Synopsis
A columnist and cultural critic explores the meaning of fame and celebrity in modern-day society, in a provocative, witty colleciton of essays that takes on such icons as Barbra Streisand the role of the diva, Michael Jackson, Bruce Willis, the Academy Awards, athletic spectaculars, and Las Vegas, "The Death Star of Entertainment." Reprint.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Hilariously bilious satire on global celebrity culture, 23 Sep 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Massive Swelling: Celebrity RE-Examined as a Grotesque, Crippling Disease, and Other Cultural Revolutions (Hardcover)

Cintra Wilson, a longstanding columnist for the "San Francisco Examiner" with a substantial cult following, has produced her first book, a series of satirical essays on celebrities and our cultural obsession with them. Wilson nails down the essential creepiness of true fandom with the inclusion of such artifacts as inadvertently deliriously funny and entirely genuine fanmail for "New Kids on the Block", the x-rated writings of adult women to teenage boys.

Her observations appear in chapter-length discussions of Elvis in Vegas, the ever more bizarre persona of Michael Jackson and its psycho-sexual origins, and the LA and New York commonplace of the rabidly, shamlessly ambitious aspiring actor, who defines degradation down in a quest for fame.

Wilson argues that celebrity culture is not only toxic to the egos and even physical well-being of celebrities, but also to ordinary folk, ceaselessly encouraged to regard their own lives as inherently shabbier and less important, going undocumented in gossip columns and tabloids.

Wilson's rages at celebrity culture are startlingly real, and produce unforgettably funny putdowns of figures from Barbara Streisand and Celine Dion to Siegfried & Roy, as the quintessence of the degraded Las Vegas performer.

Easily one of the most uproarious and literate works of pop cultural commentary available. Wilson is a true original.

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