Hollywood Mythology: Bling Edition!

According to David Thompson, author of “America in the Dark: Hollywood and the Gift of Unreality”, Hollywood is largely responsible for the pandemic of materialism – our short chain to outer presentation and need for status symbols - in the U.S. The key in spreading this materialism is the mythology that the material object can substitute for or capture ontological value. This idea is nothing new, but I think Thompson’s address of how this mythology developed, and the thin line between industrious creativity and materialism, is intriguing. Here is a sample:

“…the factory is a deadly place in our culture, where people get a living in return for boredom, alienation, and withered self-respect. No one seems to have been bored by the Hollywood factory. Sensation was the product, melodrama its instrument, and excitement the mood in which people worked. Outsiders detected that extra zest and took it as one more proof – along with extravagance, mediocrities made wealthy, and indulged self dramatazation – that Hollywood people were crazy. But as Hollywood shrunk, these ways of life spread in California. …I may wonder how far expenditure as a form of identity, the gap between merit and awards, and the unrestrained outpouring of inner life are now modes in Califormia. That golden state is often attacked for crass materialism. But the facile turning dreams into possessed things shows allegiance to the imagination.”
(Thompson, 43-44)

In terms of Hollywood Blvd, the streets are literally lined with this mythology in the walk of stars. The setup is simple: name of a person in gold, indication of their field in a gold plaque, all encompassed within a star shape (gold) and lined up uniformly with other stars on the sidewalk for people to see. These objects are a perfect illustration of “expediture as a form of identity, the gap between merit and awards, and indulged self-dramatization” that Thompson mentions. They reduce the human identity to a dramatic material symbol (the star – singular, bright and shining against the abysmal night of community), and award people with little reference to their merit or substance. I wonder how much of this mythology, which equates being with having can be applied to our own intervention art - or any other discourse that deals with material objects and thier meanings, and its fascinating for me to consider that I am lumped into the very thing I am intervening on.

I would like to point out and apologize for my apparent need to end each and every one of my blog titles with an exclamation point. But I am easily excited and a word like bling demands more than a simple period, dammit.

Here are some other resources that deal in the realm of Hollywood materialism:

On Crass Materialism or Industrious Creativity?
"Sullivan's Travels" Director: Preston Sturges
"For Your Consideration" Director: Christopher Guest