand the curtain industry. I know I don’t know anything about it and that is something I am absolutely certain about.

These antithetical statements are tied with reality. Reality can be paradoxical because there are just so many of them. My reality is very different to those who read this. It’s as if reality is what you make it and there is not one certain way to view it. I feel this quote from the book summarizes it pretty well:

“- the chronic American belief that there exists an opposition between reality and mind and one must enlist oneself in the party of reality” (pg. 146, Shields)

There's not one sole party for reality and the mind, rather your mind shapes your reality, and that is a private party.

Social Creatures

Ok fine. I admit it. I (the owner of this blog,) watch reality T.V. I know it might come as a bit of a shock to those of you who think I am half deity and to those that think I don’t own a T.V. But alas, it’s true. I enjoy watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Americas Next Top Model. I will also admit to not changing the channel when Jersey Shore is on a number of times. There is just something that is appealing about the “reality of others. Even if it is through a memoir, T.V, or even an essay, it draws you in.

In the essay, Brief Lives by Kate Salter, she explains how Michael Kimball writes the story of peoples’ lives on the back of postcards. One could think of Kimball as an autobiographer, who highlights one moment in a persons’ life. He gets regular requests from people all over the world, asking for him to write a postcard for them. People write to Kimball telling them about themselves and there is “Something about email communication, and the fact that he is a stranger, makes them very open.” (Brief Lives, Salter)

People enjoy sharing their stories with others as the article about Kimball proves. In Reality Hunger they also talk about this. Memoirs are mentioned as well as essays. I think that in all of these forms of writing there is a sense of capturing a moment how you want it to be captured.

In an essay there is less freedom for the imagination because it is generally associated with non - fiction writing. Still it is not that different to what Kimball does with his post cards. The postcards themselves could be thought of as essays about real events and real people. He is an autobiographer to all these strangers. Those that write essays are “ a specie of metaphysician: they’re inquisitive and analytic about the least grain of being.” ( pg. 133, Shields) This is true because there is a fair amount of research that goes into essays unless you are completely writing a fantasy essay, which I don’t even know if it exists (My teacher is probably reading this so there’s a question for him to answer in class). Even the postcard guy has to find out more information from the people he writes to.

Kimball writes other people stories and has to find out about them. These people must not know about memoirs or they just like sharing their story. In a sense that is what Kimball is doing, he is writing a memoir for other people. Yes, I know it is not a memoir if someone else writes it. A memoir could be anonymous and the thrill of that might be great, but as is explained in the article: “what I'm doing is very public - full names, photographs. A lot of the people who are participating are claiming - or reclaiming - themselves.” (Brief Lives, Salter) In a memoir there is the same sense of self exploring, but these postcards are just another excuse to be egocentric and talk about yourself to someone who is not only willing to listen.

Shields writes that “a conversational dynamic – the desire for contact – is ingrained in the form” (pg. 133, Shields) No matter what form is being employed whether essay, memoir, or a script for reality T.V, it is that human want that pushes us to communicate. Humans are social creatures that want to get their point across no matter what. 

Collage

Reality and Genre

Reality Hunger uses aphorisms to add to the collage that Shields has created. There are allusions, direct facts, and aphorisms mixed up in each chapter but they all have to do wit a single idea. The aphorisms I chose had to do with ideas of reality. How we accept certain things to be true or influence the actual facts to match up with the reality we wish was there.

"Genre is a minimum security prison" chapter G

Genre is not the final say. A person might classify a book as a mystery while another might consider it a thriller. I agree with the quote because By relating genre to a minimum security prison, it is understood why it might be of little importance at times. The genre of anything can jump from one to another depending on the perspective of the person. Each perspective is different but accepting when it becomes aare of something decided before hand. For example, if told by my teacher that the book we are reading is a mystery, I accept it is a mystery. If I did not have this knowledge before hand, I would classify the novel based on my own perspective. Sometimes our own perspective and the given language might combine and this is how we notice how genre has minimum security. There might be rules or ideas how to classify something but in the end, they are not mandatory to follow. 




"Our culture is obsessed with real events because we experience hardly any" chapter H

I think it is not exactly that what we experience isn't real, but rather that it is not the real events we want. The media and TV shows make the most random events seem like something that we should be experiencing on a daily basis. The obsession describes in this aphorism could explain our fascination with reality TV  The realities presented in Jersey Shore or The Kardashian's, seem to be way more interesting than our own realities and so people attempt to mimic these realities and these are the fake realities. I blame this for making people feel disappointed with their lives and not really experiencing reality.

"In our hunger for all things true, we make the facts irrelevant" chapter I

It does seem this way. When we want something to be true we disregard even the most obvious facts. In a sense this aphorism could describe ignorance. We rather believe what we want than actually acknowledge the facts that prove that it isn't this way. For example, a bad relationship. Maybe the guy is very subtle in the way he hurts the girl and it takes her some time to realize the truth behind what the guy said. She realizes he is hurting her and that she is not happy in the relationship but instead of acknowledging the facts, she turns them into something with no importance. In the girls hunger for something true, in this case love and acceptance, she makes the facts that point out how bad the relationship really is, irrelevant.