Celebrity

Some call it popularity, some call it celebrity, some call it fame. They are all pretty much the same thing, aren't they? And wasn't it Andy Warhol who first said "In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes"? Well no, not quite. Let me unpack it for you, as the trendies say nowadays.

True, that quote did appear back in 1968 in a catalogue for a Warhol exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. It had also appeared after a fashion a year earlier in a 1967 Time magazine article about artistic trends in the Sixties: "Whole new schools of painting seem to charge through the art scene with the speed of an express train, causing Pop Artist Andy Warhol to predict the day 'when everyone will be famous for 15 minutes'." 

Andy Warhol

However, there are other claimants. Art critic Blake Gopnik suggests it could have been the Swede Pontus Hultén, curator of the afore-mentioned Moderna Museet, who actually coined the phrase. Then there are some who think it originated with New York painter Larry Rivers, habitué of the Chelsea hotel and godfather of Pop Art. Others still credit the photographer Nat Finkelstein, including Finkelstein himself, who insisted that he made the remark during a photoshoot with Warhol in 1966. In reply to a comment Warhol made about everyone just wanting to be famous, the photographer is supposed to have quipped, "Yeah, for about fifteen minutes, Andy."

Regardless of the truth (or otherwise) of any of the above, Warhol by popular consensus has come to be the 'owner' of the quote - even though he seemed to deny responsibility in a 1980 interview. But unpack a little more from the annals of yesteryear and you'll find that it was an expression in use in France at least a century earlier.

The phrase "quart-d'heure de popularité" (fifteen minutes of popularity) appeared in 1821, in 'Histoire de l'Assemblée Constituante ' by Charles Lacretelle. And then there was Alphonse Daudet, who in 1879 in an article about the recently deceased journalist Jean Hippolyte Auguste Delaunay de Villemessant, used the variant "quart-d'heure de célébrité" (fifteen minutes of fame). I quote: "de braves garçons [...] ont eu, pour une heureuse trouvaille de quinze lignes, leur quart-d'heure de célébrité"; "some young fellows have had [...] thanks to fifteen cleverly-written lines, their fifteen minutes of fame".

Et voila! Popularity, celebrity, fame are all pretty much the same thing, the words interchangeable even in translation. And the rather dismissive implication all through is that they are also fleeting accolades, here and gone just like their objects. That quarter-hour though. Fifteen minutes sounds better.

Slightly ironic then that Warhol should have managed to be famous, celebrated and popular for decades, as have been many of the figures he chose to depict in his iconic pop art paintings, the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Jacky Kennedy, Mao Tse Tung, Elvis Pressley, Mick Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor.

Liz Taylor by Andy Warhol

The Hippocratic aphorism "Ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή" that we know most commonly in its inverted and translated Latin form as "Ars longa, vita brevis" was supposed to mean art takes time but life is short, i.e. it takes a long time to acquire artistic skill and a lifetime is hardly enough. Maybe since the Pop Art Sixties  it has started to be interpreted somewhat differently in the sense that life is short but art endures. 

It's almost as though Warhol has pulled a trick on us in using the Pop Art medium (trashy, immediate, mass-produced, disposable) to confer on his celebrities a kind of lasting fame through the act of painting them.

Here's the first draft of a new poem (a work in progress) for today's theme.

15 Minutes

Who was it first declared

"Fame is a whore"?

It could have been 

one of the dramatic Elizabethans

or a cynical wit of a Metaphysical

or Oscar Wilde even.

We just don't know. 

The recording angel 

was a bit hit and miss that day, 

mind probably elsewhere. 

On what to have for tea for instance, 

supposing recording angels need to eat. 

Or maybe stealing a sneaky

quarter of an hour

away from what (s)he considered 

the frankly thankless task 

of keeping score regarding

catchy things people say

for posterity,

simply to snort a few crystal lines

in the lavatory.

Whatever the excuse 

for this unfortunate lacuna,

clearly some perceptive soul

had got it spot on

only to suffer the devastating irony

of their name and hence claim to fame

getting missed along the way.

Thanks for reading, S ;-)

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On Track

Yes indeed. Back on track after a fab week on the sunny island of Kos; not a cloud to be seen and temperatures in the mid-30s Celsius - not bad for September. I'd never visited Kos before but I'm not surprised it's the fourth most popular destination in Greece after Crete, Rhodes and Corfu.

Situated in the Dodecanese and within touching distance of Turkey - which is why this year's earthquake, centred on the Turkish city of Bodrum, caused such damage across the strait in Kos Town - the island has a lovely relaxed feel to it, and more bicycles per head of population than Beijing. There are thousands of bikes for hire and miles of cycle-tracks in the towns and around the coast. Because Kos is relatively small (30 miles long and six wide) and relatively flat, cycling is a popular way to get around, making the island a bit like the Netherlands only with palm trees and permanent sunshine. Most squares and beaches and many tavernas are equipped with cycle-racks - all very eco-friendly.

Add to that the stunning scenery (example below) and the unfailing friendliness and hospitality of the locals, and I can understand why Kos has one of the highest revisiting rates. I certainly hope to go there again (though perhaps not sixteen years in a row, like one couple we met).


Aghios Stefanos beach (from this happy snapper's holiday portfolio)

Such friendliness has its basis in filotimo (φιλότιμο) considered to be the highest of Greek virtues, essentially a way of life. It literally means 'doing good' but really encompasses walking in right paths (on track!) and showing kindness and respect to all.

The island's most famous son, one Hippocrates (460 - 370 BC), who is often cited (with justification) as the father of modern Western medicine, exemplified filotimo and he and his students favoured an informed and holistic approach to their profession. He is credited with inspiring (if not coining) the Hippocratic Oath, the code of ethics that still binds doctors today with a duty to preserve life. Among the many aphorisms attributed to Hippocrates are these:

"Make a habit of two things - to help, or at least to do no harm."
"If we can find the cause, we can find the cure."
"Bad digestion is the root of all evil."
"Let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food."
"Wherever the art of medicine is practised, there is also the demonstration of humanity."
"Everything in excess is opposed to nature."
"Walking is man's best medicine."
"Health is not merely the absence of disease, it is the balance of mind, body and soul."

all clearly advocating the benefits of self-awareness, getting on track and walking in right paths.


Koan badge of honour (from this happy snapper's holiday portfolio)

Natives of Kos are known as Koans and the students and successors of Hippocrates were sometimes known as the Koan school. As I lazed on one of the island's beautiful beaches it occurred to me that Koan is a homonym and I started thinking about koans, those cryptic sayings beloved of Zen Buddhists, like "Imagine the sound of one hand clapping" that are used to provoke thought or contemplation and designed to lead the student to greater awareness and a realisation of the interconnectedness of all things.

Inspired by the sound of one wave lapping, I decided on today's poetic challenge - an effort which takes as its point of departure some of Hippocrates' most famed quotes and recasts them in koan-like form. (Well, I tried.)

Koans
Life is short, the learning is long.
How can its lessons be learned young?

Breathe with your eyes,
Measure with your heart,
Feed with your soul -
And if you founder, consider the whole.

Balance is of the essence,
Let nature show the way
And accept that doing nothing
Is sometimes sound remedy.

Talking leads to diagnosis,
Walking yields the best prognosis,
Thriving comes from symbiosis.

When everyone is a doctor, who is the sick man?

Thanks for reading. Happy trails, S ;-)

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