Celebrititis

A couple of weeks ago my mother in law came to visit us. She had just finished reading a book by a famous novelist, I forget his name and it is not important anyway, who had just written a non-fiction book. He had taken a recent interest in the travel industry, in particular he had taken an interest in baggage. He had become fascinated by baggage, by the whole hidden infrastructure of baggage handling, by its efficiency. He had been surprised by the tiny percentage of baggage that was actually lost and as every good writer with plenty of spare time and a keen interest in something does, he had decided to write a book about it. His agent was not very supportive, his agent is a risk adverse person, who prefers his writers stick to what they do well, his commission depends on it. But no matter how much he tried he could not convince our famous writer to write another novel instead. The writer had said that he needed a break from writing novels so he had started researching for this new book. He had traveled the world doing research and when he finally had finished writing it, he had taken it to his agent, who had his worst fears confirmed. The book had the writer's unmistakable style and while the research was not bad, it was amateurish, it simply showed that he should have stuck to novels. The agent had a little bit of problem, he needed to get this book published but his writer had quite clearly never heard about comparative advantage or David Ricardo for that matter. He meet his normal publisher who was keen about a new book by this writer, but somewhat surprised that it was not another novel. The publisher got together his marketing team and they concluded that they could make the book an economic success, after all the writer was well known enough and his last book had sold so well that his faithful audience would probably buy this book anyway, a snazzy cover, a catchy subtitle, a few good reviews and hey presto another sales success. To be honest, I do really know if this is what happened but it seems plausible enough.

Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence in the publishing industry (see all the ghost written books that do very well on the charts) but not at all limited to it. Just think of the number of singers that have tried their hand at acting (David Bowie, Madonna, Beyonce, etc..), actors/actresses that had tried singing (David Hasselhoff, Scarlett Johansson), Models that turn into actresses (Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron), etc.. Some have been successful, but others not so much and the problem is that every example of a not so successful endeavor has taken the place of a talented, but unknown person, and we are poorer because of this. If you don't believe me, Imagine a world without Robert de Niro, who could have played Travis Bickle emptyness so well, without Humphrey Bogart or without Marcello Mastroianni, we would live in a poorer place but the fickle public would rather watch celebrities than good actors/actresses.

It is fair to say that the publishing industry is now using blogs as a gauge of success before a book is published for a number of newcomers (belle de jour, Stuff white people like, etc) which is an improvement, but it is really just a mild case of celebrititis. If your topic is not easily turned into a blog, which given today's attention span of several hundred words at most, leaves out rather a lot of content, then you are out of luck. I have to confess that I am not blameless here, I fully confess to having the attention span of a hyperactive three year old kid, well perhaps not that short. But which long post blogs do I bother reading? Why, the ones that have been recommended to me, of course. But how will it ever be recommended if nobody reads it in the first place? and with so much content online, how do you decide which five thousand word essay you should read? time is, after all, finite.

Unfortunately I must confess that I also suffer from celebrititis, two examples below:

In the mid nineties, the former Argentine football player Jorge Valdano became the manager of C.D. Tenerife and then went on to manage Real Madrid football club. He was an intelligent, articulate, calm, handsome man in his late thirties/early forties, he dressed smartly, always wearing suits, who always seemed to say the right thing, he never put his foot in it. He was a rare creature: an intellectual football manager and people where interested in his opinions, whether about football or about anything else. He was famous and he looked the part, that was all that was needed for people to be interested in him as a thinker. I honestly cannot recall whether he ever did provide opinions on abortion or unemployment, but rest assured that people would have been interested. I should perhaps clarify that the fact that he was Argentine did help.

Yesterday, I watched A Serious Man by the Cohen brothers. The cast is distinctly D-list, I did recognize three actors but that was about it. The thing is that I felt somewhat uneasy when the movie started and there wasn't a single name I recognize, quite a change from Burn After Reading which features George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and John Malkovich. The issue is that I cannot fault any of the performances on A Serious Man, in fact quite the opposite, the lead Michael Stuhlbarg, was excellent as a man taking each blow on the chin, while desperately looking for a way to dig himself out of the black hole his life has suddenly become but had it not been a movie by the Cohen brothers I probably would have never given the chance to see it and had I had that chance it is doubtful that I would have taken it without having read a wealth of favourable reviews. (I do watch Art-House movies, but I tend to watch only the recommended ones)

So there you go, I'm as guilty as you, I'm still to buy a book “written” by Katie Price though.