The Show about Nothing, hinted by Gabler...

Neal Gabler's "Our Celebrities, Ourselves" really speaks volumes on "the mark of authenticity" as he argues with Daniel Boorstin on the subject of celebrities. Boorstin believes celebrities are celebrities simply for being well-known, however, Gabler claims that there is much more to that simple statement. Gabler draws the readers attention to how the lives of celebrities follow a narrative pattern that goes "on and on and on" and how many people's lives are consumed with the following of these celebrity narratives. Gabler's subject audience is assumed to be the happy and average middle-class american and he wants the reader and this audience to focus on the tension of "artifice and authenticity." Neal Gabler thinks that the authenticity of a celebrity is really just a type of aura that they project onto society. Nevertheless, Gabler reveals that the narrative these celebrities star in encompass the search to find themselves. And this search is what everyone in society, or the audience, relates to and focuses on when watching and following celebrities through the use of different mediums. Both types of people, celebrities and their fans, engage in this search to find oneself.

Now this real-life melodrama that is the narrative of celebrities has many twists and turns and these narratives come from all types of celebrities. Gabler mentions a few, who range from Jennifer Lopez and Michael Jackson all the way down to John Wayne Bobbit and Joey Buttafuocco. Now why does he mention these seemingly 'nobodies' turned stars overnight? Joey Buttafuocco is known for the whole debacle of his mistress and his wife. But why does Gabler mention him at all? Perhaps it is because that Mr. Buttafuocco seems a little bit realer to society than a celebrity. A celebrity who always has everything going for him or her like money, cars, kids, big house, you name it. So Joey Buttafuocco seems more authentic to the average reader of People or Vanity Fair and his story almost demands attention. Nevertheless, a person in society watches celebrities on the big screen or the tv screen to find himself. He realizes, according to Gabler, that through the celebrity, he can find himself. This made automatically made me think of the show Seinfeld. No doubt is "the show about nothing" a perfect portrayal of daily life. A narrative that everyone can follow and relate to. If you can't relate to every episode of that show, you are not a human being. And that is just me building off of Neal Gabler's ideas and conveying my love for the show Seinfeld. Nevertheless, Neal Gabler may be on to something.