I’m a big fan of Joseph Epstein’s essays, so I was very pleased to come across this one: The Culture of Celebrity: Let Us Now Praise Famous Airheads.
Epstein explores the difference between those who are famous (such as Ted Williams) and those who are celebrities (such as Paris Hilton) while noting that someone can have both fame and celebrity.
Interestingly, Epstein doesn’t restrict himself to writing about celebrity among athletes and entertainers—he also discusses the academic world (e.g. Stanley Fish), intellectuals (e.g. Susan Sontag), and writers.
Although a few writers still avoid publicity (such as Thomas Pynchon), many more do not. Epstein reminds us that it’s only been in the last few decades that it has been considered acceptable for writers to look for publicity; before that it was considered vulgar. He quotes Edmund Wilson’s extensive list of things he would not do for promotional purposes and concedes that although as a younger man he saw this list as a model for his own career, he hasn’t quite succeeded in following it.
This is an older (2005) article, but it’s still relevant. An earlier version was published in the charmingly named The Hedgehog Review (which “strives for both the breadth of the fox and the depth of the hedgehog”).
Posted by Amy as Essays at 11:08 AM EST