When the news broke about Carrie Fisher's heart attack while flying on Friday, it felt like I got news about someone I know. When she passed away, it felt too much like someone I know or worked with. Not a close friend, not a family member, but someone I know. Possibly because we had just gotten home from Rogue One and just seen the CGI young princess Leia so the image was fresh in my mind.
And I'm going shamelessly post a piece of fan art I stole from Borepatch.
You know the person that they wanted you to see. They are fey, in that they project an image, and that image is what you see.
ReplyDeleteYou mourn Princess Leia, the pro-gun warrior who fought to lead the rebel alliance that eventually freed her people. She famously told the chief enforcer of the dictator's policies: "The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers"
The person who died was Carrie Fisher, a left wing feminist with mental health issues and an addiction to drugs that was so severe that at least one person died from a cocaine overdose in her home. She loved her some authoritarian government, and once commented that rich people should pay far more in taxes than the poor.
Having spent 20 years in the military and then taking jobs all over the country after that I have a lot of friends and try to at least stay in touch with a Christmas card each year. But lately now that I'm older (73) I lose at one or two old friends a year. You get to value life more I think As you grow older too. But I have never been enamored by movie stars or rock stars. I cannot typically name a movie star or a singer. She may have been a wonderful person but seriously a couple million wonderful people die every year in this country. I wish her family well, I'm sad that she passed so young and I wish the families of the other two million who passed well and sorry they passed as well. I'm sure 99.99% of them didn't have much handed to them as what's her name. But they were still fathers and mothers, perhaps grandfathers and grand mothers. They were the apple of their mother's eye and they passed with no national mourning. I do feel it is important to make note of our police and firemen who die or are injured on the job. Not so much our movie stars.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about movies and the entertainment world that makes you feel like you know someone, like you're connected to them, just because you see them on screen a few times?
ReplyDeleteThe same instinctual human analytical weakness that primes you to obey politicians. The instinct for racism tells you half-truths and lies, and the instinct for politics similarly lies. Meanwhile, as Divemedic says, the politicians make a career out of lying.
FWIW, I think it's the same "instinct" (for lack of a better word) that makes your body react as if you're in a natural disaster if you watch TV coverage of a disaster. That has been studied and documented.
DeleteOur senses don't discriminate that the thing we're seeing is on a screen. The brain sees a storm on TV, the body reacts like it's seeing a real storm. In this case, the brain sees someone playing "make believe" on screen, and some level of lower consciousness interprets it as real.
I put Molly Ringwald in the same category. I rather enjoyed their movies and didn't have to think very hard about them (they are entertainment and not reality) but as real people I would probably not like them. I suspect that is pretty much Hollywood in its entirety from what I read and hear. indyjonesouthere
ReplyDelete