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Celebrity bashing

R

RobinS

New Member
If there's one aspect of our society that drives me crazy, it's our obsession with celebrities. Last year I read This Is Your Life by John O'Farrell, and was tickled by it. The main character becomes a famous stand-up comic without ever performing. People simply take his word for it that he's terrific.

Now I've just got hold of something else on the same lines. Randy Bastard by Simon Craig covers the same ground, but is still more savage. The names of the characters alone make this worth reading: Letzgetcha Nickersoff, Viraga Hateman, Pius Oldgit, and so on. Not for the faint-hearted, I'd say. Craig uses bludgeon, not rapier.

For the more serious-minded, try Chris Rojek's Celebrity, which offers a social history of fame. He looks at how the media of today have changed the nature of celebrity. Well worth reading. (There's also a non-fiction book by Clive James, the title of which I don't presently recall.)

Can anyone recommend anything else on the cult of fame? Fact or fiction. It's a cult that needs bashing, believe me.
 
Hehe, congratulations on your first post, RobinS. I like your style. Unfortunately, I can't recommend anything on the cult of fame, as requested. I can contribute my hatred for celebrityism though. Infact, I don't hate them - I sort of feel sorry for them because they are empty, spiritless individuals who have a religious passion for money and status. But, to be honest I'm not much of an expert on the ins-and-outs of a celebrity's mind, because I don't study them too closely. So I could be completely wrong in my description of said creatures.

Over and out.

P.S. Did I mention, I welcome you with baited breath? Well I do. Have a good time here.
 
Bashing individual, real celebrities is a catch-22. "Oh, I just hate Julia Roberts because . . . " etc. If you know who she is, and you're listening to that, it's too late.

On the other hand, the media would never undertake any real bashing because they would have nothing left to sell. But they do like it when celebrities bash each other. Or calling someone a "B-list" person. Oh, that really hurts.

The TV is just a fishtank full of pirhanas.

You know you're out of it when 90% of the so-called celebrities are people you've never heard of. That's me.
 
Surely though if nobody ( or very few people ) have actually heard of you then you can't actually be a celebrity since the definition of one is someday famous and known by many? It's a little difficult to be known and famous when nobody knows who the hell you are! :D

That's like saying Bob the plummer who lives down the lane is a celebrity but nobody has heard of him.
 
SillyWabbit said:
Surely though if nobody ( or very few people ) have actually heard of you then you can't actually be a celebrity since the definition of one is someday famous and known by many? It's a little difficult to be known and famous when nobody knows who the hell you are! :D

That's like saying Bob the plummer who lives down the lane is a celebrity but nobody has heard of him.
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Yes, that's why celebrity bashing is a catch-22. If you know them, it's because you've already paid too much attention to drek, IMO.

Further, if you are talking about the person, your are promoting their celebrity even while you bash them for being celebrities.
 
Hmmm, yeah, I see what you mean!

And of course we have the "has been" and "wanna be" celebs on all sorts of horrid "reality" TV shows! :eek:
 
Eh? But without reality TV, we'd never have had Peter Andre returned to us! And what a sad world that would be :(
 
Oh Freya, you've spoiled the fantasy now.

Anyway, like Novella said, 'There's no such thing as bad publicity.' And keeping on the subject of Novella, I'm striving to be like her - I can't wait for the time when someone will say the name of the most famous celebrity to me and I won't have any sort of recollection of ever hearing that name previously. It's tough though because most of my friends seem to be into celebrityism and I've come to some sort of conclusion that I'll only be able to stay sane if I stay in my home constantly, without watching any celebrity orientated (I'm sure it's 'orientated' and not 'oriented') television and creating my own entertainment in the form of my piano and guitar playing, philosophizing, participating in this fantastic forum and buying books from Amazon to expand my mind to almost limitless capacity.

Turning smoothly to the subject of Silly Wabbit: I love this guy - he's provided me with hours of fun after recommending Materia Magica to me just before I left you all. But, I conversly hate the bastard, because he robbed me of my precious book forum! I hate you, Wabbit! I hate you!

I still love Freya's Lancashire ass though. Keep up the good work Freya.

And RobinS's first contribution to the forum: we can't forget that. Excellent! I'm now kissing the sky.
 
That's my spirit, it works great! You'll have it inside you aswell. Or rather, your body and mind just encase your spirit, allowing you to transport yourself around and communicate with others - among other things. What does (sic) stand for/mean by-the-way? I've forgotten. Cheers.
 
Now hold on, everybody. I'm new to this, and you're going too fast for me.

Maybe on reflection, I shouldn't have entitled this thread Celebrity Bashing but rather Cult-of-Celebrity Bashing. I have nothing against any individual celeb -- except for [insert names of your favourite hate figures here] -- but the cult drives me crazy. Because cult it is.

Like Novella, I seem to be out of it, in that most of these damned celebs are quite unknown to me. But that's part of it, you see: people are constantly being promoted as celebs even when nobody's ever heard of them, because if the hype can be made to stick, then they become very valuable.

Which brings me back to my original point -- and this is supposed to be about books, isn't it? Here are my recommendations:
  • Randy Bastard by Simon Craig: Savage stuff. Tells how a clever agent signs up the winner of an extreme reality show (contestants have to kill each other) and sells him to the world as Randy Bastard, the world's sexiest man.
  • This Is Your Life by John O'Farrell: Similar, but without the agent. Jimmy Conway sells himself as a brilliant stand-up comic, even though he has never performed.
  • Celebrity by Chris Rojek: A social history of fame. Rojek is good on the tension between a celeb's private and public lives.
  • Fame in the 20th Century by Clive James: Haven't yet read it, but I'd guess it's entertaining and anecdotal.
  • Intimate Strangers by Richard Schickel: Haven't read this one either, but I gather it's about how celebrity-obsession warps our society.
 
RobinS said:
Which brings me back to my original point -- and this is supposed to be about books, isn't it?
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We frequently go off topic...welcome to the looney bin! :D ;) :p

I have nothing against any particular celebrity either. In fact I kind of pity them. They have very little privacy. But I guess many would say that comes with the territory. I know I'd rather be "poor and anonymous" than "rich and famous".

Nice book recommendations, I've written a few down.
 
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