Themes And Controversy In Fight Club

Themes And Controversy In Fight Club The conversion of the novel Fight Club to film, though controversial, turned out to be a very effective way of enhancing the authors reputation while spreading the message of its themes, such as the emasculation of men, to a wider audience and inciting much discussion on its social and cultural effects. Columbine occurred only six months previously and in its shadow many blamed violent media on their actions, as the author of Fight Club saved by Cast does, calling the movie a story about a secret society of men who like to pick fights for no other reason than they simply enjoy fighting. He seems to believe that the film took the fighting out of the context of its themes and therefore becomes an ad for violence and nothing more. 3. Yet most critics agree that the movie delves deeper than that, perhaps as a commentary on modern society or National Socialism or the soullessness of corporate America. Many think as I do though, and believe that the film s main focus is the emasculation of men (Lim). 4. Though any of these have the potential to be true, the actors themselves agree that the movie should be left up to interpretation; it becomes for you what you need it to be. B. Lead up to and follow up of thesis 1. Fight Club raises a number of different reactions, many negative because of the violence, but the book isn t about violence, it s about finding your worth, getting your identity and holding onto it, earning your place. 2. Thesis 3. This movie was designed to lure in controversy, especially in light of the Columbine shooting, by not only making the statement that men want to and enjoy doing this, but hides no brutality in the film itself. There is no shortage of blood or bruises and no mercy in the sound of skulls smacking pavement (Lim). II. The Cultural effects of Fight Club A. Author s reputation 1. The film adaptation of his novel made Palahniuk s reputation skyrocket, it propelled his work to the forefront of modern literature ( COMMENTARY ). It initiated the creation of a video game and men s clothing line, and provided people with plenty of catchphrases. (Lim) B. Culture: Background 1. This film has also had a massive effect on culture and produced a following unprecedented by early road bumps. 2. Ads for the film, to the director s dismay, ran during wrestling matches, It was sold as, hey come see people beat each other up. To truly understand and appreciate the movie it had to be freed from initial misconceptions that all it was about was a group of men who enjoy beating the tar out of one another. 3. The film also cost more than sixty million dollars and it sadly, as many had hoped, bombed at the box office only earning thirty seven million (Lim). C. Mormon Fight Club in Provo, Utah (Source 5, Gumbel) 1. Even with these road bumps it was still powerful enough to start fight clubs around North America, even in the heart of America s Mormon country. 2. Mormon students attending Brigham Young University and Utah State College had been meeting in secret and modeled a Fight Club of their own after the movie. 3. Looking for bloody violence with a friendly twist? asks the club s website, Fight Club where friends gather to enjoy a relaxing beating (Gumbel). 4. Fight Club not only drew a lot of attention but also was powerful enough to start Fight Clubs that hold true to the movie in rhetoric and serve the same purpose. III. Themes A. Nobody Knows for Sure 1. With no one willing to give the film a clear thematic purpose, including the director, it is wide open to interpretation, and with plenty of people willing to offer up their thoughts there is no shortage of potential themes. 2. The movie seems to have created ubiquitous controversy amongst critics, authors and everyday people all debating over its influences and themes. Is it Nietzschean? Buddhist? Marxist? Is it about the rhetoric of masculinity? The poetics of the body? The economics of patriarchy? (Lim). 3. The argument with the most merit seems to be that it should take on the interpretation that the viewer finds applies to him/herself the best. 4. Mr. Norton agrees saying, Joseph Campbell has that great idea about mythologies: that a myth functions best when it s transparent, when people see through the story to themselves. When something gets to the point where it becomes the vehicle for people sorting out their own themes, I think you ve achieved a kind of holy grail. Maybe the best you can say is that you ve managed to do something true to your own sensations. But at the same time you realize that this has nothing to do with you. B. Emasculation of Men 1. Even in light of this one of the most popular themes appears to be the emasculation of men and their loss of male identity in the late 20th century up to today. 2. Though society condemns violence and aggression, both part of masculinity since the beginning of time, they praise violent actions in the right context. When the passengers on Flight 93 used violence on the high jackers to bring the plane down their actions were considered valiant (Boon). 3. As this applies to all men, and functions as a commentary on society as a whole, this is one of the most significant of all possibilities. Aside from that the idea of this loss of power and identity in men to the point of reclusive masculinity is becoming more and more true. IV. Conclusion A. Wrap up of themes 1. In short, Fight Club is a film of lost identity, masculinity being slowly drained from its keepers. 2. How can any man be expected to perform his function with the contradictory standards presented by culture? Men are chastised by society for practicing rituals traditionally used to prepare them for the duties they must perform as men, yet are still expected to complete those duties. Men are to: a. physically defend without training in single combat, to exhibit bravery and valor without physically imposing themselves on anyone else, to conquer without dominating, to acquiesce without surrendering, to control their environment without being controlling, to attain victory without defeating anyone, and to remain ready to fight without fighting (Boon). 3. With such limits men are forced to practice their masculinity in secret and left angry and abandoned by society. B. The End 1. Fight Club is an incredible film ripe with controversy and open to interpretation. 2. Though many critics were unforgiving, one dubbing it a film without a single redeeming quality, which may have to find its audience in Hell, anyone should be able to appreciate its dark humor and clever twists regardless of a person s stance on violence or interpretation of the film. The invention of the movie s director David Fincher makes the movie a work of art and adds immeasurably to its effectiveness; he keeps you guessing until the end (Fight Club). Other than that it holds truer to the novel it was based on than any other film I have ever seen. 3. And finally, I think the author of Fight Club says it best when he concludes, a. At the end of the day you could agree that Fight Club is a celebration of corrupted masculinity as vehemently as the opposing view that it s a parody of these ideals. It won t make any difference though because, either way, this is a thrilling, intelligent and shocking blasterpiece.

