Celebrity-ism

Apple Jac's previous blog about "New Moon" has inspired me to discuss another fascinating phenomenon surrounding the recent release of the film: Twilight fans, aka Twilighters.

It is expected that any successful story features likeable characters. We've all experienced that dissapointing feeling when we finish a good book and realize that we will no longer be able to see the world through our beloved characters' eyes. I often procrastinate reading the last few chapters of stories I've loved, just to allow its world to continue a little longer. In the end however, it is just a fictional story, with fictional characters and fictional events.

I read and enjoyed the Twilight saga, and can understand why teenage girls relate and fall in love with its characters. What I have found interesting through this entire pop culture craze however, has been the Twilighters' intense devotion to the cast of the movies. The actors in Twilight and New Moon have been under intense security over the past few months, due to their growing fan base. One of the actors, Taylor Lautner, summed it all up during an interview I caught on television when he stated that "[he] hopes [he] can live up to the fans' expectations". Fans of the books finally have people to attribute their beloved characters to. Whether they have realize it or not, to Twlighters, Bella, Edward, Jacob ect., can now live on through the actors' personal lives and stories. It definitely does not take a genius to see what the problem is with this situation. Fans of the story are idolizing a regular actors and attributing to them the qualities of purely fictional characters. Welcome to our culture of celebrity entertainment.

Twilight is not the only example of the celebrity phenomenon. Our culture has created an entire industry based on celebrity-ism. We admire their fame, know their favorite passtimes, follow their relationships and admire their appearances. Celebrities have become the heroes of our generation. The problem is that these "regular" people are in very few cases heroes at all. Is our focus on them distracting us from true present and past heroes? Who are your heroes and why? What do your heroes stand for?