Fame

Jean-Michel ESPITALLIER

Caustic or moving, we laugh - forced sometimes - at this new spectacle of the show biz society, in which we have become actors (accomplices), more or less voluntarily.

In less than a century, fame has become the ultimate achievement in our society. Anonymity, on the contrary, is beginning to seem like a defect that resembles a form of excommunication. We would love to resist, to explain these recent phenomena through lessons of sociology, history, culture, reason... but to no avail: we are all caught up in the great wave of dreams and glitter.Must one be copied to be credible? Visible to be alive? What is the nature of this devotion that tends to border on the sensation of love?

- From Babar to Amy Winehouse, the author appeals to our collective memory, analyzes certain aspects of our fascination, scrutinizes the values of our stars and interrogates the rampant peoplisation in our society in a playful way.

Jean-Michel Espitallier is a writer, poet and musician. His publications include Syd Barrett, le rock et autres trucs, as well as several essays about contemporary poetry.

"An original work, full of graphic innovations, where typescript rolls up its sleeves and wages guerilla warfare on the screens that monitor our thinking and keep us in their pocket." Le Monde des Livres

"A clever and funny deliberation on the star-system dictatorship and our rapport with stardom." Public

"A little book that is both pop and incisive which illustrates the paradoxes of celebrity at any cost." Les Inrockuptibles

"Aphorisms and questions, lists, analysis and miscellany all nicely fit in this work that refuses didacticism and stimulates the thought process." Télérama