The trouble with righting some wrongs is that it makes the remaining ones seem even more unbearable.
Celebrity is a national drama whose characters' parts and plots are written by the tabloids, gossip columnists, websites and interactive buttons. The famous don't actually have to turn up to their own lives at all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Celebrity culture often distorts reality, with media shaping the narratives of famous individuals.
A. A. Gill's quote suggests that celebrity is a constructed reality, where the media plays a significant role in determining the narrative of a person's life. The famous people depicted in tabloids and gossip columns may not even participate in or be aware of the stories crafted about them, highlighting the disconnect between their public persona and private experiences. It raises questions about authenticity in the lives of celebrities and the influence of the media in shaping public perception.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the influence of social media, one might say, 'As A. A. Gill remarked, celebrity is a national drama, often scripted by the tabloids.'
More from A. A. Gill
All quotes βIf the world were to end tomorrow and we could choose to save only one thing as the explanation and memorial to who we were, then we couldn't do better than the Natural History Museum, although it wouldn't contain a single human. The systematic Linnean order, the vast inquisitiveness and range of collated knowledge and beauty would tell all that is the best of us.
Sport is how poor kids from poor countries pass through the eye of the needle to riches and recognition.
Being able to afford everything you desire is not, by any means, the worst thing that can happen to you. But, depressingly, and more profoundly, neither is it the best.
America didnβt bypass or escape civilization. It did something far more profound, far cleverer: it simply changed what civilization could be.
Trying to learn to be a good man is like learning to play tennis against a wall. You are only a good man - a competent, capable, interesting and lovable man - when you're doing it for, or with, other people.
Similar quotes
You are the luminous mystery in which the entire universe with its forms and phenomena arises and subsides. When this realization dawns there is a complete transformation of your personal self into your universal self . . . the complete loss of all fear, including death. You have become a being who radiates love the same way the sun radiates light. You have finally arrived at the place from which your journey began.
Surviving - that is the other name of a mourning whose possibility is never to be awaited.
Tomorrow you may bring about the destruction of your world. Tomorrow you may sing in Paradise above the smoking ruins of your world-cities. But tonight I would like to think of one man, a lone individual, a man without name or country, a man whom I respect because he has absolutely nothing in common with you - MYSELF. Tonight I shall meditate upon that which I am.
The libertarian sees the State as a giant gang of organized criminals, who live off the theft called "taxation" and use the proceeds to kill, enslave, and generally push people around. Therefore, any property in the hands of the State is in the hands of thieves, and should be liberated as quickly as possible. Any person or group who liberates such property, who confiscates or appropriates it from the State, is performing a virtuous act and a signal service to the cause of liberty.
Scepticism is the first step towards truth.
Any war or conflict you enter where you are likely to lose more Americans and expend more treasure is something worthy of very detailed debate. There ought to be a lot of skepticism. There ought to be a lot of discussion.