quote:Small gatherings of Michael Jackson fans held candlelight vigils around the world Saturday to support the pop megastar as he faces allegations of child molestation.
My first thought on reading this was, how pathetic. Here are people in their teens, twenties, and thirties who feel the need to gather to express their support for an accused child molester. Of course, the law views him as innocent until proven guilty, but this isn't about the law. I'm more wondering about the compulsion to gather in this way.
Then I wondered if that was so different from the ways in which many of us are fanboys and fangirls. I mean here we gather on what could be termed a fan forum. Many of us belong to other, unofficial forums with these same fellow fans. We go out of our way to meet with our fellow fanatics, we look for opportunities to meet the author who owns this forum at signings, and we get giddily excited when he or even his spouse acknowledges us on this forum.
And yet I think it is different.
When I meet with other Jatraqueros, OSC actually doesn't come up that much. His writing is more of a common interest, but what really ties us here are the friendships we have developed here. Most of the action here is on the "side" that isn't devoted to just talking about OSC.
. . . whereas these people are gathering to express opinions on something they can't possibly know. They don't know Michael Jackson--they only know his art, and his media interactions. But based on this, they are irrationally certain that the children who have accused Michael Jackson are lying or being manipulated.
Which is fine. They're entitled to that opinion.
I just wonder at being so certain of his innocence, and so devoted, and so . . . uninvolved with life and reality, I guess, that they have time to gather and hold vigils and stuff.
posted
I think what you're seeing here, Icarus, is one of the many cults of personality created by our celebrity-driven society. And it is celebrity-driven. If it weren't, shows like Entertainment Tonight, Access: Hollywood, Extra!, and Celebrity Justice, not to mention whole cable stations such as E! Entertainment Television wouldn't be so successful.
I honestly don't understand this sort of extreme adulation of someone based solely on what is known of them through the media. I've seen it up close, and it just puzzles me. Having grown up in southern California, and having known in a tangental sort of way people in the entertainment industry and those related to them, I know that most of them live lives just like the rest of us (this, of course, seems to exclude Michael Jackson, who lives in some sort of dream world), lives just as boring or not as anyone else's.
But by growing up there, I've also had the opportunity (such as it is) of knowing people who have built their whole lives around the adulation of one celebrity or another. And they aren't anything like anyone here, as far as I can tell. I've known people whose only topic of conversation, literally, is their celebrity of choice. You can try to talk to them about, oh, nuclear physics, and they'll somehow find a way to relate it to That Person. It really is frightening.
So, yeah, as far as I'm concerned there is a universe of difference between being a fan and being a fanatic.
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posted
I wonder what Hatrack's reaction would be if Orson was accused of a crime like this? Would we rally around him, condemn him, or adopt a wait and see attitude?
I know this may seem like a tangent, but I don't think it is. I think it might be a useful lens to examine the whole situation, don't you think?
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posted
I don't think it's a tangent; I think it's exactly what I'm talking about.
Good question.
I think I might have a gut instinct of "that doesn't sound like what I know of OSC." But I don't think I would insist, without any evidence, that it's untrue, or that I would reject out of hand whatever evidence was brought to light. At least, I hope I wouldn't.
I hope I wouldn't see conspiracies everywhere.
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posted
LMA has a point. I've met several celebrities in person, and hell, I'm fairly good friends with several of their kids. I've never been able to understand the oh-god-it's-HIM attitude.
And Storm, the difference here is that we actually know OSC, to a greater degree than most fans know their admirees. Most of us have met him. We're online-friends with his kids and just about everyone here (or is it just me?) has been slapped down by Kristine for one transgression or another. How many of these people holding candlelight vigils, for god's sake, actually know Jackson? Read (and vehemently disagree with) his political opinions? Befriend his kids?
It's rather like me holding a candlelight vigil for George Clooney. I like the guy's charisma, and what I've read about him I like -- but I have no idea who he is, and if he stood accused of raping a woman or molesting a child, I would have no reason to pretend I just know George wouldn't do that.
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posted
And to tie it with lma's post, I think it might come down to why we are fans. Many of us have been fortunate enough to meet OSC, once or twice, but OSC really doesn't live in the public eye like Michael Jackson does, and so, ours is not a "cult of personality." We admire OSC because of his body of work, and what it communicates to us. And perhaps many Michael Jackson fans feel the same way, but I get the sense that for a lot of them, it does become a lot about who he is as a public figure. He's got (or had) this larger than life persona, where we hear about what he's wearing, and who he's kissing, etc etc etc.
Maybe I'm going out on more of a limb now . . . maybe because we have so much less of a window into his life, our admiration must by default be confined to more substantial things than his personality.
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quote:OSC really doesn't live in the public eye like Michael Jackson does, and so, ours is not a "cult of personality."
Not only that, but I suspect OSC might be a little disturbed if his fans acted like that. He certainly doesn't seek attention like Jackson does. In fact, he was pretty down-to-earth when I met him at the signing. Sure, he's famous and a talented author, but he's also shown us that he's just the guy next door. I think that's another reason why OSC doesn't have fans that are quite as rabid as Jackson's.
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posted
Most definitely there are volumes of difference between fans and fanatics. I'll use myself as an example.
I have never met OSC, nor any member of his family or anyone remotely close to him. In fact I only found this forum today through the Acknowledgements section in the back of Shadow Puppets, the latest OSC novel I read, coincidentally both beginning and completing it today. (Perhaps I'm fanatical about reading his books? I simply can't sleep until it's done. Made the mistake of starting one at 8pm a few days ago... finally got to bed at 8am.)
I'll even go so far as to admit my embarassment over how long it took me to begin reading his work - compounded by the fact that I am, in fact, a working writer myself and aspiring author. (For my mind the distinction between the two is the former is paid and/or published and the latter has published a book. I haven't gotten a book published - yet.)
By they way Mr. Card, if you're reading I'd like to say that your work has certainly taken my self-esteem down a few notches. Not that I'm complaining, I've just got a much higher mental bar to jump over now. Challenge is good.
But back to the point. Celebrities are not fully developed personas. They are media personas. They are primarily who they choose to let us see. A writer, however, would be hard-pressed to produce the volume of work that OSC has created without putting a tremendous amount of themselves into it as well. I would say without reservation that anyone who's read the Ender series knows more about OSC than they do any movie star or rock star. Or at least they'd know more about what's really important to know about a person.
So yeah, I think most fans of OSC, myself included would be in a better position to render an opinion of guilt or innocence. Yet I also believe that the kind of person attracted by his work are intelligent enough to avoid the very kind of thing going on with Mechanical Jackson. (He is an artificial life-form, isn't he? No human looks like that.) I can't know for certain what anyone aside from myself is capable of, and in many cases not even myself.
A fan is someone who respects and admires another person greatly. A fanatic is someone who worships another person. The fan recognizes the idol is imperfect while the fanatic can stare wide-eyed at incontrovertable proof of evil and see nothing but perfection.
I'm rambling but I think the point is clear enough... I'll ramble some more later if necessary.
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