Cult of Personality

I know I am absolutely not the first to ever think of this, but I continually find it to be the strangest phenomenon that people are so closely wrapped up in the lives of celebrities that it affects their ability to enjoy the creative output.

Some people love the spotlight, good or bad.  Getting into the psychology of a personality is not where I'm going with this ultimately.  This is more concerning the direct confusion I often experience with the zeitgeist (a word referring to the collective likes or dislikes that form trends or attitudes).

I don't even attempt to put my finger on trends and a lot of the things social media claims are "trends" are clickbait sites and absolutely no one is actually doing them and it is therefore satire...

Let me start with an example.  Kanye West is a douchebag.  I don't mean this disrespectfully because I absolutely adore his music. No, I don't care if that's uncool and, yes, I think it's hilarious that he slammed that Swifty chick who has zero talent, no personality, and is getting no actual mention of her name from me.  See, the thing is, I liked his music from the first time I heard it.  Bought his College Dropout album the week it came out and noted two things about him right away: he had a clever rhythm and flow (a brilliant lyricist) and the music itself was always infectious.  Through the Wire was one of the most looped songs for me back then.  

News about him was pretty unavoidable, but here's the other thing-- I've never thought that artists should be rewarded simply for being likable or get morality sales for good behavior or lose fans for bad behavior.  I find it abhorrent when political parties manipulate people this way or think that moral stances should be laws.  You police thought and action and you make outlaws out of otherwise good people.  Given, I do understand liking someone as a person and being curious enough about how that might translate into how they work creatively, but doing it the OTHER way, well, it's rarely ever a good experience.

Anne Rice and Laurell K. Hamilton were two such authors that were a bit of a cringe when I got curious.  I'm sure they are quite possibly very lovely people in certain settings, but when one thing I never enjoy finding out is just how much they write their powerful, infallible females to be the carbon copies of how they see themselves.  I unfollowed Hamilton on FaceBook because it was way too much cheese.  Nora Roberts is another one that does this, down to the damn outfit they wear.  Anne Rice is just guilty of the cringy period blood vampirism scene in Memnoch.  If you know me, you know experimental smut is good game for me, but it can absolutely fall flat.  We've all got our own kinks and such-- some just translate into 'no, thanks' according to taste.  I don't hate you ladies for it, by any means, but it just made me absolutely determined not to write myself into any story.  There will always be characters I can relate to, but I don't have the sort of ego to care about whether I am being represented in any way, shape, or form.

Stephen King is a one-man word mill and pretty 50/50 on the hits and miss for damn near everyone.  Can't fault him for both the passion to do it himself (no ghostwriting like a lot of famous authors pawn off) and the ability to take risks.  Because of this, I am also really cautious about seeing any of his movies or getting books without scouring reviews.  Personality wise, I feel his presence is part likable/part unlikable.  He doesn't mind bagging and throwing away the movie renditions of his books.  I think we can all admit that there's always room for improvement, but I find I lack respect for authors that participate in the shredding of their work.  I suppose you can afford to throw away fans by trashing their favorite books, but it's because of what he does with his artistic integrity that makes me not line up for his work, not because of any personal thing he's done.

So lots of examples here, but here's the question.  Why do people so thoughtlessly let the personality attach to the work?  Think of all the little ways people do this.  The excuses are always "I can get the same thing/something better elsewhere" or "I'll never give my money to someone who doesn't fall in line."  Okay, no one says that but that is the sentiment, no?  And no, they CAN'T always get something elsewhere.  For better or worse, there is only one Kanye West.  There might be 50 better places to buy fried chicken, but turning off the spigot to find a 'similar' artist just seems... pointless.  There are plenty of people that absolutely DO become attracted to an unpopular artist and sometimes just as stupidly to SPITE the people that snivel at their personal decisions.

Clearly, it's NOT everyone, but like the song Cult of Personality drives home, the zeitgeist is swayed by the gravitation of fans and rebels around some of the most nonsensical reasons. Sometimes people are successful for being loved, sometimes it becomes mainstream to reward someone for being largely unpopular.  

Stephen King once said (and I partially quote here): "Talent is as cheap as table salt." He said that what separates the successful from the unsuccessful is hard work. Although if you know me, I do think the second part of that sentiment always sounds really lazy and not well thought out.  There's that other ingredient that frustrates people because you can't do a damn thing to sway it and it's just plain luck.  Even 'work smart, not hard' is lazy.  Do you think if there was any way that an artist could predict the popularity of their work they wouldn't at least START with any old bestseller and then maybe coast on integrity, writing whatever they wanted or, fuck it all, living in the lap of luxury?  There are plenty of people with gobs of talent and hard, smart work that can't be a career artist because they just can't tap into that crazy zeitgeist.

Most writers want to encourage each other.  My foolproof advice is always 'do it because you just can't imagine doing anything else.'  I want to see people succeed, not just in their careers, but in finding their happiness.  

I'm not going to lie and say I don't get a little jealous when luck is on their side, but I will absolutely tell you I don't believe in better or worse.  I'm one of those people that hates being asked if I have a favorite anything because I normally don't.  I can't even list my top 10 favorite songs if I tried.  I don't think it's important to rank art to show how important your tastes are.  I have one of the most maddeningly eclectic music libraries.  I mean, really. Bluegrass, Korean pop, kid songs, pop hits, rap, R&B, punk, metal, classic, game soundtracks.  I even have a couple of country songs even though most country is garbage to my ears.  If I like something, I like it.  I don't like it because I should or because it's acceptable, any more than I would simply like it because I shouldn't or it's unpopular.  I generally do not trust the mainstream at all, but I don't swim downstream to run far, far away either.  

Believe it or not, I actually tried Twilight and 50 Shades before they gained popularity and when they did, I couldn't believe it.  I couldn't finish them they were so bad.  Nevertheless, I've never felt other people couldn't like it.  Another thing that is completely pointless, thinking you can judge how you'll like someone by how much of a carbon copy of YOU they are.  I have plenty of friends I share very different passions with and I would never require a significant other to be my clone.  I have found that the marriages and partnerships that are most successful are people that do have very separate tastes and lives.  They have this magnetism and respect for each other's differences and like each other more for the times they break off to explore those other aspects.  They aren't even more likely to cheat, believe it or not, because they aren't driving each other up the wall when they have been tolerant from the onset.

I hope this random scattering of thought (I do not frame ideas prior to blogging, as you have to be able to tell) sheds a little more awareness of how you choose things.  

Side Note: You ever notice how your sweet grandma gets a little fouler and freer with her thoughts over time?  I know this may sound crazy, but this is a display of wisdom.  They probably held their tongue on a lot of things, thinking acceptance was the most important thing to have.  Acceptance is a really hollow victory, people.  It's fragile, it's fleeting.  The backlash is often the mid-life crisis, the departure from the person you thought they were until they exploded in the opposite direction of who they actually wanted to be.  Live a life where you understand it's okay to be uncomfortable with how people will react to you.  Don't swallow all you want to be because you're afraid that being unpopular will ostracize you.  Even if it does, you'll weed out the bigots and find your people, similarly ostracized and WAY cooler than those assholes.