Membership. Two grids remained. The grid of the two hundred million
and the grid of intimacy. Everything else fell into disuse. There was
a national life -- a
shimmer of national life -- and intimate
life. The distance between these two grids was very great. The
distance was very frightening. People did not want to measure it.
People began to lose a sense of what distance was and of what the
usefulness of distance might be.
Celebrities. Celebrities have an intimate life and a life in the grid
of two hundred million. For them, there is no distance between the
two grids in American life. Of all Americans, only they are
complete.
Celebrities. The most successful celebrities are products. Consider
the real role in American life of Coca-Cola. Is any man as well loved
as this soft drink is?
George W.S. Trow. Within the Context of No Context. Boston: Little,
Brown and Co., 1981. (p 7-9)