Everyday, how many news or videos do you watch related to a celebrity? Today’s needull is review of the book – The Invention of Celebrity, 1750–1850 By Antoine Lilti (Translated by Lynn Jeffress).
The publicity that surrounds famous people, Lilti writes, ‘is the non-critical face of the public’. It is one of the strengths of his book to show that this face has been part of modern public politics and public opinion since their origins. To those who would conceive the public sphere as a ‘place for rational, dispassionate argumentation’, somewhat like a philosophy seminar, Lilti answers that it was never so. ‘In reality, the modern public sphere in capitalist, mediatized societies is, by its nature, full of passion and desire’, emotionally charged by the fleeting and affective longings of fans and the celebrities they love – and love to hate.
Needull in a haystack 