A Week of Fame

The Message Reflects

This week, the Message will be bringing you essays and stories about fame — its glory and lack of, its horrors, and hopes, and the new strange forms of fame and shame we’re living with these days.

“€7,500, first-class, everything —
and all that for 40 minutes selling them some old stuff.”
― Slavoj Žižek

Data Profiles and All The Princes Undercover

Joanne McNeil on how we have just the bits of fame that make us want to be kings incognito.

“Author says he suffered from both “a craving to be famous” and “a horror of being known to like being known.”
― T.E. Lawrence

Nobody Famous

Anil Dash is “fake famous” — here’s why, and what it’s like.

“Media. I think I have heard of her. Isn’t she the one who killed her children?”
― Neil Gaiman

Life After Death

Quinn Norton talks about what it’s like when fame strikes along with tragedy.

“No matter how much fame you get, no matter how much money you make, no matter how much admiration you get, nothing feels as monumental as when someone tells you that something you did changed their outlook on life.”
― Zack W. Van

Your Fifteen ____ of Fame

Evan Hansen explores the small fame that comes from actual accomplishment.

“I wish that being famous helped prevent me from being constipated.”
― Marvin Gaye

The Cost of Fame

danah boyd reflects on the realities of fame’s dark price.

“I’ve always been famous, it’s just no one knew it yet.”
― Lady Gaga

King of the Dipshits

Jessamyn West reveals the glamourous life of a famous librarian.

“The most important thing for everyone in Gringolandia is to have ambition and become ‘somebody,’ and frankly, I don’t have the least ambition to become anybody.”
― Frida Kahlo

Top Photo thanks to Eva Rinaldi via Flickr