Really Not Real

Out of all the statements we could have started with, it's going to be "this statement is a lie." It's one of the better known paradoxes, and it's one of those that makes Pinocchio's nose go crazy. Also, if I were a computer, I would be forced to shut down, spending the rest of my days remembering that one time I was dumb enough to even start processing an infinite loop.

It is a human's ability to not do any of that crap, to not think in one set way, to have "doubt". And because of this simultaneous perfectness and imperfectness, anything we see or tell isn't reality. Reality simply IS reality, but the moment we try to mimic it, tell it, interpret it, or even show it, it's not quite reality. Or, as the author or some other guy put it, "the real story isn't the official story; the real story is my version (wrong, too, but aware that it's wrong) of the official story." In fact, I guess you could say that any sentence with "story" and "reality" in the same line is antithetical. Don't quote me on that.

So, the author asks a very good question: "The world exists. Why re-create it?"
This kept me thinking in front of my computer for about two minutes, which is more than a lot of people can say. Well, people are emotional thingies, so we strive for emotion (or perhaps lack thereof), entertainment, and some other word that starts with e. I don't know the exact logic behind it, but I believe it was inevitable that complex lifeforms seek to do this kind of stuff. As it's stated again and again, reality simply is.

Anything I've written isn't reality. Reality Hunger isn't reality.
If there's anything I learned, it's that nothing is reality.
Except reality. That's the real deal.

Reality Reality Reality Reality

Take a drink every time I say "reality".

Reality TV has become somewhat a part of our culture. I wouldn't know much since I don't really watch TV, but I think the author of Reality Hunger has made it clear so far that reality TV is not real at all. The audience would want to watch the "most interesting reality," disregarding the fact that this reality isn't reality enough. Everything has to be interesting, and that has become reality, despite not being reality. According to the author, there is "no fiction nor nonfiction" because we don't know what's real anymore. Everything is reality, and yet, nothing is reality. Think about it: both fiction and nonfiction have "devices" that makes the story a more interesting reality, and that just turns it away from reality.

Reality, reality, reality, reality.

So, are essays real. If reality TV is not reality, are essays reality? Apparently, an essay is a "theater of the brain" where "ideas are protagonists". Does that make it more real or closer to reality? I will stop bombarding you with questions as I spoil it for you: essays aren't real, at least according to David Shields. The essay is personal.

Apparently, nothing's real.

So what about memoirs, the other genre he mentions? Nope, not real. Not reality. Chances are that the memoirs are biased towards the authors. Also, memoirs are forms of nonfiction in a way (I guess) so there's that.

There was apparently a guy back in 2008 that started writing people's life stories on the back of their postcards. The guy said that it was hard to portray the lives in a way that does their stories justice. The guy writes about them, no matter how unreal the stories are. He just asks questions and stuff gets written. We can clearly see that reality isn't really a concern, it's the "reality" of each individual that matters. The guy states that "everybody's life story is interesting if you ask the right questions," which, in accordance to some stuff I've mentioned before, mean that it's not reality. If you try to find the interesting, it won't be real.

Reality, reality, reality, reality.

I'm at a very sensitive point in my life, so I shall stop here.

Reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality, reality.

If you're not dead, be thankful.

Dead, But Not Quite

Real or "Real"

Reality Hunger is definitely an interesting book. It is even more so since, as a project, I now have to create something that seems real, but actually isn't. Not that you care about it, really. If you do, send me an email, and I'd be glad to attempt to read it.

In quote 216, the author (well, someone else, I guess) says that "by eluding definitive observation, he remains perpetually real and perpetually imaginary." This caught my eye because it references to the Schrodinger's Cat experiment, which stated that according to quantum mechanics, a cat that may be dead but cannot be observed is dead and alive at the same time. Of course, here he's talking about writing: if we can't verify how legit it is, it's real and imaginary at the same time. This makes a lot of sense in my brain for some reason. Maybe it's because I like cats.

Quote 242 states that "our culture is obsessed with real events because we experience hardly any." I don't know how to feel about this one. What's more real than reality? *cue dramatic soundtrack* I don't know if it's trying to say that we, as humans, have created the concept of "real" or something like that. What I do know is that the quote is referring to the "now" and... yeah. No, but really. Documentaries aren't "real", reality TV isn't "real", and the news isn't "real". I now feel like a homeless man carrying around cardboard messages. Elvis was a woman. The end is nigh. The Queen of England doesn't exist.

Seems legit.

Quote 255 is short and to the point: "Facts now seem important." One, this implies that facts only seem important but is not necessarily actually so. Relating to the previous quote, these facts create an illusion of reality, something that makes us believe that it is real. Is it real? What is real?

It's true! I read it in a book!

