Why Creative Success Destroys People

[Kelliezgirl]

He confuses "creative success" with fame.
Most of the people he's talking to suffered the price of fame, not creativity.
Actors, and popular music stars fall victim to this, but you don't see those same patterns in authors, composers, painters and others who aren't as publicly famous (meaning they could walkdown the street and no one would recognize them). When is the last time you heard about the lead violinist of a major symphony orchestra flip out and trash a hotel room?

 

[AchtungNight]

When is the last time you heard about the lead violinist of a major symphony orchestra flip out and trash a hotel room?

Suddenly I have a great idea for a story where some lucky guy helps Lindsay Stirling do just that.

 

[gunhilltrain]

He confuses "creative success" with fame.
Most of the people he's talking to suffered the price of fame, not creativity.
Actors, and popular music stars fall victim to this, but you don't see those same patterns in authors, composers, painters and others who aren't as publicly famous (meaning they could walkdown the street and no one would recognize them). When is the last time you heard about the lead violinist of a major symphony orchestra flip out and trash a hotel room?

In a way, yes. What is he saying is that in our society certain activities like acting and pop music are paths to fame. Of course that makes a lot of people think it's a lot easier than it looks. The A-listers do wind up with crazy amounts of money as well as attention. But "we" the people did it, by buying their albums and seeing their movies. I think the film business, however, has been in a crisis again, and no one knows what AI is going to do to it.

"The walking down the street" test: An actor named Jeffrey Jones who played the school principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) found out about that. In the week after the film was released people would come up to him in the street and repeat his character's lines.

More established performers with long careers know that the fame effect can last much longer. Robert Mitchum said, "Once your face goes up on the screen, your life changes." A few people just quit the business, but many others keep going with it for decades.

 

[gunhilltrain]

He confuses "creative success" with fame.
Most of the people he's talking to suffered the price of fame, not creativity.
Actors, and popular music stars fall victim to this, but you don't see those same patterns in authors, composers, painters and others who aren't as publicly famous (meaning they could walkdown the street and no one would recognize them). When is the last time you heard about the lead violinist of a major symphony orchestra flip out and trash a hotel room?

He also doesn't mention athletes / sports stars, a handful of whom do become A-listers.

I don't think that Gaudi was that famous in the Hollywood-sense. Did his problems stem from being an architect? I couldn't say for sure.

 

[alohadave]

I've always said that I wouldn't mind being rich, but I'd never want to be famous.

Anonymity is hard to get back once you've lost it.