Erasing the Line

 David Shields continues to blur the line that separates fiction and non-fiction, and quizzes the reader into questioning himself when it comes to reality. In chapter g 208, called specifically to “blur” ones interpretation, I stumbled across one of the most interesting points that makes complete sense.  “He”, or in this case whoever he plagiarized from (LOL), explains that once we classify a novel, memoir, or even a Hollywood movie it becomes like “ coloring inside the lines.” I could not agree more with X person because it turns into a tendency to expect a specific structure once you know the category it falls in. If I go in to watch a movie based on a Nicholas Spark novel it better be making my eyes tear the first 30 minutes of the movie, and if it doesn’t then it just becomes a huge disappointment. On the other hand, if I had no idea the plot of the film, the audience it targets, nor the director, then it will probably be journey from the beginning to the credits.

Skipping onto chapter h, which focuses on the “Now”, a short yet reflective phrase is stated in 242. “Our culture is obsessed with real events because we experience hardly any” (82).  We experience paintings, novels, and movies that come focus their works on real people, or as we’ve all been attracted to everything that says “based on a true story.” It almost as if we find it the most intriguing thing when something actually happened and it’s not made up. But why do we tend to experience these emotions if we live in real events 24/7 on our own personal lives? What makes it so mystical about a real story? Something to think about…

Chapter I captures the same idea in part 252. The speaker invites his documentary nominees up on stage because they share a common ground when it comes to non-fiction, but this only happens because we live in a fictitious world. We live in a world where our reality has already been used up to a point where it loses its reality and these producers are now forced to create a new one. It sounds confusing but that’s exactly what Shields is trying to do. Blur.