This is a good question, and has caused me to think about the nature of buzz and hype and the rest. That is, aside from the obvious part, which is a gigantic publicity budget so that one sees refs to a thing everywhere, for a time, but those are shills. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.
I don't want to misstate--I have an awful cold so my head is reverbing like a mallet-struck cymbal--but I see two things happening, one the success of text, and two, the success of cult of personality. This is akin to the cult of celebrity, in which case someone so good looking, and in good parts, and whose life has been romanticized enough, creates interest just by being. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Junior did this--so much so that Mary could play engenues when she was way past the age most women were summarily kicked out of the industry, whose producers and directors wanted 'em young and nubile.
John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow made themselves personalities, Scalzi before he commenced fiction . . . CD was writing for a while, but I don't think anything was the kickass success that Little Brother was right outside the gate, after he made himself a personality. Neil Gaiman has made himself a personality. (He also writes well, which helps! :-)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-03-02 03:28 pm (UTC)I don't want to misstate--I have an awful cold so my head is reverbing like a mallet-struck cymbal--but I see two things happening, one the success of text, and two, the success of cult of personality. This is akin to the cult of celebrity, in which case someone so good looking, and in good parts, and whose life has been romanticized enough, creates interest just by being. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Junior did this--so much so that Mary could play engenues when she was way past the age most women were summarily kicked out of the industry, whose producers and directors wanted 'em young and nubile.
John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow made themselves personalities, Scalzi before he commenced fiction . . . CD was writing for a while, but I don't think anything was the kickass success that Little Brother was right outside the gate, after he made himself a personality. Neil Gaiman has made himself a personality. (He also writes well, which helps! :-)