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Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. Memory and Truth

maht91's picture

When I first started reading the book: Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, I was so confused since I could not seem to see any structure in the narrative. I just could not see the whole picture or story that Reality Hunger is trying to show. After our class discussion on Tuesday, I realized that David Shields's book is a collection of quotes which now makes much more sense.

From the parts I understood from the book, there are some ideas that David Shields brought up that I never really thought about. One point I found really interesting about the book is the idea that our memory is selective which suggests that we can never know that what we say is true or "real". This is true to some extent that your memory is selective but then does this mean that nothing you write or read can be considered true? Point 116 in Reality Hunger, D.Shields says the "Anything processed by memory is fiction," which I think suggests that it is hard to find the truth in any kind of writing, because you can never trust your memory. In point 168, the memory idea is brought up again: "Are our memories therefore fictions?" since we choose consciously or unconsciously to omit certain aspects of our memory when we speak. So to what extent can we trust our memory to give us truth? It is frustrating to think about the relationship between memory and truth because it made me doubt the real aspects of books that I previously read.

 

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