Fashions, Fads & Styles --The Conveyor Belt of Life

Shelley Duvall is sad and mad.

"'I was a star; I had leading roles,' she said, solemnly shaking her head." "She had parked in the town square for a takeout lunch — chicken salad, quiche and sweetened iced coffee, finished off with a drag of a Parliament. She lowered her voice. 'People think it’s just aging, but it’s not. It’s violence.' Prompted to explain 'violence,' Ms. Duvall responded with a question: 'How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime' — she snapped her fingers — 'they turn on you? You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.'"

Shelley is now 74. She is a year and 20 days older than myself. Apparently she and I have very different expectations out of life.

I was never and will never be as famous as Shelley Duvall. She chose a path to fame and stardom. And she achieved it, for awhile. She certainly had much more than her "15 minutes" but not enough for her, apparently. And, truth be told, no one who actively seeks fame is satisfied with 15 minutes.

How many times -- be honest -- have you heard a name of someone formerly famous and thought, "Are they still alive"? That is the nature of fame. It is the technology of our day that even permits us to actively access the roles and events that made more than a handful of persons famous in their time.

We all live, work and accomplish on a conveyor belt of time. At some point we are thrown off. The length of the belt is varied. But the reality of the belt is fixed.

And it is why sometimes when I watch a contest such as America's Got Talent, The Voice, Best Portrait Artist of the Year, or The Great British Baking Show, I will do an internet search on the winner to see how he or she has got on since winning. The results are variable as one might expect. In the first two listed shows the contestants are all looking for fame and fortune. The second two listed shows I think the expectations are more complicated, they are all looking for validation of their talent and recognition, but the path to fame and fortune is less clear. All of the endeavors, except maybe baking, seem very much subject to public fancy and preference -- at least to the degree that one converts effort to wealth.

One winner of the Best Portrait Artist of the Year is a case in point. Christian Hook (who signs his art with the three "o"s, Hoook) won the contest in 2014. Hailing from Gibratar, he was ethnically Spanish but had easy entrée to British society. His talent is formidable, but in the art game you have to have a gimmick, and then another gimmick, and another gimmick. In the last 10 years, he has done much to keep in the public eye for his target customers. Some of his gimmicks work better than others, but his ability to move in the circles he desires and to cultivate clientele has been very strong. Covid was a setback, but at least he could paint. And he has produced a documentary, Painting the Invisible, to resuscitate his post-Covid endeavors.

The problem for Hook, and everyone who seeks fame, is the constant need to offer something new which may not be as delightful as that which he has done before, and to do it on the conveyor belt of time. All the while more people come around who clamor for the attention you are getting, the wealth that has been coming your way. We always suspected the number was pretty substantial, but with the advent of Instagram and Tik Tok, we have discovered that number is truly staggering!

At one level, Shelley's complaint that leads this post is very narcissistic. But it is hard to imagine how one exerts oneself in the way she and others in the "arts" do so without narcissism. And narcissism blinds you to the end point of the conveyor belt. And we are adding to the blind, every day.