Does Fame Kill?

Posted on February 19, 2012 by davidbdale

Those who claim, such as Kathleen Parker, that fame killed Whitney Houston, must mean that if her first album had bombed she would be alive today.

How provable is that thesis? How sufficient is the evidence? How relevant, how accurate, how logical is the support offered. Better yet, how could such a thesis be proved by anyone?

Comments encouraged.

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About davidbdale

What should I call you? I prefer David or Dave, but students uncomfortable with first names can call me Professor or Mister Hodges. My ESL students' charming solution, "Mister David" is my favorite by far.
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2 Responses to Does Fame Kill?

  1. tonyshilling's avatar tonyshilling says:
    February 21, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    Fame doesn’t kill anyone. The time period, i say, has a much greater influence. If Whitney had not risen to stardom in a time when drugs were taken like candy, i say she would be alive today. But regardless, Whitney Houston’s poor life choices killed Whitney Houston; people that try to make it more are just apologizing for her mistakes.

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    • davidbdale's avatar davidbdale says:
      February 21, 2012 at 7:20 pm

      Hmm. I think you’re right, Tony, but that won’t discourage me from posing an analogy.

      A Nascar driver’s choices kill him, if he dies in a crash on the track, that is. But is it fair to say so? Without that two-ton metal projectile pinning him to the wall, he’d be alive. Did the track kill him? The other car? The deliberate endangerment of the other driver? The dead man’s own ineptitude? The slick track? All contributed to his death, perhaps.

      Why blame just his choice to drive for the circuit, or just his choice to drive that one day when conditions were less than optimal?

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