When quizzed on his fame, the maverick Hollywood actor Johnny Depp reportedly said that he hated it, and had done everything he could to avoid it. His comments may have been tongue in cheek but it's hard to envisage many people having sympathy for him.
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His views represent what many may perceive to be the antithesis of modern day ambition – the pursuit of fame. A lot of us have at some point in our lives, harbored fantastical notions of fame and adulation and an honest introspection of our psyche will no doubt reveal lingering vestiges of these aspirations.
A little ambitious day dreaming is only natural and the need to recognized and respected even has a psychological basis in Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory. While a lot of us eventually get on with our mundane lives there are those who persist in laboring under the illusion that they will become famous. It may be because a lot of us erroneously associate fame with success. It's true that recognition may lead to more opportunities but that does not necessarily translate into more success.Our definition of fame has changed over the years as our media become more transient. Andy Warhol famously remarked that 'In the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes'. And judging by the way things work in this day and age he's not far off with his prediction. In the past if your name appeared in a newspaper (for something good) or you were quoted in it, you would be inundated with congratulatory messages. You needed to have some discernible talent or a gift or have done something noteworthy that made you famous.
Cut to the present day and all you need to do is something outrageous (which doesn't necessarily have to be good) and if it's a slow news day you're up and away! If it appears on mainstream media then social media helps to carry it and if on social media then mainstream media gets in on the act. They reinforce one another and help to perpetuate this fame. This ephemeral fame is reflective of the temporary nature of our media and the digital age where information is instantly available and in huge quantities. There are so many people competing for space that the parabolic curve of fame is a lot steeper and narrower for many people. As a result fame is now so momentary that it has lost its posterity.
The Internet and cable TV boom means that no part of the globe remains untouched by this phenomenon. We, in Nepal, have our own home made inimitable examples of micro fame! Some of their names may no longer be recognizable but their antics (for lack of a better word) do have the saving grace of instant recall. How many of us remember Aman Lal Modi? No, it's not the 'billions of rupees' promising, Father Christmas lookalike that all our politicians were fawning over. He was one of the most prominent of the chair smashing lawmakers involved in the fiasco that was Constitution Deadline day, 2015. Fame, ironically can also be obtained through infamy. What about Bhim Niroula? Surely, all of us remember him! His name might not ring a bell but his song certainly rang them around the world. This Reading based banker of Nepali origin was responsible for the hilarious viral hit 'Sunday Morning Love You'! His atrocious singing and gyrating on screen ensured that he got his 15 minutes worth.
Even the earthquake hasn't stopped people from seeking attention. Although, some of them attracted the wrong kind of attention as astrologer Ojaraj Upadhyaya Lohani found out when he was arrested by the police for apparently spreading rumors about the earthquake. Mercifully though, we in Nepal have till date been spared the circus of the TV reality show subculture. We should be grateful to have been spared the trauma of watching these potential reality TV lowlifes blight the pages of our national newspapers and our airwaves.
In our information age, the '15 minute' concept of fame has undergone so many mutations that it has now become difficult to comprehend. The basis of fame continues to become ever more baffling as the years go by with these so called 'celebrities' barely outlasting a tissue box during winter. A few years ago in 2008 an article by Rex Sorgatz in The New York Magazine had brilliantly elaborated on the concept of 'microfame'. It's now a thing of the past and we've apparently moved on to 'nanofame' if the New York Times is to be believed. Presumably, waiting just around the corner is 'Blink and you miss it' fame! Just don't blink for very long!
gunjan.u@gmail.com
