..or else you are not “in” at the moment.
I’m a bit sceptical. For famous faces it is a chance to appeal directly to their audience in arbitrarily concise format. Stephen Fry is a great amabassador simply because many people admire his intellect countered by the school-boy charm with which he views life’s idiosyncrasies.
Following Lance Armstrong in his journey to reclaim past glories on his bike is also compelling for those keep to see how he is coping getting back into the swing of things. After all, how many weekend cyclists would love to get a free tip from the master on how they can improve their cycling and enjoy it more in the process?
Finally, comedians offer the chance to get a more sanguine version of the cartoon strip we turn to in the morning paper. Why read imaginary when their twist on otherwise mundane events can hit a finer note. But are they not supposed to not be funny all the time? So what do the readers get out of it? The comedians get to try new material without stepping on a physical stage however so it works for them. Though for the legendary John Cleese, it is simply a way of letting his sublime mind unfold the world before us.
The dark underbelly of all this of course is the platform it gives the politician, TV presenter and pop culture personalities who spout drivel or obvious rhetoric as befits their role in society. I’m guessing that a lot of the material is written for them. Those that do write their own stuff would be profound by their fallibility and interesting due the insight it gives the “Hello!” reading public into their real lives. But how can you tell ?
I feel that Stephen Fry is not the sort to con his viewers/readers for whom he seems to have a genuine affection. Lance is unlikely to have a publicist writing his copy because he has a genuine cause to talk about – his cancer charity, as well as enough people talking him down that breaking through the media and directly reaching real people works well for him. Twitter also allows his supporters to keenly cheer him on, drowning out the voices of dissent. Good job.
So I’m a bit unsure. I’m going to dip into three pages now and again to see what the fuss is all about and maybe get a fix for what has annoyed Lance this week, the fantastic mind of Neil Gaiman and exactly what Stephen has got himself into now….
