Customer Reviews

Reality Matters: 19 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can't Stop Watching

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This book is a bunch of short riffs by snobby writers who are addicted to a reality television show--but instead of providing any insight or cultural commentary about the genre, most of the authors waste their short space (six to eight pages) to talk about their own mundane lives. The book ends up being a bunch of naval-gazing rants regarding how these writers' lives are so pathetic that they make themselves feel better by looking down at the stupid people on reality TV.

There are a couple of exceptions--the sections on American Idol and The Bachelor are well written, though way too short. The piece on Married By America makes a few good points. But most of the rest are a waste of space, including one on Jersey Shore that a grade school kid could have written and a fantasy pitch essay to Mark Burnett, which may have had a point but the writer was so inept they didn't seem to make it. Even "editor" Anna David's piece, which reveals a bit about her applying for Real World, doesn't provide enough information to make the piece much more than a short magazine article.

If you like both reality TV and snobby east coast literary elitists, then this may be the book for you to take along on a plane. It's easy to flip through and inoffensive. Probably the best part of the book is James Frey's foreword, in which he admits to being a reality TV addict and then ties the lies of television editing to the lies of memoir writing. Just wish the rest of the book would have been like that!

Better writers have been dealing with reality tv for the past 10 years. See: Klosterman, Chuck and Gladwell, Malcolm. With that being said, I am certainly not averse to much of Anna David's work. But, despite a few decent pieces in this anthology, most retain only superficial insight and lack the depth of other writers and critics I've read.

I laughed, I learned and I got a lot of insight into why people get hooked on reality TV. The collection of essays in Reality Matters are honest and entertaining. I laughed out loud several times and couldn't get to the next essay fast enough. I flew through the book and found myself wanting more. If you like reality TV, this is the book for you.

I consider myself a casual reality show fan. While I'm not a religious follower of specific shows themselves, I find myself easily sucked into various programs if I somehow catch the season premiere and subsequent second episode. The worst is when there is a marathon beginning on a Sunday morning. It's 10 AM and I have my whole day planned ahead of me, yet I find myself wanting to watch the first episode of the The Real World: Austin marathon. By the next time I look at the clock it's 7 PM. Damn you, Wes.

The reason I find myself enthralled with the reality show concept is not the show itself, but rather specific characters on the show that I (for whatever reason which I'd never ever publicly admit) find myself relating to. This sentiment is echoed in seemingly all of the authors who contributed essays to "Reality Matters". It's obvious that many of us live vicariously through the characters we become addicted to, but it's almost as if the shows serve as venues for these characters to act as mirrors of ourselves. That's what is so gripping about each essay. While I have not seen most of the shows discussed in the collection of essays, I still appreciate the human connection each author possesses with their favorite reality show and its stars. I find myself rooting for one or two specific characters on a show (whether it's a game show or a show like the Real World where seemingly the most well liked and popular "character" wins). I used to feel guilty liking reality shows. I used to cry and whine about how fake and scripted these shows are. But as you see in each of the essays, that's not the point. As you delve into each essay you see how the respective reality show affected the author. This collection is less a review on reality shows, but more a human studies piece on this new -and permanent--phenomenon: the reality show

I got sucked in just like Anna David did so long ago with "The Real World", the first season anyway, but not for the same reasons as Anna David except one. To live in a new place/city. Now to the present, there are and have been so many reality television shows, it is almost impossible to keep tract of all of them. Thankfully I never got that interested in those shows, unlike the writers of this book "Reality Matters". It was entertaining to read about their opinions and interest with these reality shows, and their personal take with their lives.
Then the question remains, why did these writers indulge their readers with personal life happenings/experiences? Perhaps the connection they make with the characters/people in these reality programs, hmmm. Personally I think most of these reality shows are a waste of time and the people in them are obnoxious. Than again, here I am reading a book about reality television shows, ironic. All in all, "Reality Matters" was a insightful and enjoyable read. Thank you Anna David once again for bringing more wisdom to my life.

While I can't say that any one essay in "Reality Matters" can justify our guilty pleasures the way Roland Barthes' "Mythologies" did, when it comes to looking at television specifically, David's collection (which includes pieces from everyone from Toby Young to Melissa de la Cruz) works well as a whole to explain the elements that make on-screen faux-reality so intriguing.

There are a few standouts among the eighteen essays (the 19th writer is James Frey, who does the foreword- but not on any individual show in particular): David, not surprisingly; Wendy Merrill on "The Bachelor" and its depiction of the female mindset, which may hit close to home for some readers; and Mark Lisanti's breakdown of Guido-ness according to "Jersey Shore."

Each essay has a short length at 6-14 pages, so neither the authors' personal styles nor the shows, themselves, wear out their welcome upon completion of the book. Highly recommended.

