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Writer's Block: Star struck
Jul. 21st, 2010 06:51 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
OK, this is my first time answering a writer's block thing, but this one intrigued me a little bit.
I do think our society is celebrity crazy to excess, although perhaps not in the way implied in the question. I think the people who suffer from our excesses the most are probably the celebrities themselves. I'm speaking as someone who very much dislikes having her personality judged by strangers, but there does seem to be a high level of breakdowns and other unhealthy behaviors among celebrities. Then again, everyone makes bad choices, and maybe it's the resources and not the attention that leads to celebrities doing so on a larger scale.
However, I don't think that this is a sign that we're all sick or shallow or that society is falling apart. People are just attracted to glamour. We're intrigued by fame and wealth and talent. I think we need to adjust our celebrity culture - to recognize that they're people too, to minimize their power over matters that they aren't qualified to have influence on (such as when a celebrity endorses a cause or a candidate). But it doesn't mean society is going down the tubes - people have always been this way. We've just gotten better at disseminating celebrities' images.
So in terms of our cultural values, meh. I don't think it's the distractions of celebrity culture that are stopping me from writing poetry or taking up archery or whatever. I'm good at being a fan. I know what it's like to read quite inane things that are interesting just because they're being said by whichever actor or singer or model I'm into at that moment. Something about the glamour of their profession, their position in the public eye, and whatever it is about their personality or appearance that appeals to me makes them interesting in a way that they would normally not be.
I do think we also need to learn more respect and restraint, particularly when dealing with the personal lives of celebrities. I was just wondering over this on the phone with my sister - how are people distressed that Fernando Torres and his wife are having a second baby? Do they think he would have left his wife and one child for them, but the second one seals the deal? And how can people threaten to throw acid on the face of a young woman because she's rumored to have a relationship with a Japanese idol? So yeah. . . some perspective is definitely in order.
On the subject of celebrity wealth, I do think that the disparity of wealth in our world is just obscene. I mean, there's "being rich and living the good life" and then there's "more money than god". It's really out of hand and it disturbs me - not that I have a great grasp of economics or anything, but jesus fucking christ. It's like the difference between stabbing someone to death versus forcing family members to rape each other, then flaying them to death. Um, in my head that comparison makes sense - because we can't really just make the world perfect, everyone wants and needs such different things from each other, and I don't see a natural way to distribute resources evenly. But the absolute, obscenely, horrifyingly excessive things, those I'd like us to work to eradicate. Although I think a lot of the personal horrors are due to mental illness, whereas the absurd levels of wealth aren't really. . .
. . . That last part got a little off-topic. And into the realm of "Laura's Unified Theory of the Degrees of Shitty Things."
OK, this is my first time answering a writer's block thing, but this one intrigued me a little bit.
I do think our society is celebrity crazy to excess, although perhaps not in the way implied in the question. I think the people who suffer from our excesses the most are probably the celebrities themselves. I'm speaking as someone who very much dislikes having her personality judged by strangers, but there does seem to be a high level of breakdowns and other unhealthy behaviors among celebrities. Then again, everyone makes bad choices, and maybe it's the resources and not the attention that leads to celebrities doing so on a larger scale.
However, I don't think that this is a sign that we're all sick or shallow or that society is falling apart. People are just attracted to glamour. We're intrigued by fame and wealth and talent. I think we need to adjust our celebrity culture - to recognize that they're people too, to minimize their power over matters that they aren't qualified to have influence on (such as when a celebrity endorses a cause or a candidate). But it doesn't mean society is going down the tubes - people have always been this way. We've just gotten better at disseminating celebrities' images.
So in terms of our cultural values, meh. I don't think it's the distractions of celebrity culture that are stopping me from writing poetry or taking up archery or whatever. I'm good at being a fan. I know what it's like to read quite inane things that are interesting just because they're being said by whichever actor or singer or model I'm into at that moment. Something about the glamour of their profession, their position in the public eye, and whatever it is about their personality or appearance that appeals to me makes them interesting in a way that they would normally not be.
I do think we also need to learn more respect and restraint, particularly when dealing with the personal lives of celebrities. I was just wondering over this on the phone with my sister - how are people distressed that Fernando Torres and his wife are having a second baby? Do they think he would have left his wife and one child for them, but the second one seals the deal? And how can people threaten to throw acid on the face of a young woman because she's rumored to have a relationship with a Japanese idol? So yeah. . . some perspective is definitely in order.
On the subject of celebrity wealth, I do think that the disparity of wealth in our world is just obscene. I mean, there's "being rich and living the good life" and then there's "more money than god". It's really out of hand and it disturbs me - not that I have a great grasp of economics or anything, but jesus fucking christ. It's like the difference between stabbing someone to death versus forcing family members to rape each other, then flaying them to death. Um, in my head that comparison makes sense - because we can't really just make the world perfect, everyone wants and needs such different things from each other, and I don't see a natural way to distribute resources evenly. But the absolute, obscenely, horrifyingly excessive things, those I'd like us to work to eradicate. Although I think a lot of the personal horrors are due to mental illness, whereas the absurd levels of wealth aren't really. . .
. . . That last part got a little off-topic. And into the realm of "Laura's Unified Theory of the Degrees of Shitty Things."
