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Two years ago, celebrity was a privilege of the media elite. Now, as the world's biggest vanity
press kicks into high gear, Andy Warhol's glib axiom has become the mindless mantra
for anyone with a computer and a modem.
To assist novice fame-seekers in their efforts, a vast body of literature has sprung up. Go to your local bookstore; the shelves in the computer section are ablaze with the fat spines of books that promise to teach you how to master the Web. Some explain HTML, some delineate the intricacies of CGI and Java. Each has its own specialty, but they are all alike in what they fail to include: the one necessary skill every succesful Web auteur must possess... That skill is automythology, the ability to create a larger-than-life persona for oneself. The ability to "be" a celebrity. The book that teaches this skill doesn't exist, but there is a site on the Web where such information can be found... www.dsiegel.com is the work of natural-born teacher David Siegel. As casually as you or I breathe air, Siegel dispenses expert counsel: on HTML, on the principles of graphic design, on grammar and vegetarian cooking and even the best fertilization techniques for women at the tail-end of their child-bearing years. For some reason, however, Siegel masks the true purpose of his site. Perhaps like the Pat Morita character in The Karate Kid, he believes his lessons are more effective if you don't quite understand what you're learning. Thus, the people who visit www.dsiegel.com may think that they're discovering the single-pixel GIF trick or why to use solid colors for their backgrounds; in reality, what they're actually being taught, through the thorough but veiled set of rules Siegel puts into practice at his site, is how to manufacture celebrity charisma, the preternatural sheen of Someone Who Matters... |
