Guys. It’s very sad that Alan Rickman passed away this week. It’s also sad that David Bowie passed away the same week. But please remember that they are celebrities. You did not know them personally. They are not your mom or your boyfriend. You admired their acting and music respectively. You did not share mimosas and tater tots with them on the reg. So when you post “I FUCKING HATE THIS WEEK” on Facebook and Twitter, please bear in mind that your life is not going to change because these two individuals are no longer part of it. They were never part of it.
Also, it’s not a strange twist of fate that they died during the same week. It’s not even a coincidence. They actually had nothing to do with each other, just like they had nothing to do with you. Lots of people you never knew die in the same year, month, week, even day.
Obviously it is not up to me to forbid you to collectively mourn. But please remember that this week is what you make it to be. You can still live your life minus one great musician and one great actor.
(Apologies to any of my Facebook friends who did, indeed, consider these two individuals close personal friends.)
Love, love, love this! Collective mourning really needs to occur in a more selective fashion!
But… isn’t it ironic how they both died the same week??
GOOD POINT. But I will personally miss seeing Alan Rickman in future movies — no one could sneer like he could!
Nice to add some statistical reality to entertainment culture. Well done!
Great piece! And, I couldn’t agree more. People need to remember that they don’t have intimate relationships with these celebrities. It’s not like when my boyfriend, John Lennon, or my other boyfriend, Elvis, died.
I feel sad for you. If you have never been touched by someone of celebrity status and do not feel any different after losing them, then you must have a very cold heart. I did not personally know either of these people nor am I mourning their passing. I do have actors, singers, authors, etc. that I would mourn for if they were to pass. I may not be friends with them, but can appreciate their work as an artist and feel the need to mourn when the time comes for them to die.
My post is not about disparaging people for admiring the work of celebrities. By all means mourn the loss of someone you admired. I am responding to the way in which people so publicly personalize the death of someone whose work they appreciated, but never actually knew–making it more about themselves than the person who had people who actually loved them. In a way, it trivializes their death. I am also pointing out how people draw nonsensical relationships between events that had no actual connection, like the fact that two celebrities died in the same week.