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"accessibly written, with straightforwardly laid out pathways and clearly marked turns of direction ... it offers a persuasive account of the leading characteristics of contemporary fame, or rather its degenerate variant. Best of all, the book is refreshing in its analysis, bringing something different and new to the diagnosis of the production and consumption of contemporary fame. It is in this respect, most of all, that it should be applauded." --European Journal of Communication
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Once a title held only by a privileged few, fame went hand-in-hand with respect and hard-work. To be famous meant that you had achieved something noteworthy, or had an exceptional talent. But things have changed, as demonstrated by the number of singularly untalented people who are currently famous. Why has there been such a shift in our notion of fame and why has the desire for fame become such a powerful motivation for so many people? Mark Rowlands brings his philosophical expertise to bear on our concept of fame and explores the reasons behind its radical transformation. To understand this "new variant fame" , Rowlands argues, we must engage in an extensive philosophical excavation that takes us back to a dispute that began in fourth century BC Athens. Rowlands reveals that our presentday notion of fame and the extremes that accompany it are symptoms of a significant cultural change: the decline of Enlightenment ideas has seen individualism eclipse objectivism about value, so much so that what characterizes Western society today is its constitutional inability to distinguish quality from bulls**t. This, argues Rowlands, is the predicament in which we find ourselves today and which explains how fame can now be unconnected with any discernible distinction: we have lost any grip on the idea that there might be objective standards of evaluation even for some of the most important choices we make. A fascinating mix of amusing anecdote and serious philosophical reflection, "Fame" presents us with a new way of looking at and understanding fame as we now know it, one that shows us how and why we have become the fame-hungry people we are today. It is a book written for anyone who has wondered how the world could ever have turned out like this.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Unique insight
21 Sep 2009
3.5 stars
I have been reading several books in The Art of Living Series published by Acumen and I have to say some of them really fascinate me with the author's insights and lines of arguments. The series aims at confronting a number of issues that are popular in our contemporary culture, issues that are around us all the time but we (as laymen) just do not have the time to think through. When we have the time to think, mostly we are not able (maybe due to a lack of training) to think critically, not to mention proper and intriguing philosophization. This explains why reading Mark Rowland's Fame is interesting and worthwhile.
Mark Rowland starts the book with over-attention-seeking girls who would like to sexualize themselves in reality TV shows and then moves to discuss Paris Hilton and David Beckham. This is a brilliant start simply because such types of people are everywhere in our popular culture. Yet, the author doesn't stop there, but discusses and explores what it means to be an individual with a great sense of autonomy and self-realization by going back to Plato and advocacies during Englightenment.
The subsequent chapters after the introduction may be frustrating because the author does not actually mention fame (the subject matter of the book) at all, but this is because he needs to build up his arguments step by step and to showcase how mdoern individualism has turned our lives and cultures into meaningless existence. Trust me, it's worth following the arguments and when you reach the final two chapters, you will realize this book on fame really has its own acute angle.
As I would expect, a book on such a topic may have a chapter on postmodern culture and another one on psycholanalytic theories (probably over-mentioning Freud or Lacan). However, Mark Rowland gives up these two approaches and suggests that the fame we now have in our contemporary culture is a variant of the fame we used to understand. He calls it 'vfame', a kind of fame that has nothing to do with respect, quality and values. Yet, its construction in mainly on the lack (possible to go back to Lacan's objet petit a in this case) embeded in every one of us.
If you want to study popular culture and you're fed up with the academic stuff on postmodernism and psycholanalysis, I would highly recommend this book to you.
I have been reading several books in The Art of Living Series published by Acumen and I have to say some of them really fascinate me with the author's insights and lines of arguments. The series aims at confronting a number of issues that are popular in our contemporary culture, issues that are around us all the time but we (as laymen) just do not have the time to think through. When we have the time to think, mostly we are not able (maybe due to a lack of training) to think critically, not to mention proper and intriguing philosophization. This explains why reading Mark Rowland's Fame is interesting and worthwhile.
Mark Rowland starts the book with over-attention-seeking girls who would like to sexualize themselves in reality TV shows and then moves to discuss Paris Hilton and David Beckham. This is a brilliant start simply because such types of people are everywhere in our popular culture. Yet, the author doesn't stop there, but discusses and explores what it means to be an individual with a great sense of autonomy and self-realization by going back to Plato and advocacies during Englightenment.
The subsequent chapters after the introduction may be frustrating because the author does not actually mention fame (the subject matter of the book) at all, but this is because he needs to build up his arguments step by step and to showcase how mdoern individualism has turned our lives and cultures into meaningless existence. Trust me, it's worth following the arguments and when you reach the final two chapters, you will realize this book on fame really has its own acute angle.
As I would expect, a book on such a topic may have a chapter on postmodern culture and another one on psycholanalytic theories (probably over-mentioning Freud or Lacan). However, Mark Rowland gives up these two approaches and suggests that the fame we now have in our contemporary culture is a variant of the fame we used to understand. He calls it 'vfame', a kind of fame that has nothing to do with respect, quality and values. Yet, its construction in mainly on the lack (possible to go back to Lacan's objet petit a in this case) embeded in every one of us.
If you want to study popular culture and you're fed up with the academic stuff on postmodernism and psycholanalysis, I would highly recommend this book to you.
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