I've read a couple of books recently that have been about fame.  I didn't do that intentionally.  I didn't really know completely what they were about in advance and coincidentally they had similar themes, although one was more about fame in the internet era and one was more about the "dark side" of fame.  As much as it seems so many people crave fame, it doesn't really sound super appealing to me.  I'm sure there's a nice little ego boost involved with being celebrated and especially having your work recognized, but I don't think I'd like everyone I encounter knowing who I am when I don't know who they are.

And then there's the whole business of just being famous and trying to maintain your fame.  When that become central to you and you have to expend so much energy and focus on maintaining your public image and staying "on brand," yeah, I really don't think I'd like that part either.  If you have to hire a publicist to vet everything you say and do so you can maximize your fame and not damage the brand, it just feels really, really phony and calculated and honestly pretty gross.  

When I was a kid I kind of thought I wanted to be famous.  I wanted to be a movie star and a rock star and write books.  It was partially a narcissistic little kid "I'm the center of the universe" thing.  Also I think kids really like attention.  But also I really liked movies and books and music, and I liked acting and writing.  I didn't really like practicing my violin, but I was intrigued by the idea of coming up with my own songs.  I sort of lost the acting bug somewhere along the way, but I do still enjoy writing stories and making up songs.  

And it's kind of weird because there is some part of me that wants those stories and songs to take off in a big way, which would then probably entail becoming famous.  Because as an "artist" you do want your stories read and your music heard and it probably would be a cool ego massage to have your work praised by critics and be widely popular with the public.  But I don't think I want that other crap that goes along with fame.  I guess there's always the whole "pen name" thing which I've thought about before.      

This is all leading into a tangentially related thing I've been thinking about concerning art vs. product, but I feel like this entry has gotten long enough already.  I'll try to tackle that in another entry, if I get around to it before the year ends.