Controversial author challenges the novel medium

David Shields dislikes the term "non-fiction."

"It's like calling a drawer ‘non-socks,'" he said during a talk at Elliott Bay Book Company. "The term ‘non-fiction' kind of implies that it's the absence of something—that it's not anything really at all."

Speaking at Elliott Bay on his new and controversial book, "Reality Hunger: A Manifesto," Shields advocated for a literary revolution that would toss out the notion that non-fiction has to be literally 100 percent true, replacing it with an interesting permutation combining fact with fiction.

Novelists are up in arms over the ideas presented in the author's new book, which argues that novels are rapidly losing relevance in today's media driven world insatiably hungry for reality.

"The novel as a form really bores me a lot of the time, and it's frankly outdated," Shields said.

British poet and author Blake Morrison wrote a long essay for The Guardian rallying against Shields' assertion that the novel is irrelevant.

"Novels with a clear plot and definite resolution can still be full of ambiguity, darkness and doubt," Morrison wrote. "He forgets that fiction also offers the sustenance of truth."

Shields, a Seattle resident and a professor of creative writing at the University of Washington, used to write novels himself. When working on his fourth book, "Remote," he found himself with a severe case of writer's block.

"I just couldn't get the novelistic gears turning," he said. "I had this message I wanted to convey, but having to create characters and a plot and lives for these characters to make a novel seemed irrelevant to the message I wanted to communicate."

Shields dropped the storyline and instead wrote a book examining society's obsession with fame, including his fascination with celebrities.

This is an important stipulation for Shields in his new book.

"It is an American notion to want to be completely objective when reporting on something," Shields said. "If we admit to being subjective and let that viewpoint happen, things are much more interesting."

In the future, Shields would like to see more non-fiction authors placing themselves in their work, which he feels makes for a more honest and intriguing read. Works by Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace and the reporting style of "This American Life" are setting trends that excite Shields.

"People feel like non-fiction can't ever be real, true art like a novel can, but that's not true," Shields said.

Favoring the term "lyrical essay" over "non-fiction," Shields hopes for a shift toward more artfully done and more thoroughly engaging work that combines fact with fiction to disorient the reader, making them unsure of what is true and false.

In Shields' mind, this is the most important part.

"There's this Graham Greene quote that I always come back to—it's an epigraph in the book," Shields said. "Greene said, ‘When we are not sure, we are truly alive.' I think that's really true."

"Reality Hunger" has already been applauded by a number of authors, including Jonathan Lethem, Chuck Klosterman, Frederick Barthelme, Rick Moody and Jonathan Raban.

In another issue of The Guardian, renowned British novelist Zadie Smith also praised the book.

"Thrilling to read," Smith said, "even if you disagree with much of it."

Kelton may be reached ksears@su-spectator.com