George Lopez Essay -- Media Television TV

The television show, George Lopez, is a series in which Latinos make up the entire cast of the family. It takes place in the present day Los Angeles and focuses on a family and their daily lifestyle. This is one of two television shows that are directed to the English speaking population that has the Latino minority as the main ethnicity of the cast. Only 4% of Hispanics make up the cast of prime-time television shows, a miniscule amount considering that Hispanic-Americans are the largest minority group in the US. The ways in which minorities are portrayed in the show have their good aspects as well as bad aspects. This is to be expected since showing all good points or all the bad points isn't a fair perspective of the Latino population. As a show that points out a minority, its necessary to look as the good as well as the bad to find if it is actually a optimistic view of the race or a pessimistic one. The positives shown in The George Lopez Show are demonstrated by the members of the family in many different ways. The main character George, was promoted to plant manager of an L.A. airplane parts factory in the beginning of the series. He also receives an award for excellence in business management later on in the series. These represent the success of a Latino man. In one episode, when George finds out that one of his son's friends is having a rough home life, he makes arrangement for someone to take him in and take care of him until his home is safe enough for him to reside in. This show's how human and how caring he towards others as well as his family. When his son, Max, needs help with his baseball skills in another episode, George shows that he is a devoted father and works tirelessly on improving his son's skills. ... ... Show† properly portraying Hispanic Americans in this country? Or is it just hopeful thinking on the part of Mr. Lopez on what he hopes will change (Porter, 2002)? It is true that â€Å"The George Lopez Show† does not stoop to the usual levels of stereotyping Hispanics as lazy or gang members (Morales, 2002). For the most part the show does a good job in portraying Hispanics in a non stereotypical way, however, the way that certain characters on the show talk, such as the mother and the brother, are very much the stereotypical Mexican dialect. Also, Lopez’s children are extremely lazy, which is stereotypical of the Hispanic culture, although its also very abundant in teenage culture too (Morales, 2002). The â€Å"George Lopez Show† has been very successful up until now in starting to remove the typical Mexican stereotypes in America, but it still has a long way to go.

