Sunday, 12 February 2012
I know exactly what J is saying. I respect her and her opinion hugely. She spends her life and her skills as a water engineer saving the lives of many more than forty people in those parts of the world where the Beverly Hills life of the rich and famous is an even more distant dream than it is for us. So this piece is nothing remotely close to a criticism of her reaction. It is though a response, a reflection on why we care so much about celebrities.
We care because of what they embody. A celebrity is an icon of our fondest dreams, a window onto the us that inhabits our dreams. Celebrities like Whitney are bright shinings of what we humans can achieve. Such a voice, what a beauty, how glamorous, so full of life. At the same time we are comforted by their frailties. They surpass our achievements but they also share our shortcomings. So comforting. And of course at times like this, Amy times, Jacko times, Bestie times, so chilling. Celebrities remind us of the us we would like to be, they haunt us with visions of the us we truly are. They are our dream, our nightmare. We care about them because we care about ourselves.