Artistic Breakthroughs

As art progresses and changes, it moves in a spiral pattern that is always trying to go forward but comes up with similar situations that it had in the past. The way humans express themselves always changes as their cultures and societies change with history. David Shields' book, Reality Hunger, begins by describing how artistic movements seek to express ideas in a new way by breaking barriers of their communication of how they see the world. Shields introduces that art in the present (around 2010) is taking new forms like literary montage given that people like him, "needn't say anything. Merely show." People in the present are putting reality in their works by combining ideas together rather than saying them. The author describes this moment of history as a breakthrough in art but a hundred years ago, and in many other points in history, art also faced a point where it needed new means of expression. F. T. Marinetti in  "The Futurist Manifesto" excites a new artistic movement fueled by the technology and speed of modernity. Marinetti wanted to reanimate life and society in Italy in 1910 just like Shields wants to change literature in the present. Manifestos, as shown by the two authors, are calls for change and propositions of new ways of looking at things, in this case art. Both manifestos, "The Futurist Manifesto" and Reality Hunger, show how art is constantly facing moments in which it has to reshape itself to keep up with culture and ideas.

The two manifestos show different attitudes taken to solve the same problem: the need for new means of expression. While Shields proposes a technique that embraces others' ideas, Marinetti declares that he wants to separate from the past and create a new movement that does not "repeat those infamous words." Shields' perspective is somewhat similar to Borges' theory on writing. The Argentinian writer believed that his work was not much of an accomplishment as all he wrote was the product of someone else's ideas. In "The Circular Ruins" ("Las ruinas circulares"), Borges suggests that we are the synthesis of what other people have created. In another short story, "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote," he suggests that literature is simply rewriting things as authors show them in their perspectives. Although he does not write literary collages like Shields, Borges does use a lot of intertextuality to show the same point. They believe that humans' art has always had plagiarism and elements taken from others. To accurately show reality through art, Shields suggests, we must put our ideas as we need to even if it involves using others' creations. Marinetti's manifesto shows how art in different historical situations requires different changes. In his time he felt that it needed to rejuvenate to catch up with the new fast-moving generation. The world was faster and better, according to him, so going back to the past was a mistake. The artistic movement that aroused after his critique sort of destroyed the ideas of the past, as Dadaism did. The two manifestos show how different scenarios require different types of art and different ways to change it.