Poem Analysis of Meeting at Night, by Robert Browning Essay -- Poetry

Poem Analysis of "Meeting at Night," by Robert Browning Robert Browning's poem "Meeting at Night" is essentially a narrative of a man who is journeying to meet his lover. The man recounts his journey as he undertakes it, mentioning or observing different portions of the trip, each in turn. One by one, he briefly describes his surroundings as he passes by them, merely noting them as if they bear only fleeting significance to him. However, although his descriptions are unpretentious and abruptly forgotten as he continues onward toward his goal, each line of the poem contains striking imagery. In fact, it should be noted that this poem consists entirely of imagery. Every line depicts a scene of the landscape that Browning's narrator encounters; that is, at least, until he finally reaches his destination, when his focus is diverted to his lover. Throughout the entire poem he offers no personal insight or reflection on his situation, and he instead is content to merely report his perceptions and observations as they come and go. Althoug h each of these little vignettes is of seemingly small consequence in itself, these individual images are each portrayed with remarkable style and feeling, and Browning skillfully strings these images together to elicit specific feelings and reactions from his readers. His masterful application of imagery, mood, and dynamic movement serve to shape the poem's emotion in such a way that the reader can tap into a plentiful well of information pertaining to the state of the speaker and his emotions -- information that initially goes unnoticed from a strictly literal observation. Browning is particularly well-known for this above-mentioned technique. On the surface level, his writing is trivi... ... image. Additionally, the color blue is unique; it casts an eerie feeling on the scene, almost as if their joining is holy or sacred. Finally, the last two lines are the culmination of this `saga': "And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears, / Than the two hearts beating each to each!" (ll. 11-12). Thus the poem concludes with boundless passion and bliss, and their love is represented by the powerful beating of their hearts. Browning's amazing command of words and their effects makes this poem infinitely more pleasurable to the reader. Through simple, brief imagery, he is able to depict the lovers' passion, the speaker's impatience in reaching his love, and the stealth and secrecy of their meeting. He accomplishes this feat within twelve lines of specific rhyme scheme and beautiful language, never forsaking aesthetic quality for his higher purposes.

Mahiganting Langit

The poem Mahiganting Langit is from the literary work of Francisco Balagtas entitled Florante at Laura and this was considered as one of the masterpiece on Philippine Literature. Francisco Balagtas wrote several poems but what makes him well-known is the poem Florante at Laura. Florante at Laura is a depiction of the unconditional love between two people despite of all the hardship given by the situation.The selection Mahiganting Langit focuses on the struggle of Florante in trying to explain the agony he experienced in pursuing his love to Laura. It shows the detailed of his sufferings to the point that he started questioning forces above. The entire stanzas in the selected poem I find it interesting but what I like the most on the poem Mahiganting Langit is, â€Å"Bakit Kalangita'y bingi Ka sa akin?Ang tapat kong luhog ay hindi mo dinggin? ‘di yata't sa isang alipusta't iling sampung tainga mo'y ipinangunguling?†I interpreted this as Florante’s questioning of wh y his grievances in life cannot be heard. As shown in the stanza Florante’s having a doubt on the goodness of God. He considered the situation befallen upon him as a direct ill-treated by the God. And God not even pay attention to his plea. This particular stanza can happen to anyone most of the time that we felt that there is no one is listening to us not even God. When we are having hard times in life we always tend to ask why. We question why God is doing this to us not thinking that God give us challenges to be a strong person and God don’t give us test for us not to overcome.For my reaction about the given poem, though the fact that it is written in our native language but still it’s very hard to comprehend the thought conveyed by the author. Nevertheless, having it read a couple of times the meaning of every stanza starts to become clearer, on this point a person reading it will understand and relay it to the current situation especially when it comes to r eal life love scenario, this characteristic of the poem made by the author amaze me the most.

Interpretation of “My Papa’s Wallet”

