Monday, October 01, 2007

Fame and Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry has a new blog. Here he is on fame:
Is it fun? Or, as student journalists always ask, what’s it like? ‘What’s it like working with Natalie Portman, what’s it like doing QI, what’s it like being famous?’ I don’t know what it is like. What is being English like? What is wearing a hat like? What’s eating Thai red curry like? I don’t believe that I can answer any question formulated that way. So, student journalists, tyro profilers and rooky reporters out there, seriously, quite seriously never ask a ‘what’s it like’ question, it instantly reveals your crapness. I used to try getting surreal when asked the question and say things like ‘being famous is like wearing blue pyjamas at the opera. It’s like kissing Neil Young, but only on Wednesdays. It’s like a silver disc gummed to the ear of a wolverine. It’s like licking crumbs from the belly of a waitress called Eileen. It’s like lemon polenta cake but slightly wider. It’s like moonrise on the planet Posker.’ I mean honestly. What’s it like?? Stop it at once.

2 comments:

MT said...

Fry needs to step away from the Nagel and pick up some Grice, I think. Probably you don't even want to get him started on "How are you?" If his absolute rule makes any sense, it's only in a context of not wanting to annoy busy people who aren't obliged to talk to you and have no more patience or good will than Stephen Fry. If you're interviewing the parents of a 4H winner at a county fair, that's probably not a huge liability.

helmut said...

Very good assessment.