On writing about fame

Fame. Wow, that's WAY down the river now. I only ever think of it historically: "oh, yes, back then I thought a lot about the mark I was going to leave on the world." Those impulses to fame were always a malign influence in my life; I look at them with a pretty jaundiced eye, now.
Dale, in a comment on the post linked below.

I have been meaning for months to reply to this comment, with which I generally agree. Wishing to become famous is foolish and usually self-defeating, because it siphons energy away from the work which might have made you famous had you bothered to accomplish it.

Fame in the sense that I applied it to Ben van Berkel is a very specific thing, quite unrelated to celebrity. Fame is about achievement; celebrity is about identity. You are famous if people talk about what you do; you are a celebrity if people talk about who you are (or what you seem to be).

Fame is earned by being very damned good indeed at a particular skill. Fame originates in your peer group, and may spread to the world at large if the peer group generates enough noise.

Celebrity is purchased, usually by surrendering your privacy and personal dignity (well, it's actually leased: you don't own it, and it may be withdrawn at any time). Celebrity is a status conferred by the media and which in the first instance serves their own nefarious purposes. Paris HiIton is a celebrity, but I would say that she is not famous. She will be forgotten two seconds after she stops "forgetting" her underwear.

My throwaway line about being "world-famous among 50 thousand people" was seriously meant. An example of a person who is famous in this sense is the programmer Eric Raymond. Only Savtadotty, Dale and Anxious among my regular readers are likely to know who he is, but we all use his software (or a direct linear descendent of it) every day, when we send or receive e-mail.

Another example of a famous person is the mathematician Andrew Wiles. Ever heard of him? (I hadn't either until my father sent me a particular book for my birthday.) Go to the library of the applied-mathematics department of your local university, and let people overhear you saying that you were just introduced to him in the staff room: you'll start a riot. That is what I have in mind when I think of "fame".

There is of course a crossover point: Albert Einstein deliberately became a celebrity in order to use his fame to promote nuclear disarmament. Maria Fürtwangler (a local actress - and a practicing doctor) became famous when she started using her celebrity to promote charities benefiting children in the third world: people were applauding her engagement rather than her looks.

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to sit.