â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† was written by Theodore Roethke, which is a stanza poem with 16 lines. The narrator of the poem seems to be a young child speaking about an experience with his drunken father. In this poem the father came home after a night of drinking. As the father enters the house he grabs the child by the wrist with his battered knuckles, which indicates that he works with his hands. Playfully knocking down the pans, the mother irritated gives them an unhappy frown. The rhyme scheme is as follows, breath/death, dizzy/easy, pans/countenance, shelf/itself, wrist/missed, knuckle/buckle, head/bed and shirt/dirt. It’s obvious that the rhyme scheme is abab/cdcd. The rhyming in this poem seems to imitate the ordered steps of the dance of the poem’s title. However, it serves to show up the joyfulness that a person thinks of with the waltz. There is alliteration in every stanza, except in the last stanza. â€Å"Waltzing was† has the recurring sound of the letter â€Å"w†, which has a calm sound (line number 4). There are other indications that the waltz sounds loud, but the alliteration makes waltzing sound calm and usual. Countenance/could† have the sound of the frequent â€Å"c† which is a stanza with an exact sound (7/8). â€Å"Hand that held† is similar to the first stanza, which has a caring sound, â€Å"hand†¦. held†, is a an extreme contrast with the battered knuckle and scraped ear (9). â€Å"The hand that held† is assonance. â€Å"Still clinging to your shirt† is another assonance. The word â€Å"romped† is a connotation of disruptiveness, which the dancing in the kitchen caused the utensils to fall from the shelf. The tone of the poem is joyful and playful, because it seems that the father and the son are having a great time. The five main images that appear in the poem are gustatory, aural, visual, tactile and olfactory. The gustatory image is â€Å"The whisky on you breather† which is indicating the whisky can be taste. The aural image is â€Å"We romped until the pans† indicating that the sound of the pans were so loud that the mother was upset. The visual image is â€Å"My mother’s countenance/Could not unfrown itself† which indicates the look on his mother’s face was full of anger. The olfactory image is also â€Å"The whisky on your breath† which indicates the child could smell the whisky coming from his breath. At every step you missed/My right ear scraped a buckle† meaning the father is enthusiastic as he is waltzing in a fast pace (11/12). The narrator doesn’t want the young boys ear to touch the buckle, so he used ‘you’ trying to say that the father purposely lost control. â€Å"Then waltzed me off to bed/Still clinging to your shirt† the father is showing the son that he cares about him by taking him to bed (15/16). He is also showing him that he loves immensely regardless of what his son thinks. In the son’s eyes his father is a hero and the behavior that went throughout the entire poem was full of love.

