The Line of Beauty

Finally Shields touched on my favorite topic of all times: reality. Not only is this one of the most controversial subject amongst social media, but it also plays with the role of the word “reality” TV because honestly just how real is real? I guess you can start by saying that shows such as American Idol are real enough for a contestant to commit suicide in front of the judge’s house, and personal enough to reveal the horrific scenes of plastic surgery ending up in the hands of psychologists. But it gets worse. We know something is up with America when more votes are cast on reality TV than the ones cast for the nations president Barack Obama. As Kate Salter, author of The Guardian might say, “ Something about communication, and the fact that he is a stranger, makes them very open.” Individuals such as those willing to cast in these TV shows just want to open out to everyone. Nothing to hide (cameras make sure of this). An interview of one of the girls in The Bachelor is nothing more than a confession, a memoir of feelings and secrets she doesn’t mind communicating to the millions of viewers.

On the other hand, drifting away from television and entering writing, I must agree with the guy who said short-stories are the ones we all love because they manage to “cut to the chase”. Personally as a writer I get stressed out and sweating when I am assigned to write about a topic I want to say so much about, yet find myself limited in space. I will probably stop whining right now because I can’t imagine how Kimball must be feeling about writing biographies on POSTCARDS! Talk about cutting to the chase! But we all hate that feeling while reading a long story about depression and  then looking back and asking yourself what the hell was I looking for again? Kimball manages to do what few writers achieve, “ It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a whole book- what everyone else does not say in a whole book.”