Thursday, 8 August 2013

A Broken Dream

Aug 08A photo Aug08A_zpsc8cf052b.jpg
For a brief moment, I thought: Don't go there, it's no news any more. Because, news in our fungible times, has the consistency and durability as take-away food. True, Susan Boyle was celebrity for quite a while, not surprising that she represented millions in dividends for somebody with some for herself even, but her defeat in the final of 'Britain's got talent', in 2009, the show where she shone with brilliance till sudden darkness swallowed her up, the news of her crisis of nerves and her subsequent admittance into a psychiatric hospital ... has been repeatedly reported in all media for days, leaving abundant material for debate. Another broken doll of thousands with broken dreams of fame.

Converted overnight into a star of world fame, singing the song 'Dream a dream' in the 'Got talent' competition, with 100 million download in the Internet, was but an ordinary middle aged woman, lacking feminine charm, overweighed and considered by many as ugly, until her interpretation of the winning song, instantly drawing attention and seen on every television set. Famous actors viewed her as an idol, the Prime Minister of her country personally took care of her, Obama invited her to the White House ...

Her brother said she was disorientated not understanding her defect, after weeks of planet scale adulation and flattery. He thinks she would get over it soon to become her normal happy self again. Her normal state is not exactly normal in that she suffers a certain degree of mental defect, lacking oxygen at birth so says the chronicles. A devote catholic, virgin and unemployed, she lives alone with just her cat in a little village in West Lothian. She has lived an overdose of euphoria and deception, all at once within just a few weeks, from being laughed at, joked about, even been offered a part in a porno movie. Then she had been praised, adored, showered with contracts and job offers; restyled, redressed, then bitterly defeated, jeered and broken.

Who, much better prepared than Susan to face the unpredictable cruelty of the world, can resist such pressure? Logically, the ugly ducking singing like a swan collapsed in front of the audience, to add plenty of idle talk for the months to come. Perhaps her fame was not that she was so much considered as a real good singer, but a miracle product with ready made publicity for instant marketing. A product with a sell-by date, a product easily substituted. The show will carry on. Would Susan?