Behavior Modification

Running Head: BEHAVIOR CAN BE MODIFIED BY REWARDS AND REINFORCEMENTS Behavior Modification: Desired Behavior can be Created by Proper Reinforcement Natalie Tamayo CUNY Queens College Abstract This experiment is centered on the notation of Behavior Modification. In this experiment a rat is trained to exhibit a targeted behavior called Roll. The desired goal of the experiment is mold the rat into the behavior of producing rolls whenever the light is turned on.One rat took part in this experiment. There were two precursor behaviors to the desired Roll behavior. One behavior was genital grooming and the other was head tucking. First the behavior of genital grooming was consistently reinforced when exhibited. This behavior, after sometime, led in to the secondary behavior of head tucking. Once the rat began to consistently exhibit the behavior of head tucking the reinforcement for the genital grooming was eliminated.Reinforcements were then only provided for the displayed behavior of head tucking thus encouraging this secondary behavior. When the rat begins head tucking on a fairly often basis this behavior leads into the ultimately desired behavior of rolls. Just as was done with the first precursor behavior, reinforcements were then discontinued for this behavior and were only reintroduced for the behavior of roll. Once the rat had proved that she could consistently roll the last step of this experiment was introduced.This part entailed incorporating the dependant variable of light. Now she would only receive reinforcement when the light was turn on and she rolled. The following hypothesis was supported; desired behaviors can be controlled through proper reinforcement and reward. Method Participants One virtual rat was used in this experiment. She was provided through the Sniffy the virtual rat Pro version 3. 0 CD Rom software. Materials In the virtually simulated world of Sniffy; a cage, a light, a magazine and pellets of food were utilized. Behavior Modification This paper aims analyze what behavior modification is and seeks to provide an insight into the process of behavior modification. It revolves around numerous dimensions of this process which are dependant on numerous theories like conditioning and contiguity. It focuses on behavior modification techniques and provides examples for sufficient understanding of the process.Behavior modification Behavior modification is a term which refers to any process achieved from a certain learning theory which is aimed at changing a person's behavior or the way he or she interacts with the outside world.The specific area of behavior modification which is under focus in this paper is the techniques involved in behavior modification. Secondary research is being used for the collection of data and demonstration of examples. Using the behavioral approach The behavioral approach revolves around three different types of behavioral learning theories which are as follows: Contiguity. The theory of contiguit y suggests that a specific stimulus followed by a particular response tends to be followed by the same response again on reoccurrence.It suggests that the stimulus response connections gain full strength on the first interaction of the connection i. e. contiguity. Repetition neither strengthens nor weakens the connection that has already been developed. Guthrie also based his belief on the law of recency which suggested that an organism would respond to a stimulus in the same way as it responded in the most recent encounter with that stimulus. This idea implied that habits once formed were extremely hard to break. However Guthrie suggested that behavior could be broken i. e.new behavior could be formed on the basis of following techniques: 1. Exhaustion Method: Exhaustion Method/Fatigue Method: suggests one should continue to present the stimulus until an organism is too tired to respond in the habitual way. At this point, either a new response will occur or a new stimulus-response habit will form or the organism will do nothing. 2. Threshold Method: suggests presenting the stimulus so faintly that the organism does not respond to it in the habitual manner. Then gradually increase the intensity of the stimulus so that the organism continues not to respond to it.3. Incompatible Stimulus Method: Present the stimulus when the habitual response can’t occur and will lead to occurrence of incompatible response. Classical conditioning Pavlov in his experiment presented dogs with food and observed the dogs salivary responses to the ringing of bell immediately before food was presented. Initially the dogs didn’t respond unless they were presented the food, however after a certain time the dogs started salivating at hearing the sound of the bell because they had started associating the sound of bell with food.There are two major purposes served by classical conditioning: 1,Conditioning automatic responses for example reducing adrenaline levels in humans wi thout the usage of stimuli that would produce such responses. Secondly for creation of stimuli association. There are two different types of stimuli that can be categorized as secondary stimuli or primary stimuli. Stimuli which result in response without any training are called primary response for example pain and food. Stimulus which leads to a response only after training is called secondary stimulus for example the bell in Pavlov’s case.A trainee has to be taught to like or dislike the secondary stimuli. Application of classical conditioning: Animal trainers use classical conditioning to train animals. Usually dog trainers use a light flicker which flickers at different intervals of time following which the dog is given a treat. Simply flick the light, wait for a moment and then give the dog a treat maybe food. After this has been repeated a few times, one may observe that the animal monitors, stares at the treat or maybe looks at the trainer.This is an indication towards formation of an association. The flickering light then becomes a signal for an upcoming reinforcement. Operant conditioning Operant conditioning results in the creation of an association amongst a specific behavior and a specific consequence. This refers to response stimulus conditioning because it leads to an association development amongst the behavior and its following consequence. Consequences have to be clearly linked to behavior. A reinforce refers to anything which makes an event occur more frequently than usual.An organism tends to repeat behavior when the consequences are positive; these are referred to as reinforcers. Similarly an individual tends to reduce a certain kind of behavior if it leads to unfavorable consequences; these are called punishers. As a result of punishment or reinforcement the following scenarios can prevail: †¢ If something good starts and leads to an increase in behavior it is called positive Reinforcement. †¢ When a good thing is taken aw ay the behavior decreases which is called negative Punishment.