Let me begin with the disclaimer that I am not a big watcher of reality shows, though I am married to someone who is. Even if you're like me, however, you will almost certainly find something to like in this collection, which at its core is an attempt at examining every facet of the phenomenon which has, I think it is more than fair to say, completely re-shaped the landscape of television over the last decade-plus. I would not be surprised if this book were to make its way into the syllabi of college courses about modern American culture. I would advise you to read James Frey's foreword, David's intro, and Rex Sorgatz' essay, all of which dig into exactly what people find appealing about the genre.

As with any anthology, there are some essays which are better than others, though this is not to say that there are really any genuinely bad pieces - David has assembled a group of very talented contributors. There are a handful of true standouts: Stacey Grenrock Woods' invective for The Real Housewives (I share her disdain, having overheard quite enough of these people thankyouverymuch) while contrasting the cast's extravagances to her own economic struggles; Jancee Dunn's description of her rapid descent into the world of Project Runway, including a fantasy about becoming BFFs with Tim Gunn; Neil Strauss' amusing fictional pitch of new reality series to Mark Burnett (as out there as some of Strauss' ideas are, I'm sure Burnett has actually heard far weirder by this point); and in two separate essays, Toby Young and David herself relate tales of humiliation borne of attempts at becoming a reality "star", the former via his participation in a little-watched British series, and David via not getting onto The Real World (which makes sense in context). Young's in particular raises an fascinating question as to what is the more humiliating: making an ass of oneself on a reality TV show, or not having anyone care about it (and by extension, you) enough to watch.

Reality Matters is a collection of top-drawer writers dishing about their shared guilty pleasure of "Reality Television" viewing. This book features essays by Stacy Grenrock Woods, Melissa De La Cruz, Neal Pollack, Jancee Dunn, Toby Young, Will Leitch, Jerry Stahl, Amelie Gillette, Ben Mandelker, Austin Bunn, John Albert, Helaine Olen, Richard Rushfield, Wendy Merrill, Mark Lisanti, Rex Sorgatz, Neil Strauss, and Anna David. David is also the editor of this book, which is her third. Each one takes their turn explaining their love for a particular show, and along the way not only justifying their personal love of reality TV but justifying the existence of the genre itself.

While each writer discusses a particular show, the strength of their narratives is about how these shows relate to their own lives in some way. Jancee Dunn writes about how much she wants to be Project Runway's Tim Gunn friend before relating a brief tale of her own transformation once she moved to New York. Will Leitch lamenting about how he could apply the secrets of The Dog Whisperer to the people in his life in an essay about the stark realities of his world. Reality Matters repeatedly reveals how those shows touch their viewers in very personal ways in often profound ways. That is not to say that this is a heavy book, but some of the writers take us into vey personal space.

My personal favorites are the chapters written by Anna David and John Albert. Anna David recounts her story of almost being on Real World San Francisco, and how almost being on the show had made her a minor celebrity. This lead to "Scary Bobby" and that lead to a practical joke by her senior editor. David's chapter is as funny as it is revealing, and this is typical of most of the essays within Reality Matters. John Albert's chapter about Sober House, called "The After-Party", is my over-all favorite because of Albert's brutal honesty about himself. I got the impression that as he watched the weekly train-wrecks on that show enjoying watching the washed up celebrities try to get a grip on life, Albert also quietly shuddered as he re-lived his own nightmarish journey to sobriety. It is one of the most powerful meditations about the Hollywood, Celebrity-Industrial Complex and the bodies that it leaves within its vast wake.

Let's face it, if you are reading this then you are probably an Anna David fan and you are going to buy the book anyway. Good for you. If for some reason you have stumbled across this looking for something that appeals to your higher intellect then I offer you this reason as to why Reality Matters is worth you

I loved this book! I am not a huge reality show fan, but this book took you into that World. From the Jersey Shore to the Real World, there were many interesting stories. My personal favorite is Joining The Real World, written by Anna David. If you are a fan of her other books, you will love her in this as well. You can visualize everything she says in your mind as it happens to her, and laugh along with her at the interesting things that take place during her "chance to be on the real World San Fransisco." From her chance meeting with Aaron from the show or the hilarity that insues when she thinks she is getting stalked...no no seriously just read it. The whole book is like that, well written, funny, interesting, and able to keep even the non reality watcher interested. I loved the book and would absolutely recommend it to anyone who likes interesting, funny, and well written books. It is so well written you can picture everything in your head as it happens in the book. I literally got the book, read it from cover to cover and immediately recommeneded it to my friends. Definately a 5 star book! Once again Anna David knocks it out the park...

First off I will say I am not a fan of reality TV. After reading this book I now have a better understanding why reality TV appeals to some people and why. It is interesting learning how the shows impacted the writer's lives. With this fresh new insight I may give reality TV another look. All in all I'd recommend this book. I read through it so fast, it's hard to put down, that I'm going to have to read it again.