FAME HYPOTHESIS

      A quick thing I've been meaning to write about for some time now, the Fame Hypothesis. What is it? Simply put, it's this idea I had which was inspired by Kim Kardashian and a co-worker's comment on her frequent magazine cover appearances. He wondered aloud if it was now illegal for a month to go by without her appearing on at least one magazine cover.

      The Fame Hypothesis is a mathematical expression that states that one's fame is inversely proportional to the amount of reminders needed to keep one famous (that is, in the public's mind). Some people are very famous: Paul McCartney, Lucille Ball, and Neil Armstrong for instance. Some people are not: Kim Kardashian, The Situation, and Colleen Haskell (if you said, "Who?" upon reading this...thank you for illustrating my point)

      The basic difference between the two is this: if Paul McCartney stepped out of the limelight and effectively disappeared much as Neil Armstrong has, he would still be remembered and revered for his work in The Beatles just as anyone, even people who hadn't even been born when it happened, know that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon. Neil Armstrong is a notorious recluse and still, over forty years after the fact remains supremely famous for that one act and he will be forever enshrined in public memory like Christopher Columbus and Napoléon long after he has died. There are just some people who are just that famous.

       If you didn't have magazines constantly reminding you of the existence of Kim Kardashian, how quickly do you think you would forget her? Her fame, like plutonium, is unstable and without constant reinforcement, would be lost to the ages. People being born now will not know who the fuck Kim Kardashian is when they are old enough to ask that question...if they ask that question. The Jersey Shore will merely be a destination to them and Paris Hilton will sound like a hotel in Paris, France.

       As far as I am concerned, the more frequent the reminders needed, the more unstable your fame is. Whatever true fame is, it is doled out infrequently and certainly not repetitively (Quick! Who was the third man to have walked on the Moon?). I suppose the same applies to people in general: the more one needs to be reminded of you, the less famous (i.e. important) to them you are...

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The answer is Charles "Pete" Conrad