Unfortunately, if I continued, I'm afraid my brain would leak out through the various pores located across my face. Of course, this isn't actually possible, unless the government has actually invented a top-secret potent device that can [REDACTED]

Hungry for Birds

Let's attempt to kill two birds with one stone, although it's most likely that I'll accidentally hit myself and lose both birds. I don't even know why I want the birds dead in the first place, but whatever.

So first, Reality Hunger. I didn't really find any allusions that caught my eye a lot, so you could say I cheated a bit in that I looked at the appendix, which happened to be a pool of very interesting stuff. Anyway, quote 82 is as follows, "Art is not truth; art is a lie that enables us to recognize truth."

It's a Picasso quote. Yay. Other than the use of the semicolon, there's not that much that's different from other stuff that the author of the book has said so far. He's made the point that art is a lie, that "art is theft." That last quote is also Picasso's quote, so we can see some recurring themes here. I didn't know that was how Picasso thought about art.

Even I wouldn't call this "real".

Here comes the second bird. Now, concerning the feedback I received for the comic I drew, which you probably haven't seen if you're a random high-schooler browsing the web for some potentially enlightening material (Ha.). I'd like to first state how interesting it was to hear my teacher talk to himself. It was also quite interesting to imagine said teacher mumbling stuff to himself awkwardly in a dark, small room. Something, something. Maybe I should draw comics more often, but it does take a lot of time.

I was going to include a third bird before I realized that I don't have to kill it by tomorrow. So yeah, there's that. Also, including a third bird would have made this blog post altogether chaotic and possibly disorienting. Not that it would have been a bad blog post at all, since it would have reflected the same chaotic and disorienting form of writing (or copying?) that Reality Hunger has.

Sorry about that.

What am I even talking about.

Somewhere Over the Soul

Way up high, there's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby. As in, it doesn't exist. Get over it.

Also, this picture is the creepiest thing I've seen in three days. Seriously, what the-

A. According to Emerson, the mind ultimately under the soul, which happens to be under the oversoul. The soul is our natural beauty-thingy with some actual understanding and pureness while the mind is what's a bit more on the outside. Savvy?

B. Beatitude in the context means "a blessing" or happiness. Or that's what Dictionary.com told me. Don't judge!

C. Not only does this emphasize the ideas, but also these separate sentences are presented as one entity, a single idea. Pretty neat if you ask me.

D. "Revelation is the disclosure of the soul," the freedom of the pureness of "creation," the answer to the questions of life. It's so deep that I can't see it anymore.

F. God's role is apparently to just be there in case someone needs him. He's always there. He's in our souls and can provide a "shoulder to cry on". It should be noted that this isn't the God you're thinking of; it's the inner God we all have inside.

It's complicated.

Manifestos, Lies, and Pizza

Where better to start than with a dictionary definition, eh? manifesto (noun) a public declaration of intent, policy, aims, etc, as issued by a political party, government, or movement Honestly, there are infinitely many ways to start on a better note, but hey, such is life. Anyway, let us start with Reality Hunger by David Shields. I noted that the cover of the book of orange-red with yellow text, keeping it simplistic; yet, there is a dumpload of text on top of that (mostly positive reviews about the book) making it rather chaotic. We can probably infer that the author is narcissistic. Well, at least I'm sure he doesn't have OCD. Anyway, it seems at the moment that this is about art a lot of the time. Even the opening quote is "Art is theft," by Picasso. Simplistic, yet chaotic enough to turn your brain into mush once it is amplified by a factor of five-hundred. Apparently, everything's trying to portray reality, and in the process of doing anything, you are plagiarizing. Or at least they are. This is all delivered through numbered bullet-point-like-quotes-like-things. Simple. Each quote-thingy has a different style, possibly from different sources/authors. Chaotic. It's pretty obvious this is intentional at this point. I like it. For once, it's like as if EVERYTHING is a lie. EVERYTHING. Now let's all snap out heads to the other direction to see the Futurist Manifesto by Marinetti, a moderately Italian name. A bit more direct, this one is, as the author straight out says, "art can only be violence, cruelty, injustice." These guys, the "Futurists," are basically opposing the new forms of art, and apparently new forms of anything, including pizza. Also, they're rejecting old forms of pizza at the same time, so I'm assuming these guys had brains the shape of cubes. In a way, this is similar to the other manifesto we discussed only a couple paragraphs ago, in that it seems to be criticizing art, especially the new ones, but for apparently different reasons (although I'm not yet sure if that's what Reality Hunger is trying to say. I've only read the first chapter, spare me the verdict.). Really, I don't know.  Summary: I've found Reality Hunger more interesting so far, Futurists were weird, and Bob's your uncle. Also, I wonder if pizza as we know it existed in 1909. That's my manifesto.