†¢ If a bad consequence is presented the behavior will decrease which refers to positive Punishment. †¢ When a bad consequence is reduced the behavior would increase which is known as negative Reinforcement. Behavior modification techniques There are five different categories of activities that revolve around numerous dimensions of behavior modification techniques: Development of a new behavior: For example teaching a child to act in desired ways which he hasn’t exhibited before, successive steps can be rewarded until we have reached or attained the final desired behavior.For example if a child to be taught a certain alphabetical spelling list we can reward the child with candy or a desired toy every time the child learns a spelling. This will eventually lead the child to learn all the constituent words of the list. This process is called SHAPING. According to continuous reinforcement principle to teach a child a new behavior which he has never exhibited an immediate reward should be presented after each correct performance. For example provide a dog with a cookie every time it responds to a stimulus in a desired behavior.The negative reinforcement principle suggests that to increase a child’s performance in particularly desired ways, the trainer should reduce undesirable consequences; this can be done by allowing the trainee to avoid the aversive situation by behaving appropriately. The cueing principle suggests that in order to teach a child to remember how to act at specific times the trainer should arrange for the provision of a cue to the correct performance immediately before the action is expected rather than after its incorrect performance.Strengthen a new behavior: encouraging a child for continuation of performance of a previously established behavior leading to little rewards, gradually requires a longer time period. This refers to decreasing reinforcement principl e. According to variable reinforcement principle, for improvement in a child's performance of a certain tasks the child should be presented with an intermittent reward.For example if a child acts according to the desired manner when sitting on the dining table, providing the child with candy immediately will lead the child to repeat that behavior in future. Maintain an established behavior: according to the substitution principle for changing reinforcers when previously effective rewards are not modifying behavior any longer, the reinforcer should be presented immediately before or immediately after the time the more effective reward is presented.Stop an inappropriate behavior: according to the satiation principle to stop a child from acting in a particular way the child must be allowed to continue the undesired act until it becomes boring and the child gets tired of it. For example if you disapprove of a child’s computer usage patterns and you think it’s leading to ad diction you should try not saying anything and encourage the child to do what he is indulged into and eventually there will be a time when the child will get sick of it and will stop doing so naturally.The extinction principle suggests another way to stop inappropriate behavior i. e. to efficiently eradicate a specific behavior one should create such conditions for the child that he/she receives no rewards following the undesired act. For example if you don’t want your child to talk while eating, every time the child indulges in such activity create such a consequence for him which is extremely undesirable, for example scolding the child. This will eventually lead to extinction of that certain behavioral display.The incompatible alternative principle suggests efficient stopping of a certain behavior in a child can be achieved by rewarding an alternative action, whose simultaneous performance with the undesired act isn’t possible. Modify emotional behavior: the avoidanc e principle states in order for a child to be taught to avoid a certain type of scenario the child should be simultaneously exhibited to the situation that is undesired or any form of its representation and some aversive condition. ConclusionBehavior modification is a technique which has been thoroughly and repeatedly analyzed in numerous experiments. These experiments have proved that following a certain series of modification can lead to a change in the behavior of an organism. References: Dimensions of human behavior by Elizabeth Hutchison, sage Pubns ( March 2003 ) Applied behavior analysis by John O Cooper, William L Heward , Edward R Canda. Prentice Hall (December 2006) An introduction to behavioral endocrinology by Randy J. Nelson, Sinauer associates inc ( March 2003 ) Behavior Modification Running Head: BEHAVIOR CAN BE MODIFIED BY REWARDS AND REINFORCEMENTS Behavior Modification: Desired Behavior can be Created by Proper Reinforcement Natalie Tamayo CUNY Queens College Abstract This experiment is centered on the notation of Behavior Modification. In this experiment a rat is trained to exhibit a targeted behavior called Roll. The desired goal of the experiment is mold the rat into the behavior of producing rolls whenever the light is turned on.One rat took part in this experiment. There were two precursor behaviors to the desired Roll behavior. One behavior was genital grooming and the other was head tucking. First the behavior of genital grooming was consistently reinforced when exhibited. This behavior, after sometime, led in to the secondary behavior of head tucking. Once the rat began to consistently exhibit the behavior of head tucking the reinforcement for the genital grooming was eliminated.Reinforcements were then only provided for the displayed behavior of head tucking thus encouraging this secondary behavior. When the rat begins head tucking on a fairly often basis this behavior leads into the ultimately desired behavior of rolls. Just as was done with the first precursor behavior, reinforcements were then discontinued for this behavior and were only reintroduced for the behavior of roll. Once the rat had proved that she could consistently roll the last step of this experiment was introduced.This part entailed incorporating the dependant variable of light. Now she would only receive reinforcement when the light was turn on and she rolled. The following hypothesis was supported; desired behaviors can be controlled through proper reinforcement and reward. Method Participants One virtual rat was used in this experiment. She was provided through the Sniffy the virtual rat Pro version 3. 0 CD Rom software. Materials In the virtually simulated world of Sniffy; a cage, a light, a magazine and pellets of food were utilized.

