Intimate Strangers: The Culture of Celebrity: The Culture of Celebrity

by Richard Schickel

In trying to understand the power of celebrity in modern life, Richard Schickel ranges through every realm of our culture ― film, theatre, television, literature, art, the media, pop music, politics ― for examples of how celebrity shapes our world and bends our minds. He considers the careers of figures as diverse as John Kennedy and Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Dwight Eisenhower, Walter Cronkite and Andy Warhol, among dozens of others. And he reflects on the dangerous, sometimes deadly, political and social consequences of the fascinating, largely unacknowledged relationship between the famous elite and the unfamous majority. In demonstrating how the carefully fostered illusion of intimacy between these two groups has created a devastating confusion between public life and private life, in showing how the play of celebrity symbols has largely replaced the play of ideas in our society, Schickel takes us on a journey to the heart of contemporary darkness ― and offers, finally, a chilling warning about the psychopathic consequences of our national obsession with celebrity. " Intimate Strangers is, simply, in my estimation, the single most important book about celebrity." ― Neal Gabler.

Genres: Nonfiction, Research

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Richard Schickel is an important American film historian, journalist, author, filmmaker, screenwriter, documentarian, and film and literary critic.

Mr. Schickel is featured in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. In this 2009 documentary film he discusses early film critics in the 1960s, and how he and other young critics, rejected the moralizing opposition of Bosley Crowther of The New York Times who had railed against violent movies such as Bonnie and Clyde.

In addition to film, Schickel has also critiqued and documented cartoons, particularly Peanuts.

Schickel was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964. He has also lectured at Yale University and University of Southern California's School of Film and Television.

Reviews

[kac attac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breezy and rambling, but very much worth reading. Especially if you think journalistic style is inherently superior to academic style; even you will be hankering for some academic temperance (and a bibliography) by the end. But, as they say, he makes some good points.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't finish. It's been lying around forever. The premise is solid, the examples good, it's just dated since the phenomenon has only accelerated since the Time Magazine movie critic wrote this book in the late 1980s. Bought it for $1, ready to donate to the library.

[rndgmoat · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is an interesting rant that periodically hits on a valuable point here and there (and never really lives up to the promise of the first few chapters) but never really coheres. By the end, you are sick to death of the author's cynical pontificating and undefended putdowns of mass-culture. Meh.