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America's Obsession With Notoriety: Superficial And Futile
In America, fame and celebrity have become ends to and of themselves, often at great cost to those who seek fame. Elizabeth Searle's "Celebrities in Disgrace" and the 1999 movie Ed TV help to demonstrate the high costs of fame and celebrity. Ultimately, America's obsession with notoriety reveals the superficiality and spiritual and moral bankruptcy of a nation that seemingly values fame more than accomplishment.
In the past decades in modern America, even as little as ten years ago, fame seemed to mostly be a byproduct of certain occupations and situations. Fame often used to be a simple byproduct of doing something else, and people were most often thrust into fame as a consequence of other actions. Notoriety was limited largely to actors or actresses, persons who had committed a horrible crime, or political or sports figures.
In recent years, America has seen an unprecedented explosion of people in the public consciousness, and fame has become a goal in and of itself. Certainly, the glut of reality television has made instant celebrities of a wide number...
These celebrities are simply everyday people who are thrust into notoriety.
This democratization of fame has come at a high cost. Today, fame and celebrity are goals of their very own. People strive to be on these reality television shows, and children like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold seem to have relished the idea of fame that would follow their horrific school massacre in Columbine. Perhaps those seeking fame feel that it will imbibe their sad lives with meaning. After all, in America, fame is coveted and sought after. America has long believed that successful people are somehow happier and better than the rest of us. As such, it is not such a stretch to believe that those who have achieved celebrity live in a much different and happier world than the rest of us.
Certainly, the 1999 film Ed TV tells us that celebrity does not necessarily bring either happiness or solve one's problems. IN the movie, Matthew McConaughey plays Ed, a 31-year-old video store clerk who is asked to become the subject of a reality-based television show. The cameras will follow…
Works Cited
Ed TV. Director: Ron Howard. Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Ellen DeGeneres, Rob Reiner, Sally Kirkland, Martin Landau, Adam Goldberg, Elizabeth Hurley, Dennis Hopper, Clint Howard, Viveka Davis, Jennifer Elise Cox. 1999.
Searle, Elizabeth. Celebrities in Disgrace. Graywolf Press, 2001.
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