Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity [Paperback]

David Shields (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2003

PEN/Revson Award, 1992

In this truly one-of-a-kind book, the author/narrator--a representative, in extremis, of contemporary American obsession with beauty, celebrity, transmitted image--finds himself suspended, fascinated, in the remoteness of our wall-to-wall mediascape. It is a remoteness that both perplexes and enthralls him.
Through dazzling sleight of hand in which the public becomes private and the private becomes public, the entire book-clicking from confession to family-album photograph to family chronicle to sexual fantasy to pseudo-scholarly footnote to reportage to personal essay to stand-up comedy to cultural criticism to literary criticism to film criticism to prose-poem to litany to outtake-becomes both an anatomy of American culture and a searing self-portrait.
David Shields reads his own life--reads our life--as if it were an allegory about remoteness and finds persuasive, hilarious, heartbreaking evidence wherever he goes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

I joke among my friends -- who are almost all obsessed with making it big in the computer industry or the music business -- that Seattle is the land of Microsoft, Microbreweries, and Microcelebrities. David Shields, best known for his novels such as Dead Languages, has written a droll, sometime hilarious, and consistently important factual fiction about this pathological passion for celebrity. Remote seems to be based on the Socratic dictum that the unexamined life is not worth living. But unlike elitist social critics, Shields has had the courage to examine his own fascination with fame, instead of pointing an accusing finger at "them", whoever "they" might be. Like Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death, Shields seems to argue that it is we ourselves who are to blame for the cargo cult of fame, in which outriggers have been replaced by remote controls as the carriage of choice. Without worshippers, there cannot be deities -- and without channel surfers, there cannot be celebrities. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Mixing journalism, cultural criticism and autobiography, the 52 original short pieces collected here document novelist Shields's obsession with celebrity, images and the general ephemera of popular culture. He joins a test audience viewing potential sitcoms, follows A Current Affair reporter Mike Watkiss on assignment, muses on stuttering Howard Stern sidekick John Melendez and collects people's dreams about late rocker Kurt Cobain. What makes Shields's perspective on popular culture so interesting is its highly personal, even confessional nature: his essays often examine the private connections he feels to public figures and events. At times, however, Shields (Dead Languages) slips into narcissism; at others, such as in his "found" essays, composed entirely of bumper-sticker slogans, he is sterile if clever. But Shields is a gifted writer capable of surprising perceptions and considerable wit, and his idiosyncratic book offers intriguing insights into the ways the media can shape both the identities and the perceptions of its viewers.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (September 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299193640
• ISBN-13: 978-0299193645
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Shields is the author of twelve books, including Reality Hunger (Knopf, 2010), which was named one of the best books of the year by more than thirty publications. GQ called it "the most provocative, brain-rewiring book of 2010"; the New York Times called it "a mind-bending manifesto." His previous book, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Knopf, 2008), was a New York Times bestseller. His other books include Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity, winner of the PEN/Revson Award; and Dead Languages: A Novel, winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. His essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Yale Review, Village Voice, Salon, Slate, McSweeney's, and Utne Reader; he's written reviews for the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Boston Globe, and Philadelphia Inquirer. His work has been translated into fifteen languages.

Shields has received a Guggenheim fellowship, two NEA fellowships, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award, a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. He now lives with his wife and daughter in Seattle, where he is the Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington. Since 1996 he has also been a member of the faculty in Warren Wilson College's low-residency MFA Program for Writers, in Asheville, North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Read...should be back in print, January 14, 2001

By 

Robert Wellen (CHICAGO, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Remote (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful and at times wonderous book. Some terrific passages about our celebrity driven culture and our "remoteness." Some of the book is hilarious, some it is sad. I especially liked the section about the allure of women in glasses. Brillant. The passage about David "NYPD Blue" Milch is powerful. Autobiography or allegory or both, this book is unlike anything you have read or will read. It deserves another life back in print.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars David Shields' Remote; a memoir of media separateness, September 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Remote (Hardcover)

In "Remote", David Shields tells his own story through the printed and recorded parts of America. One of Shields' central themes is the difference between life and virtual-life: major events in his memory are linked directly to some form of media. His story is based on "almost fame," or as a frequent title explains, "the nimbus of her fame makes a nullity of us all." The idea of media remoteness is explored in amazingly honest detail, often with humor and a delicious taste of irony at the ridiculous. Through his obsession with "the filmed familiar," Oprah, America's Funniest Home Videos, and anecdotes too numerous to mention, Mr. Shields' essays capture the confusion and separateness that America feels at the power of its entertainment industry. This book is a must for anyone who claims to be media-savvy or enjoys a concise, entertaining and intelligent autobiography. There isn't much that this book doesn't cover, but much more impressive is the advice that it manages to suggest. As Mr. Shields' observations add another dimension to your understanding of this world, you'll find yourself underlining and circling while smiling drily.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Little Things, July 13, 2003

By 

Gina (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remote (Hardcover)

This book will be of interest to those who notice the little things in life, the things that are hard to miss but always get looked over. Saying what people want to say but may be too afraid to, Shields' book is bold and truthful about the world. The minute detail that instances of his own past and the cultural past of America that are investigated in this book are thought-provoking. A book that anyone could relate to, "Remote" points out the absurdity of everyday life. The everyday things that we all notice but don't quite register are here in this American critique. A book for anyone who has a family, is American, is a subject of humanity will relate to and revel in this insightful quest for resolution, and feel comfort in the fact that we are not alone.