The Split Between A Person And A Celebrity
People are here, like a monk or a buddhist; they are momentary. And for better or for worse, till death do us part💀, people are immediately perceptible. Like the fuzzy dots we see when we close our eyes too tightly, people are apparent. We can smell them, feel them, hear them, and we could even eat them😋, if we wanted to. Yes, people won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, and that makes them different from a celebrity.
A celebrity is not a person¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Not even close. A celebrity has some surface resemblance to a person, sure; but it is just superficial similarity, really. Celebrities have faces, limbs, and something of a personality, but that’s about where the similarities start to dry up. Persons are concrete and real world objects, whereas celebrities are idealized whims of the fantasy. But not the type of fantasy where one has no sense of reality😕, that would be far too liberating🇺🇸🦅. No, a celebrity is the end product of society, a masterpiece created by make-up artists, public relations specialists, and marketers. They put the ideal in idea; the “it” in celebrity.
Celebrities are as much a construction of effort and skill as jokes, even the bad ones you tell to your friends😁. You see, on the one hand, jokes have structure in their conveyance; we cannot unwittingly dump them onto our audience – though I’m sure people do😏. A good comedian skillfully times their jokes: appropriate pauses, appropriate build-up, and etc.. Similarly, celebrities have structure in their interactions with crowds. A good celebrity removes all their personal opinions and spontaneous inklings; good celebrities speak the words of their lawyers and express to emotions of their public relations specialists. Just like a good joke, a good celebrity takes time and effort.
Celebrities are as rigid in their appearances and expressions as mannequins as well; something not characteristic of personhood. In order for a mannequin to properly display the clothes so draped around their synthetic physiques, they remain still and lifeless. No room for their personality to tarnish the purity of the clothing. Comparatively, for an ideal to be formed, structure must be in place; and that structure disallows for randomness or deviation. So, when celebrity-builders produce some celebrity-like structure👷, the unfortunate person who has become the object of that celebrity-like structure loses their ability to express and appear as they so want. Celebrities are rigid.
And to ensure an appeal to the average man or woman, the team responsible for a celebrity creates something that each and every person finds desirable; they feed-off the average man or woman’s wants, hopes, and desires. Symmetrical faces with great cheek bones, a relatable story full of heroic feats and regrettable hardships, and a brand which taps into the essence of modern culture: acceptance amongst peers. Experts of all sorts are required to create such a masterpiece. And that is yet another reason why celebrities are not people, because people are flawed😞.
Evidently so, celebrities are the synthetic extensions of people; the desires and hopes that each and all of us have all funnelled into a human-like data structure to be perfected. Like an idea floating through the cinemas of our imaginations, celebrities are disjunctive abstractions smashed together into a single image or character🎥🍿. Celebrities aren’t born, they are created to entertain and distract us. You see, the person named Oprah Winfrey is not the celebrity named Oprah Winfrey, those two things are absolutely distinct. Celebrities are not people🤣.
