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> Being famous, even slightly so, isn‘t as nice as it seems from the outside. It's not that I don't believe you. I can rationally accept that what you've said

> Being famous, even slightly so, isn‘t as nice as it seems from the outside. It's not that I don't believe you. I can rationally accept that what you've said makes sense. However, being on the outside, it takes some mental effort to make the fame you've described not seem extremely nice.

soundwave106 8y ago
There's a level of fame, the more superstar type level, where simply walking by yourself in public is much less feasible because of the tendency to get mobbed or attract unwanted attention. This is probably the level where problems like stalkers are much more serious. I'd guess that this is the level where it isn't "as nice". You no longer can do things without considering potentially crazy fans or overly uncomfortable levels of recognition. A long time ago, I remember the difference being illustrated at a Dragoncon in the early 2000s. Guests on the fame level of, say, Babylon 5 cast members, could walk around the convention just fine. They could do standard things like, say, go to the restaurant and have a meal without being heavily interrupted. Walking around they'd maybe get some hellos and photo poses and whatnot but it didn't seem terribly intrusive. And then there was Alice Cooper, who walked around the main convention floor one day and instantly got mobbed by a huge crowd. My hunch is that Taylor Swift probably is at the fame level where she needs security of some sort merely to walk around in public. That's a negative in my mind.
- icebraining 8y ago
  Babylon 5 is probably a bit too obscure, but you don't even need to be a Taylor Swift to get that "treatment"; I'm guessing anyone playing a main character of, say, Grey's Anatomy is probably getting constantly interrupted in public (meals, gym, parks, everywhere can be fair game for shrieking fans to badger you and demand you act like the character). At least that's my experience living with someone who got such a part (although at the scale of a small country, not worldwide like Grey's).
zaroth 8y ago
There’s a Sev2 bug report sitting Unassigned in God’s JIRA, something about humans fundamentally lacking the capacity to understand how even the poorest people can shine and how even the richest can suffer. There’s no magical set of circumstances that result in happiness or joy. In fact I think the external things that we most often identify as bringing happiness or joy, apparently when most people are faced with these things, it results in quite the opposite. In my opinion Taylor Swift has one of the hardest and most unrelenting jobs on the planet. Going out night after night trying to appeal to the teeming masses sounds like absolute hell. Everyone you meet more likely to be a vampire than not. No thanks!
HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
It takes all kinds, I guess. None of what he describes seems pleasant to me. Maybe I'm just old :-)

soundwave106 8y ago

There's a level of fame, the more superstar type level, where simply walking by yourself in public is much less feasible because of the tendency to get mobbed or attract unwanted attention. This is probably the level where problems like stalkers are much more serious. I'd guess that this is the level where it isn't "as nice". You no longer can do things without considering potentially crazy fans or overly uncomfortable levels of recognition. A long time ago, I remember the difference being illustrated at a Dragoncon in the early 2000s. Guests on the fame level of, say, Babylon 5 cast members, could walk around the convention just fine. They could do standard things like, say, go to the restaurant and have a meal without being heavily interrupted. Walking around they'd maybe get some hellos and photo poses and whatnot but it didn't seem terribly intrusive. And then there was Alice Cooper, who walked around the main convention floor one day and instantly got mobbed by a huge crowd. My hunch is that Taylor Swift probably is at the fame level where she needs security of some sort merely to walk around in public. That's a negative in my mind.

icebraining 8y ago
Babylon 5 is probably a bit too obscure, but you don't even need to be a Taylor Swift to get that "treatment"; I'm guessing anyone playing a main character of, say, Grey's Anatomy is probably getting constantly interrupted in public (meals, gym, parks, everywhere can be fair game for shrieking fans to badger you and demand you act like the character). At least that's my experience living with someone who got such a part (although at the scale of a small country, not worldwide like Grey's).

zaroth 8y ago

There’s a Sev2 bug report sitting Unassigned in God’s JIRA, something about humans fundamentally lacking the capacity to understand how even the poorest people can shine and how even the richest can suffer. There’s no magical set of circumstances that result in happiness or joy. In fact I think the external things that we most often identify as bringing happiness or joy, apparently when most people are faced with these things, it results in quite the opposite. In my opinion Taylor Swift has one of the hardest and most unrelenting jobs on the planet. Going out night after night trying to appeal to the teeming masses sounds like absolute hell. Everyone you meet more likely to be a vampire than not. No thanks!

HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago

It takes all kinds, I guess. None of what he describes seems pleasant to me. Maybe I'm just old :-)