A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as a Grotesque, Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Nature determines what is poisonous to the soul and body, and sometimes it is easy to avoid that which is baneful and unclean: e.g., we..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miss America, New York, Michael Jackson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Warning: do not read this book at a wake, on a precipice, or with a full bladder. Unless you're a humorless fan of Cher, Michael Jackson, Barbra Striesand, or Mick Jagger, Wilson's turbo, heat-seeking essays about fame, the bane of our commodified culture, will induce bent-double, breathless laughter. A columnist for Salon and the San Francisco Examiner, Wilson, a latter-day Dorothy Parker without the self-hate, writes about the psychoses the lust for fame induces in the stars, their fans, and countless pathetic wanna-bes. In writing about boy bands, like the New Kids on the Block, Wilson reports on the disturbing fan mail they receive from women old enough to be their mothers. Excessive cosmetic surgery in pursuit of perfect bodies elicits blisteringly hilarious commentary on the likes of Courtney Love and Celine Dion. Smart, supercharged, ethical, and talented, Wilson also takes on the ersatz worlds of the Oscars and Las Vegas, and the malignancy of racism and sexism in Hollywood. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Cintra is an original. She is talented, funny, and altogether exceptional." -- Francis Ford Coppola

"I like to laugh and I like to think and Cintra makes me do both out loud and in public. She tells the truth funny. She's brilliant, she's funny, and she's really good-looking in that sexy picture in the back of the book that you get for no extra charge. She's better than the best, but you can't afford her, so just buy her book. It's the only thing about her that's cheap." -- Penn Jillette, Penn & Teller

"If the subjects of Cintra Wilson's loathing continue to appear in public after this book is published, it must be because they can't read." -- Greil Marcus --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014100195X
• ISBN-13: 978-0141001951
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #596,921 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Never read anything like this before: stiletto-commentary!, July 24, 2001

By	Erin O'Brien (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Cintra Wilson, a former, longstanding columnist for the "San Francisco Examiner" with a substantial cult following, has produced her first book, a series of satirical essays on celebrities and our cultural obsession with them.

Wilson nails down the essential creepiness of true fandom with the inclusion of such artifacts as an entirely genuine boxful of inadvertently deliriously funny fanmail for "New Kids on the Block": the tragically illiterate x-rated writings of desperate, usually suburban, adult women to teenage boys.

Her observations appear in chapter-length discussions of Elvis in Vegas; the ever more bizarre persona of Michael Jackson and its psycho-sexual origins; and the LA and New York commonplace of the rabidly, shamelessly ambitious aspiring actor, who defines degradation down in a quest for fame.

Wilson argues that celebrity culture is not only toxic to the egos and even physical well-being of celebrities, but also to ordinary folk, ceaselessly encouraged to regard their own lives as inherently shabbier and less important, going undocumented in gossip columns and tabloids.

Wilson's rages at celebrity culture are startlingly real, and produce unforgettably, cruelly funny putdowns of figures from divas Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion, to Siegfried & Roy, as the quintessence of the degraded Las Vegas performer. One can only wonder at what private events befell Wilson to produce this magnificent fury at the fame machine, and a wild attack on its cogs and wheels.

Easily one of the most uproarious and literate works of pop cultural commentary available. Wilson is a true original.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Celebrity and celebrities sliced and diced, July 25, 2001

By	J. Grattan "book reviewer" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Fame and celebrity are beyond any doubt a huge lure in our society, but the author is absolutely unrelenting in exposing and puncturing the ugly, bloated underside of celebrity and its ramifications.

The author primarily targets singers, actors both movie and stage, entertainers, wannabes, chieftains, and the cheerleaders of celebritism for their distorted lives where everyday realities and decencies are ignored and which can proceed in positively obnoxious and harmful directions. The celebrities selected for skewering are hardly surprising. The calamitous lives of Michael and Elvis; the grotesqueness of disfiguring plastic surgery as a means to stay or get on top (see Cher); the unrestrained lewdness of aging Hollywood actors and moguls; and the sleazy, smarmy Las Vegas entertainer, a la Wayne Newton, easily serve to make the point.

The broader culture is hardly spared. The hugely deforming and crippling aspects of small girls pursuing fame through sports, namely gymnastics and ice skating, pushed by celebrity hungry parents and coaches is a chilling reminder of the costs of reaching for fame. In addition, the connection between unimaginative entertainment and the promotion of noncontroversial celebrity is examined. Not spared is the unquestioning obsession with celebrities that the broader culture exhibits.

Though unfamiliar with her writings, the book seems to be snippets of previous work - probably columns - and does lack the continuity of a more conventional book. Her phraseology is often catchy and original as well as outrageous but at times can be awkward and difficult requiring rereads to grasp the intent.

The book is rated fairly highly due to its outrageousness and irreverence towards a phenomenon that needs skewering. A decision to read this book would hinge on one's interest in the dissection of the shenanigans and sicknesses exhibited by mostly show-biz personalities and the broader culture intent on celebrity.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not without compassion, February 14, 2001

By	Frederick Weihe (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-Examined As a Grotesque, Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations (Hardcover)

I enjoyed the book a lot. Like many readers, I am glad she's out there, wittly drawing attention to a social pathology (celebrity worship) that's so endemic that nearly no one notices or questions it.

But what I really want to add to the commentary is how suprised I was to find her, at heart, really very compassionate. Even as she skewers celebrities, and their worshipful fans and wannabes, she seems finally to be deeply concerned for the corrosive effects celebrity culture has on them, and on nearly everyone.

For example, despite all the witty deconstruction, she obviously feels really, really sorry for Michael Jackson, his lost youth, and his tragic attempts to reclaim it. True contempt is fairly rare in her book, and seems more reserved for talentless hacks and holders of purse-strings. And even then, I don't think she really thinks of them as happy, fulfilled, or enviable.

Between the lines of acid-tongued prose: concern the the happiness and spiritual well-being of all involved.