America\'s Obsession With Notoriety: Superficial and Futile

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 of people who have no special talents or abilities. 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 his life, day and night, and Ed eagerly agrees to become the star of the show. He quickly becomes enamored of the fame and celebrity, but it eventually wears thin as he begins to understand the ultimate cost of fame to his personal life. Ironically, the fame that Ed surmised would bring him happiness ultimately almost costs him his girl, and turns his life inside out.

The stories told by Elizabeth Searle in "Celebrities in Disgrace" also warn of the high cost of notoriety. The novella's many short stories all deal with characters who are motivated by imaginary characters in a variety of sad and twisted ways. Searle's stories all focus on the seedy underside of the sad and desperate lives of those who seek and desire fame. In the title story "Celebrities in Disgrace" a young teen arranges for the downfall of a woman about to become a star. A woman in the story "Celebration" imagines each event in her life as a headline in the news.