Magic and art, myth and creativity. Part of why they go so beautifully together in stories is because it’s often hard to tell the difference. Poet or wizard? Musician or changeling? Spell or song? We don’t properly know where creativity comes from, so we revere it and distrust it in equal measure. That’s the thing about humans, isn’t it? We both love and fear anything we can’t put away in a cupboard at the end of the night or tuck into the bottom of our bag. It’s hard to say who treats the muse with more subjective awe consumer, or creator. Those who don’t create are mystified by those who do, imagining them plunging into an abyss and returning with art. But those who create are equally mystified. Why am I like this? Why can’t I stop?
“By gossiping about celebrities and by talking about what they’ve done that isn’t so great, it allows us to establish our values as a community and also for me, as an individual, to advertise my values to the people I’m speaking with,” says professor Julia Fawcett, who teaches a course called the History of Celebrity in the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies.
Celebrities, one theory goes, act to unite imagined communities in a modern nation. When people used to know everyone in their villages, now we use celebrities to come together in a new kind of group. “I’m a fan of Beyoncé, and you’re a fan of Beyoncé, so now we’re a part of this imagined community,” says Fawcett.