Funny You Should Ask

News media has a long history of capitalizing on public interest in the private lives of important people and admired celebrities. The entertainment industry relies on that interest to sell and market the work of those same celebrities—commodifying the celebrities themselves as much as their projects.

Psychologists suggest varying motives for this interest in the lives of the rich, famous, and powerful. Part of the attraction might involve the search for role models, for patterns of how to live for maximum enjoyment or success. Some suggest that, as social animals, people form status hierarchies and it’s natural to look toward the top of the hierarchy for safety, approval, or curiosity. Others suggest that interest in celebrities stems from a common wish that we too might be noticed, admired for our good qualities, and found valuable and important within that power structure. People imitate celebrities to share in their glamor and the perceived ease, enjoyment, and comfort of their lives.

At the same time, audiences relish signs that celebrities are human and fallible, just like us. Psychologists suggest that interest in and engagement with the celebrity’s image becomes its own sort of relationship—referred to as a parasocial relationship—that fulfills an emotional need. An example from Funny You Should Ask is Chani’s youthful obsession with Gabe Parker to the point that she has a shirtless picture of him on the lock screen of her phone.

The quality of reporting on celebrity and entertainment news varies widely. Respected publications like Vanity Fair feature well-written celebrity profiles that offer insight into a subject’s career and personality, while long-running, popular tabloids like People or Entertainment Weekly rely on shorter bits of news around projects, press releases, or personal life events. The Internet allows a proliferation of image-heavy reporting that ranges from average gossip to clickbait designed to deliver advertising. Tabloid magazines have existed for at least a century in the United States for the purpose of sharing scandalous news. Tabloid publications, both online and in print, rely on high-drama headlines and content, which sometimes brings their credibility into question.

One way to understand the relationship between Chani and her husband, Jeremy, whom she calls the Novelist in her blog, is to understand an attitude that still prevails in the literary world around the distinction between quality, “literary” writing and writing designed for entertainment. The publishing industry in the United States has for several decades been dominated by the idea of a firm distinction between “literary fiction” or “literature” that is artistically crafted, intellectually challenging, or socially important as opposed to writing that is aimed at profit by catering to the interests of the general population, such as commercial, mainstream, and genre fiction as well as entertainment news.

The preserve of literary fiction is generally maintained by asserting that literary fiction is more artistic, of better quality, more demanding to read and write, and of superior quality to works meant for “low-brow” or general readership of mainstream and non-elite culture—examples include: romance, mystery, science-fiction, thriller, and fantasy novels.

Literature and literary fiction are traditionally taught in writing workshops associated with universities or colleges where writers study for two to three years to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) with an emphasis in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. Historically, it’s presumed that these writers will go on to produce works of contemporary literature that their publishers hope will accrue both broad sales and critical prestige. The world of literary criticism revolves around critics reading and making judgments on literary works in articles typically published in magazines or journals aimed at a high-class of readers implicitly defined as highly educated, wealthy, or otherwise artistically discerning. Literary works are awarded the most prestigious prizes, and a positive reception for an author’s work can lead to offers for respected, tenure-track professorships in MFA programs.

The Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa is located in Iowa City. It is the oldest MFA program in the United States, generally considered the best writing program in the country, and its alumni have garnered numerous prestigious awards, including National Book Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, and the Nobel Prize. The program is highly selective and thus highly competitive, and graduating from it is a top literary credential in itself.

Because they both were accepted into the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Chani and Jeremy could both be considered good writers by these traditional standards. However, Jeremy thinks real writing is what he produces: labored fiction that takes time and great effort to produce but is received with admiration and acclaim in the literary world. Because Chani’s first published story features dragons—a fantasy element—she doesn’t think of it as literary, and Jeremy shares the opinion that her celebrity profiles are puff pieces that have little artistic merit or elevated writing quality. New York City, as the place where the biggest traditional publishers are based, is the center of the US literary world and home to a vibrant arts scene, and Jeremy feels he needs to live there to be considered a literary success.