Eating Disorder Essay

A few years ago, Britney Spears and her entourage swept through my boss’s office. As she sashayed past, I blushed and stammered and leaned over my desk to shake her hand. She looked right into my eyes and smiled her pageant smile, and I confess, I felt dizzy. I immediately rang up friends to report my celebrity encounter, saying: â€Å"She had on a gorgeous, floor-length white fur coat! Her skin was blotchy!† I’ve never been much of a Britney fan, so why the contact high? Why should I care? For that matter, why should any of us? Celebrities are fascinating because they live in a parallel universe—one that looks and feels just like ours yet is light-years beyond our reach. Stars cry to Diane Sawyer about their problems—failed marriages, hardscrabble upbringings, bad career decisions—and we can relate. The paparazzi catch them in wet hair and a stained T-shirt, and we’re thrilled. They’re ordinary folks, just like us. And yet†¦ Stars live in another world entirely, one that makes our lives seem woefully dull by comparison. The teary chat with Diane quickly turns to the subject of a recent $10 million film fee and honorary United Nations ambassadorship. The magazines that specialize in gotcha snapshots of schleppy-looking celebs also feature Cameron Diaz wrapped in a $15,000 couture gown and glowing with youth, money and star power. We’re left hanging—and we want more. It’s easy to blame the media for this cognitive whiplash. But the real celebrity spinmeister is our  own mind, which tricks us into believing the stars are our lovers and our social intimates. Celebrity culture plays to all of our innate tendencies: We’re built to view anyone we recognize as an acquaintance ripe for gossip or for romance, hence our powerful interest in Anna Kournikova’s sex life. Since catching sight of a beautiful face bathes the brain in pleasing chemicals, George Clooney’s killer smile is impossible to ignore. But when celebrities are both our intimate daily companions and as distant as the heavens above, it’s hard to know just how to think of them. Reality TV further confuses the picture by transforming ordinary folk into bold-faced names without warning. Even celebrities themselves are not immune to celebrity watching: Magazines print pictures of Demi Moore and â€Å"Bachelorette† Trista Rehn reading the very same gossip magazines that stalk them. â€Å"Most pushers are users, don’t you think?† says top Hollywood publicist Michael Levine. â€Å"And, by the way, it’s not the worst thing in the world to do.† Celebrities tap into powerful motivational systems designed to foster romantic love and to urge us to find a mate. Stars summon our most human yearnings: to love, admire, copy and, of course, to gossip and to jeer. It’s only natural that we get pulled into their gravitational field. Exclusive: Fan’s brain transformed by celebrity power! John Lennon infuriated the faithful when he said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, but he wasn’t the first to suggest that celebrity culture was taking the place of religion. With its myths, its rituals (the red carpet walk, the Super Bowl ring, the handprints outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater) and its ability to immortalize, it fills a similar cultural niche. In a secular society our need for ritualized idol worship can be displaced onto stars, speculates psychologist James Houran, formerly of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and now director of psychological studies for True Beginnings dating service. Nonreligious people tend to be more interested in celebrity culture, he’s found, and Houran speculates that for them, celebrity fills some of the same roles the church fills for believers, like the desire to admire the powerful and the drive to fit into a community of people with shared values. Leo Braudy, author of The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and its History, suggests that celebrities are more like Christian calendar saints than like spiritual  authorities (Tiger Woods, patron saint of arriviste golfers; or Jimmy Carter, protector of down-home liberal farmers?). â€Å"Celebrities have their aura—a debased version of charisma† that stems from their all-powerful captivating presence, Braudy says. Much like spiritual guidance, celebrity-watching can be inspiring, or at least help us muster the will to tackle our own problems. â€Å"Celebrities motivate us to make it,† says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Oprah Winfrey suffered through poverty, sexual abuse and racial discrimination to become the wealthiest woman in media. Lance Armstrong survived advanced testicular cancer and went on to win the Tour de France five times. Star-watching can also simply point the way to a grander, more dramatic way of living, publicist Levine says. â€Å"We live lives more dedicated to safety or quiet desperation, and we transcend this by connecting with bigger lives—those of the stars,† he says. â€Å"We’re afraid to eat that fatty muffin, but Ozzy Osborne isn’t.† Don’t I know you?! Celebrities are also common currency in our socially fractured world. Depressed college coeds and laid-off factory workers both spend hours watching Anna Nicole Smith on late night television; Mexican villagers trade theories with hometown friends about who killed rapper Tupac Shakur; and Liberian and German businessmen critique David Beckham’s plays before hammering out deals. My friend Britney Spears was, in fact, the top international Internet search of 2003. In our global village, the best targets for gossip are the faces we all know. We are born to dish dirt, evolutionary psychologists agree; it’s the most efficient way to navigate society and to determine who is trustworthy. They also point out that when our brains evolved, anybody with a familiar face was an â€Å"in-group† member, a person whose alliances and enmities were important to keep track of.