Modernity’s novelty is the industry monetizing communion with exalted figures

Evidence

What is particular to modernity, then, is not the existence of such individuals but rather the idea of constructing an industry based on the demand for feeling some communion with them, on our willingness to idolize them (literally)—an industry that monetizes their capacity to capture our rapt attention. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 771

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the modern celebrity industry’s distinguishing feature: not the idolized individuals but the industry built to monetize the craving for them.
• SEED: Angle for an essay: the celebrity industry as a direct descendant of religious pilgrimage economy and royal cult, monetizing the same spiritual craving.
• XREF: connects to: Modernity’s cult of novelty masks a sameness produced by industrial reproducibility. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 257; The demand for novelty paradoxically strengthens the conventions it appears to escape — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 100; Postmodernism’s rejection of innovation still depends on the very notion of novelty. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 276 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Modernity’s cult of novelty masks a sameness produced by industrial reproducibility. #qualifies (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 257
• Commodity exchange reduces difference to identity through endless novelty #expands (0.75) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 548
• The demand for novelty paradoxically strengthens the conventions it appears to escape #expands (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 100
• Postmodernism’s rejection of innovation still depends on the very notion of novelty. #complicates (0.72) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 276