What it is to be famous!
And what keeps your name and fame alive …..a question from one who isn’t
famous!
But one I really want to ask of Andrew Marr……
But as I say, since I’m not
famous, so I wouldn’t know what keeps your name alive, but when a really famous
person (no, not reality tv, and not tv
soap) I’m referring to Prof Higgs, who
does not own a mobile phone, said a former neighbour had pulled up in her car
as he was returning from lunch in Edinburgh to tell him he was co-winner of the
Nobel Prize…..now, that’s being famous.
Stopped in the street!
Prof Higgs is quoted as saying…:
"She congratulated me on the news and I said 'oh, what news?'" …. And
after all these years, and knowing that the awards were coming round
again…that’s also modesty! Oh, and he's just beginning to think of retiring.
On Thursday last week, Malala was
awarded the EU's Sakharov human rights prize. Tho’ she had been tipped for the
Nobel Peace Prize, that went instead to the Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons, the body overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical
arsenal.
By now, most of us will have
heard of her, would recognise her name and probably her picture, too. A native
of Pakistan's mountainous Swat Valley, Malala rose to prominence in 2009 after
writing an anonymous blog for the BBC Urdu service about her life under Taliban
rule and the lack of education for girls, which made her moderately famous.
But
for the wrong reasons, she’s now known as the girl that the Taliban failed to
kill, and more recently, more positively, as the girl campaigning for girls’ education. All of
which is combining to make her famous. And today we learn she's to be made an honorary Canadian citizen.
But what makes you famous, and even more so, keeps your name and fame
alive?
And
let’s be honest, how many famous women from across the world, across the
centuries can we all name beyond a few from yesterday's papers?
One of my personal heroes is Rigoberta
Menchu Tum born in north western Guatemala. Now, she did win the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1992,
For me it was seeing her here in
Edinburgh, courtesy of SEAD, listening
to her speak, unaided, no prompts, no notes, but speaking calmly and
confidently, re-telling her story: her
siblings and friends dying because of unsafe labour conditions and extreme
poverty.
Her own family’s extreme poverty prevented her from receiving any
formal education, but in her teens, she began to protest against human-rights
abuses by the military. Her mother, father, and brother were murdered, forcing
her to flee.
In Mexico, she spoke of the cruel treatment of the indigenous
people in Guatemala, hoping she could make a difference.
Eventually, her book, yes, she had a book
published, two infact, but the first was translated as: I, Rigoberta Menchu,
bringing her world fame and her role as a symbol of the brutality endured by
native and marginalized people.
But will her name stay alive
after she is not? It’s not unusual to be lost in history,
and the mists of time.
Underground Railroad. http://www.biography.com
Then there was Ida Wells-Barnet (born 1862 to enslaved parents) founding a newspaper, the Memphis Free Speech, publishing articles denouncing the outbreak of lynchings in the Southern USA, and that she, a woman worked almost to the end of her days promoting civil rights and women's suffrage. Wells became one of the original founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
http://www.factmonster.com
And the irony of it all?After all, Virginia’s parents went there for a new life, a better life (does that sound familiar…were they migrants, escaping…something?), and then, the native ‘Americans’ suffered, followed by the enslavement and forced migration of Africans. Woman to woman, three hundred years…….those seeking freedom not found in their own home country set the scene for the decimation of the original inhabitants and enslaved others.
All I’m saying is, famous people often get wiped from history. So should we try to keep fame famous? After all, it’s not their fault they get wiped from history…his story?
How could we try to keep some famous names alive and kicking either once the owners have become dearly departed, or better still when they’re still here? And where does Andrew Marr fit into all of this?
He's soooooooo famous, I don't need to add more here, surely!Andrew William Stevenson Marr is a Scottish journalist and political commentator. He edited The Independent, and was political editor of BBC News......
Well, there was info circulated very recently that announced AM is to present a programme that encapsulates the history of Scottish literature. So far, so good. But it’s called: The Men who Invented Scotland’. But hang on, is that fame? Being recognised by your initials? Or maybe AM shares something with Prince Charles..the ears?
No
one denies that our literature here has
in all probability been dominated by men. Domination though is not the same as
a lack of female contributors.
Men
in the past, men in the present?My
own favourites include Scott, Burns, Stevenson : you can see what I read as a
child!!.
And then later, where would I have been without the likes of McILvanney,
Kelman and the wonderful Gray?
Is that fame…when just your surname is enough?
For them? No, their fame if that is what it is, is built on quality, the ability to challenge, stimulate, provoke, enrage, enthral.
Of course there
were female writers, contributors. Margaret Elphinstone. And even earlier, Mary Brunton, who had a follower no
less that Jane Austen.
The lack of female writers ‘making it’ into the public
domain is not a reflection on either women not writing, nor does it evidence women
not being able to write.
It is more a reflection of society’s view of women,
and what they should and should not be doing.
And yes, those who did make it
are easily & subsequently air brushed. Remember Aphra Benn? Sorry perhaps
that should be…who remembers Aphra Benn?
So what will the AM’s programme
do if not perpetuate the myth of a lack of able, participating women in various
arena, this time highlighting literature? If he is considering the past tense....invented Scotland....I just might have to acknowledge that yes, womens' contributions were more prolific and more to the fore, more tripping off the tongue and book shelves in the last century:
Miss Jean Brodie. Jessie Kesson. OK,
don’t all shout out at once..one’s a title, one’s an author…I know. But Liz Lochhead: she kept her head!,
Janice Galloway, Ali Smith, A L Kennedy …see, initials only!
We’ve got a referendum coming up,
we’re reinventing ourselves, our Scotland, all the time,
So if it the men who invented Scotland, I hope we can find time to remember the women who’ve been
ignored, passed over, forgotten, airbrushed out of .......our story…….
And just in case you’d like to
consider some earlier writers, try….
