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TYLER COWEN, What Price Fame? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. 248 pp., $22.00 hardcover.
PAUL E. MULLEN, MICHELE PATHS, AND ROSEMARY PURCELL, Stalkers and Their Victims, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 310 pp., (not priced) paperback.
Reviewed by DAVID BENEDEK.
What Price Fame? The provocative nature of the book's title and an initial perusal of the dust jacket beg the potential reader to speculate on the subject matter within. The dust jacket features a photograph of a member of the paparazzi, perched in a treetop high above a stone privacy wall focusing his camera on an unseen (and apparently unwitting) subject. The inner sleeve explains that the photographer is focusing on Elizabeth Taylor. Ignoring the age-old adage to not judge a book by its cover leads one to the conclusion that the book will examine the impact and consequences of the intrusions into personal privacy on those who have obtained celebrity status. The title and the cover photograph combine to suggest that damage caused by intrusions into the personal lives and the privacy of the famous is the price of fame to be explored within.
While the aptly titled Stalkers and Their Victims leaves less room for speculation as to subject matter, it might seem that these two works would overlap significantly in their content. The popular notion that the media and fans relentlessly pursue the famous would suggest that a book about stalkers and their victims would be devoted in no small part to the impact of intrusions into the personal privacy of celebrities by fans, fanatics, and the media.
However, in terms of subject matter and style, these two books share relatively little common ground. First, the title and cover photograph belie the actual content of What Price Fame? Beyond seeking to answer the question posed in its title in terms of cost to the famous (or even to society), What Price Fame? explores the nature of fame itself. The book explores the questions of what motivates the talented to seek fame or become famous, how the modern market economy produces celebrity, and the extent to which fame and fame-seeking behavior benefits or degrades society. The suggestion that the "price" of fame is a price paid exclusively by the famous ignores...