Djelloul Marbrook

Celebrity idolatry and our way of defining success are entwined vipers. This most churchgoing of nations defines success by sales, approbation, bad behavior, critical attention, wealth and power.

Why is not standing vigil by a sick friend’s bed, writing one good line of poetry, shedding one moment of light in a dark corner, cheering one fellow human soul, why are these accomplishments not defined as success in a nation of such conspicuous religiosity? Why is a life decently lived not as celebrated as an empty head famous for being famous?

Why are our pulpits big-mouthed about homosexuality, family values and abortion but mealy-mouthed about a society that defines success by such obscene measures? Where are their values? Could it be they’re firmly rooted in the business ethos?

I used to attend, had to attend newspaper editorial conferences presided over by a publisher whose sagacity seemed to consist of saying, Well, it’s all in the way you frame things. This is the kind of huckster’s pragmatism that serves a commodified society well.

The country is down to five newspaper book review sections: such hand wringing in the blogosphere. But it’s not so surprising when you consider that newspaper book review sections and their best-seller lists are a measure of business success, not literary accomplishment. They’re like the stacks of books in the front of chain bookstores. They tell you how much money has been spent by the publishers on promoting certain books, while thousands of other books go unreviewed, not because they were found undeserving, but because they weren’t published by Big Money. The industry’s definition of success is how well Mammon is served.

And when Big Money’s books are reviewed some fool critic often as not will ask if the writer can do it again? As if that matters. But of course in a money-obsessed, horse-race society, it matters all too much.

—DM