Jade Goody and modern fame.

Jade Goody is famous. She is the kind of famous person who couldn't possibly have been famous only a few years ago. She is famous for being a "reality" star. In other words, she is famous for being herself.

Jade Goody first came to public attention in the Big Brother series on Channel 4 in the UK. For those who don't know, this is a show in which a group of strangers get together in a house which is covered in surveillance cameras. Week by week, they are eliminated, until there is a winner. Now, Jade Goody didn't win the show, but she won in subsequent life. Although she only came fourth in the show, the exposure was enough to allow her to leverage her position in the most surreal way imaginable: she ended up having other TV shows, launching a perfume (Shh...), various diet and workout DVDs (she is large), appearing many times in gossip and celebrity magazines and amassing a fortune estimated at up to 8 million pounds. In all, she has done remarkably well, for a self-declared uneducated 27 year old from Essex.

Yet, there is a problem: Jade Goody is dying of cancer. Her remarkably unlikely life is also going to be remarkably short. Her cervical cancer has metastasized and doctors give her only weeks to live.

Jade Goody has made another unusual choice: her decline is public news. Photos of her bald head and failing health are to be seen in all the tabloids and her last minute wedding to Jack Tweed was featured in Hello magazine (for a reported 700,000 pounds). In England, much attention is given to her dying days.

Yet, think on this: since when, before the modern era, would the death of an ordinary woman capture the attention of a nation? Jade Goody has none of the conventional talents expected of a famous person. She is not one who could have become famous for her merits, skills or exceptional gifts in the time before reality shows. It is only the advent of the reality show and its appetite for the ordinary person, that she has been able to propel herself to fame, and considerable riches.

What we see with Jade Goody's hold on the British mind is that in the modern era, fame itself has merit. Once a person becomes famous that, in itself, is enough to justify attention directed towards them. Jade Goody is better known than many of much greater merit, but she receives the attention precisely and only because she has already received attention. That is it. There is nothing more to it. Jade Goody is worthy because she is known, but she is not known because she is worthy. She is known because of a modern invention called the reality show that projects ordinary people to the masses.

Having said that, reality shows do provide a new form of entertainment that entertains because its contestants are just like the viewers: ordinary. There is a new kind of bond between viewer and contestant: between the ordinary and the ordinary. Before now, the relationship had always been between the ordinary and the extraordinary - between the ordinary person at home and the remarkable person on the screen. That has changed - and so Jade Goody is now a famous person.

Were it not for Big Brother, Jade Goody would now be just another unknown young mother, dying of cancer. Now, however, she is a wealthy, famous reality star dying of cancer. Her life, though still short, has become much bigger. She will pass on, but she has left an imprint on the public consciousness of the UK. I feel that, somehow, this thought nourishes her.

Jade Goody is dying in full view of the public. She says she is doing this to ensure the financial future of her two sons - because media organizations have been paying for her story. That is fair enough.

Though ordinary in talent, Jade Goody has led a remarkable life. I wish her and her family well.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)