Fame is Useless, Curse of the Stage
Get on a stage, dance like a clown, be loud, proud, obnoxious. I do not need to live such a nightmare, but I might have to soon enough. For reality has come for me. Within every job, the same problems occur. A jealous coworker, man or woman, small or tall, heavy or thin, they always appear. They seem to replace one another. Alternate, celebrate, then alienate.
“Fame” and “celebrity” are dictated by those around you. They make you a target, place you in hostile territory, paint you the enemy for being alive. Your crime? You’ve deemed selling out a, “choice.” This choice is not your own, but something forced upon you. For resisting the recycle bin, the cliche, the consumable… is blasphemy, an insult to what they want to hate. You will be resented, you will be stalked, you will become mainstream.
Every artist is mistaken, for they believe that, “oh, it will not happen to me, I am adaptable, I have style, I have integrity! I will not sell out like the rest.”
Selling out is not a choice that belongs to you, but the hive. For the group, not the artist, determines what you are. Celebrated or hated, you will go to the gallows. For the crowd needs their piñata, their object of resentment, their Taylor Swift, their Kanye West, their Bad Baby! Jordan Peterson, Noam Chomsky, James Baldwin, they must be replaced, replenished, relinquished of duty. They are tired, or rather, the world has tired of them. They need something new, a shiny new toy, something young and robust, ready and unwilling for a fresh public beating. Oh yes, their knives are ready, pitchforks sharpened, sly grins smoothed to a cashmere shine.
The playing field is different for the one who has been marked. Paranoia, shadows, and covert motives are always something to question, but never to dwell upon or dissect. “What did he mean by that,” or “why does her behavior seem to change day to day,” are not questions that should be asked, but acknowledged as simple weather. For getting too involved leads to confusion, derision, and mental vexation. Better to let go than hold tight to life’s inevitabilities.
Fame follows the outlier, the person who has overperformed, done too much, makes others feel bad through comparison. It is a default state, and to hide it is a greater crime than to immediately reveal your “other” ness. This is because with shock comes resentment, and with resentment, comes hostility. Well, hostility will find you either way, so no sense in delaying it. But if you must, know this, it will compound and unleash all at once when you are found out. There is no hiding, but only biding time, and time… is not your friend.
Hello! We’re D.J. Hoskins
We are Davena and Jason Hoskins, co-authors of 40+ books and siblings who write under the pseudonym D.J. Hoskins. Three years apart and in our twenties, we have been fascinated by stories from a young age. Davena is a student attending Princeton University, and Jason attends Georgetown University.
