The personal disquiet of

Mark Boulton

October 2nd, 2007

Stephen Fry on Fame

Stephen Fry has a new blog. To date, there has been two posts: one about Device and Desires, and the latest about fame. To call them blog posts is an under­state­ment really, they’re essays, or blessays as he calls them. It’s an abso­lute pleas­ure to read a blog post by someone who can write this well. It’s so inspir­a­tional and enter­tain­ing, I just had to men­tion it.

The latest post includes a won­der­ful para­graph I’m call­ing ‘what’s it like?’

Is it fun? [re. being fam­ous] Or, as stu­dent journ­al­ists always ask, what’s it like? ‘What’s it like work­ing with Nat­alie Port­man, what’s it like doing QI, what’s it like being fam­ous?’ I don’t know what it is like. What is being Eng­lish like? What is wear­ing a hat like? What’s eat­ing Thai red curry like? I don’t believe that I can answer any ques­tion for­mu­lated that way. So, stu­dent journ­al­ists, tyro pro­filers and rooky report­ers out there, ser­i­ously, quite ser­i­ously never ask a ‘what’s it like’ ques­tion, it instantly reveals your crap­ness. I used to try get­ting sur­real when asked the ques­tion and say things like ‘being fam­ous is like wear­ing blue pyja­mas at the opera. It’s like kiss­ing Neil Young, but only on Wed­nes­days. It’s like a sil­ver disc gummed to the ear of a wol­ver­ine. It’s like lick­ing crumbs from the belly of a wait­ress called Eileen. It’s like lemon polenta cake but slightly wider. It’s like moon­rise on the planet Posker.’ I mean hon­estly. What’s it like?? Stop it at once.

See? Genius.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 7:34 am and is filed under Personal.

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9 Responses to “Stephen Fry on Fame”

  1. David Horn said on: October 2nd, 2007 at 8:13 am

    ooh — thanks for the tip off, that’s bril­liant stuff.

  2. Colly said on: October 2nd, 2007 at 8:16 am

    Agreed. There was plenty of “Fry TV” on the Beeb at the week­end to cel­eb­rate his 50th birth­day. Wholly enter­tain­ing, but always tinged with some kind of sad­ness I think. Any­way, the man is a genius regard­less of whichever polar oppos­ite his mind is resid­ing in at any time.

  3. minxlj said on: October 2nd, 2007 at 8:30 am

    I haven’t been able to get onto his web­site for a week or so now — is any­one else get­ting the ‘server did not respond’ mes­sage? Hmm. I was try­ing to read the iPhone/smartphones art­icle he wrote.

    Any­way thanks for post­ing this. I am a huge fan of Stephen Fry (have you read his auto­bi­o­graphy? very insight­ful). He is amaz­ingly tal­en­ted and I still main­tain that Black­ad­der is the fun­ni­est thing ever to appear on TV. That such a funny man is also unbe­liev­ably intel­li­gent and nice is a bonus.

  4. Crafts said on: October 2nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm

    minxlj its work­ing for me now… 

    Nice find.. Be read­ing that today :)

  5. Lady said on: October 6th, 2007 at 12:51 am

    Thanks for sharing

  6. skip hire said on: October 6th, 2007 at 5:37 am

    Really weird — as I was read­ing your post and about to head off the Mr Fry’s blog, my wife (in an unre­lated incid­ent) placed todays Guide from The Guard­ian in front of me; on page 32: The Adven­tures of Mr Stephen Fry. All about his blog. Must be the law of attrac­tion or sumfink. I’m off…

  7. Tomasz Gorski said on: October 6th, 2007 at 9:14 am

    Thank Mark for link to Stephen Fry blog I agree that “It’s an abso­lute pleas­ure to read a blog post by someone who can writethis well. It’s so inspir­a­tional and enter­tain­ing,…” I also try to write­something on my blog but it’s hard to me writein Eng­lish some­thing that is hart to say in Pol­ish. Regards

  8. Alexandrita said on: October 6th, 2007 at 1:52 pm

    My con­grat­u­la­tions Stephen!!!!

  9. Jack Gringo said on: October 7th, 2007 at 4:13 am

    That’s some meaty read­ing! Blog­land has just become a good bit more interesting/entertaining.

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