Fame: What the Classics Tell Us About Our Cult of Celebrity
Description
We may regard celebrities as deities, but that does not mean we worship them with deference. From prehistory to the present, humanity has possessed a primal urge first to exalt the famous but then to cut them down (Michael Jackson, anyone?). Why do we treat the ones we love like burnt offerings in a ritual of human sacrifice? Perhaps because that is exactly what they are. From Greek mythology to the stories of the Christian martyrs and Dr. Faustus, Payne makes the fascinating argument that our relationship to celebrity is perilous, and that we wouldn't have it any other way. He also shows that the people we choose as our heroes and villains throughout the ages says a lot about ourselves-and what it says is often quite frightening. Fame even brings new life to all the literary figures from our high school English classes. In these pages, the most ephemeral reality television stars (those "famous for being famous") find themselves in the same VIP lounge as the characters of The Iliad. With great wit, scholarship, and insight, Tom Payne draws the narratives of the past and the present into one intriguing story. Fame is a dazzling, hilarious look at the mortals, and the immortals, us and them.
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ISBN:
9781429943437
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 79371829-662e-5773-fe0b-d34128376836 |
---|---|
Grouping Title | fame what the classics tell us about our cult of celebrity |
Grouping Author | tom payne |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2024-05-04 04:56:00AM |
Last Indexed | 2024-05-06 23:20:47PM |
Solr Fields
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0
author
Payne, Tom
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hoopla digital
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Payne, Tom
display_description
We may regard celebrities as deities, but that does not mean we worship them with deference. From prehistory to the present, humanity has possessed a primal urge first to exalt the famous but then to cut them down (Michael Jackson, anyone?). Why do we treat the ones we love like burnt offerings in a ritual of human sacrifice? Perhaps because that is exactly what they are. From Greek mythology to the stories of the Christian martyrs and Dr. Faustus, Payne makes the fascinating argument that our relationship to celebrity is perilous, and that we wouldn't have it any other way. He also shows that the people we choose as our heroes and villains throughout the ages says a lot about ourselves-and what it says is often quite frightening. Fame even brings new life to all the literary figures from our high school English classes. In these pages, the most ephemeral reality television stars (those "famous for being famous") find themselves in the same VIP lounge as the characters of The Iliad. With great wit, scholarship, and insight, Tom Payne draws the narratives of the past and the present into one intriguing story. Fame is a dazzling, hilarious look at the mortals, and the immortals, us and them.
format_category_englewood
eBook
format_englewood
eBook
id
79371829-662e-5773-fe0b-d34128376836
isbn
9781429943437
last_indexed
2024-05-07T05:20:47.264Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
primary_isbn
9781429943437
publishDate
2010
publisher
Picador
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Electronic books
Popular culture
Popular culture
title_display
Fame : What the Classics Tell Us About Our Cult of Celebrity
title_full
Fame : What the Classics Tell Us About Our Cult of Celebrity [electronic resource] / Tom Payne
title_short
Fame
title_sub
What the Classics Tell Us About Our Cult of Celebrity
topic_facet
Electronic books
Popular culture
Popular culture
Solr Details Tables
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record_details
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---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hoopla:MWT16171875 | eBook | eBook | English | Picador | 2010 | 1 online resource (288 pages) |
scoping_details_englewood
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hoopla:MWT16171875 | Available Online | Available Online | false | true | false | false | false | false |