I watched the Adele special on TV Sunday night. I have been a “fan” of her voice since I first heard her sing and have bought all of her albums as they came out. I very much enjoyed watching and listening to her, but could have done without most of the interview portions with Oprah. I just don’t have much interest in a celebrity’s personal life and have never understood the imperative that leads people to join fan clubs, for instance.
There are a lot of people whose body of work I admire, but why would I want to meet them? What is there to say other than “I enjoy your work, hope you keep on”? I know, for example, that any movie with Meryl Streep in it is probably going to be worth watching, if only for her performance. But why would I ever want to meet her? I don’t know her; she doesn’t know me. It would be like walking up to some total stranger and expecting there to be some kind of connection between us.
I know for adolescent fans there is often a fantasy sexual component to the adoration of some celebrity or group, but why does this interest in every detail of the celebrity’s life go on into adulthood? I assume that celebrities and their actions provide society with some kind of morality plays, but, again, how does this translate into wanting to meet the star in person?
I can only think of one “notable” person that I could meet and actually envision having a conversation with: John Scalzi, a well-regraded science-fiction writer. But we wouldn’t be having a conversation because of his books. He has had a blog (https://whatever.scalzi.com/) up for years and I have been reading it for almost as long as he’s been writing it. This means that I “know” the public John Scalzi and would be able to talk to him about his favorite tortilla brand and what his dog has been up to lately.
When it comes to most celebrities, I have no such connections. Meeting Adele would be like meeting my gardener or the owner of my favorite local diner outside of their jobs. One provides great service for my car; one serves terrific sandwiches and waffles, and one sings great songs. What would we have to say to each other?
The main difference that I see is that one provider reaches millions of people, while the others reach only a few thousand, at most. But I can’t see how that makes any difference to me as far as my interest in their personal life goes. Is part of the draw being in a club with others with the same preoccupation? Is it because their celebrity puts their personal life in the public realm and therefore readily available?
I was musing about this because the other day I saw a headline about “What your favorite star’s children are doing now!” This struck me as very, very odd. I don’t care what the “star” is up to; why in the world would I care what their children are doing? And what a rotten thing to do to the kids who probably aren’t looking for that kind of attention.
All in all, I just want publicly talented people to offer me whatever their public talent is and then we both go off and enjoy our separate private lives. Of course some people these days are only known because they make their private lives public, but those people don’t seem very interesting to me.
Tuples and Attributes 