Where do we get our fascination with seeing the mighty fall? Why do we love to trace on a map the collapse of an empire and to read every painful detail of a hero's downfall (not to mention a villain's comeuppance)? It's not simply schadenfreude. There's also identification.
People, relationships, and institutions are all subject to the corrosive effects of internal conflict, and internal conflict is interesting. For one thing, it reflects our personal interior fractioning back in our faces. It's no accident that we turn our bodily ills into societal metaphors and advertising slogans: a company is "hemorrhaging money," violent crime is "a cancer on society," a car company wants to be "the heartbeat of America."
So, while jealousy may explain some of the pleasure we take in others' failure and misfortune, when we observe the forces that drive organized entities towards chaos, entropy and oblivion we nod in recognition because we ourselves contain - and can just barely contain - those same forces. Even religious people who think there is a supernatural purpose to their existence have an expression for it: "There but for the grace of God..."
Not only do we know in the back of our minds that poverty, paralysis or death could be lurking around any corner, we also seem to need constant reminding that we are not alone in this perilous boat. And it can be especially comforting to see that our heroes, as well as our peers, live on the edge of disaster. That goes some way towards explaining Americans' obsession with celebrities: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." (Lindsey Lohan, anyone?)
Individual celebrities can be fascinating enough, but bands go them one better, boasting family dysfunction along with human foibles. Watching a band twist and spasm through failure, success, and post-success implosions and hangovers can be like watching a sprawling soap opera. Sterling Whitaker knows this, and in his new book he does a nice job of fitting together his own interviews and previously published sources to tell the story of a complicated band that got precious little respect but enjoyed enormous popularity.
Article comments
1 - Rodney Welch
I don't believe I've ever read such a bizarrely literate review of such an abysmal band.
2 - Jon Sobel
Thank you Rodney. Although I do not agree about the "abysmal band" part, it was weird to be writing this relatively deep stuff about a band that was, in the final analysis, pretty fluffy. But you never know when something on the lighter side is going to suggest some complex thoughts...