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1、精品文档，仅供学习与交流，如有侵权请联系网站删除1AAn artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it.The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction.Dont quit your da
2、y job! is advice frequently given by understandably pessimistic family members and friends to a budding artist who is trying hard to succeed.The conquest of fame is difficult at best, and many end up emotionally if not financially bankrupt.Still, impure motives such as the desire for worshipping fan
3、s and praise from peers may spur the artist on.The lure of drowning in fames imperial glory is not easily resisted.Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of exploiting their talent for singing, dancing, painting, or writing, etc.They develop a style that agents market aggressively to has
4、ten popularity, and their ride on the express elevator to the top is a blur.Most would be hard-pressed to tell you how they even got there.Artists cannot remain idle, though.When the performer, painter or writer becomes bored, their work begins to show a lack of continuity in its appeal and it becom
5、es difficult to sustain the attention of the public.After their enthusiasm has dissolved, the public simply moves on to the next flavor of the month.Artists who do attempt to remain current by making even minute changes to their style of writing, dancing or singing, run a significant risk of losing
6、the audiences favor.The public simply discounts styles other than those for which the artist has become famous.Famous authors stylesa Tennessee Williams play or a plot by Ernest Hemingway or a poem by Robert Frost or T.S. Eliotare easily recognizable.The same is true of painters like Monet, Renoir,
7、or Dali and moviemakers like Hitchcock, Fellini, Spielberg, Chen Kaige or Zhang Yimou.Their distinct styles marked a significant change in form from others and gained them fame and fortune.However, they paid for it by giving up the freedom to express themselves with other styles or forms.Fames spotl
8、ight can be hotter than a tropical junglea fraud is quickly exposed, and the pressure of so much attention is too much for most to endure.It takes you out of yourself: You must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be.The performer, like the politician, must often pleas
9、e his or her audiences by saying things he or she does not mean or fully believe.One drop of fame will likely contaminate the entire well of a mans soul, and so an artist who remains true to himself or herself is particularly amazing.You would be hard-pressed to underline many names of those who hav
10、e not compromised and still succeeded in the fame game.An example, the famous Irish writer Oscar Wilde, known for his uncompromising behavior, both social and sexual, to which the public objected, paid heavily for remaining true to himself.The mother of a young man Oscar was intimate with accused hi
11、m at a banquet in front of his friends and fans of sexually influencing her son.Extremely angered by her remarks, he sued the young mans mother, asserting that she had damaged his good name.He should have hired a better attorney, though.The judge did not second Wildes call to have the woman pay for
12、damaging his name, and instead fined Wilde.He ended up in jail after refusing to pay, and even worse, was permanently expelled from the wider circle of public favor.When things were at their worst, he found that no one was willing to risk his or her name in his defense.His price for remaining true t
13、o himself was to be left alone when he needed his fans the most.Curiously enough, it is those who fail that reap the greatest reward: freedom!They enjoy the freedom to express themselves in unique and original ways without fear of losing the support of fans.Failed artists may find comfort in knowing
14、 that many great artists never found fame until well after they had passed away or in knowing that they did not sell out.They may justify their failure by convincing themselves their genius is too sophisticated for contemporary audiences.Single-minded artists who continue their quest for fame even a
15、fter failure might also like to know that failure has motivated some famous people to work even harder to succeed.Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist, had his first novel Look Homeward, Angel rejected 39 times before it was finally published.Beethoven overcame his father, who did not believe that he
16、 had any potential as a musician, to become the greatest musician in the world.And Pestalozzi, the famous Swiss educator in the 19th century, failed at every job he ever had until he came upon the idea of teaching children and developing the fundamental theories to produce a new form of education.Th
17、omas Edison was thrown out of school in the fourth grade, because he seemed to his teacher to be quite dull.Unfortunately for most people, however, failure is the end of their struggle, not the beginning.I say to those who desperately seek fame and fortune: good luck.But alas, you may find that it w
18、as not what you wanted.The dog who catches his tail discovers that it is only a tail.The person who achieves success often discovers that it does more harm than good.So instead of trying so hard to achieve success, try to be happy with who you are and what you do.Try to do work that you can be proud
19、 of.Maybe you wont be famous in your own lifetime, but you may create better art.1BOne summer day my father sent me to buy some wire and fencing to put around our barn to pen up the bull.At 16, I liked nothing better than getting behind the wheel of our truck and driving into town on the old mill ro
20、ad.Water from the mills wheel sprayed in the sunshine making a rainbow over the canal and I often stopped there on my way to bathe and cool off for a spellnatural air conditioning.The sun was so hot, I did not need a towel as I was dry by the time I climbed the clay banks and crossed the road ditch
21、to the truck.Just before town, the road shot along the sea where I would collect seashells or gather seaweed beneath the giant crane unloading the ships.This trip was different, though.My father had told me Id have to ask for credit at the store.It was 1976, and the ugly shadow of racism was still a
22、 fact of life.Id seen my friends ask for credit and then stand, head down, while a storeowner enquired into whether they were good for it.Many store clerks watched black youths with the assumption that they were thieves every time they even went into a grocery.My family was honest.We paid our debts.
23、But just before harvest, all the money flowed out.There were no new deposits at the bank.Cash was short.At Davis Brothers General Store, Buck Davis stood behind the register, talking to a middle-aged farmer.Buck was a tall, weathered man in a red hunting shirt and I nodded as I passed him on my way
24、to the hardware section to get a container of nails, a coil of binding wire and fencing.I pulled my purchases up to the counter and placed the nails in the tray of the scale, saying carefully, I need to put this on credit.My brow was moist with nervous sweat and I wiped it away with the back of my a
25、rm.The farmer gave me an amused, cynical look, but Bucks face didnt change.Sure, he said easily, reaching for his booklet where he kept records for credit.I gave a sigh of relief.Your daddy is always good for it.He turned to the farmer.This here is one of James Williams sons.They broke the mold when
26、 they made that man.The farmer nodded in a neighborly way.I was filled with pride.James Williams son.Those three words had opened a door to an adults respect and trust.As I heaved the heavy freight into the bed of the truck, I did so with ease, feeling like a stronger man than the one that left the
27、farm that morning.I had discovered that a good name could furnish a capital of good will of great value.Everyone knew what to expect from a Williams: a decent person who kept his word and respected himself too much to do wrong.My great grandfather may have been sold as a slave at auction, but this w
28、as not an excuse to do wrong to others.Instead my father believed the only way to honor him was through hard work and respect for all men.We childreneight brothers and two sisterscould enjoy our good name, unearned, unless and until we did something to lose it.We had an interest in how one another b
29、ehaved and our own actions as well, lest we destroy the name my father had created.Our good name was and still is the glue that holds our family tight together.The desire to honor my fathers good name spurred me to become the first in our family to go to university.I worked my way through college as
30、 a porter at a four-star hotel. Eventually, that good name provided the initiative to start my own successful public relations firm in Washington, D.C.America needs to restore a sense of shame in its neighborhoods.Doing drugs, spending all your money at the liquor store, stealing, or getting a young
31、 woman pregnant with no intent to marry her should induce a deep sense of embarrassment.But it doesnt.Nearly one out of three births in America is to a single mother. Many of these children will grow up without the security and guidance they need to become honorable members of society.Once the socia
32、l ties and mutual obligations of the family melt away, communities fall apart.While the population has increased only 40 percent since 1960, violent crime in America has increased a staggering 550 percentand weve become exceedingly used to it. Teen drug use has also risen.In one North Carolina Count
33、y, police arrested 73 students from 12 secondary schools for dealing drugs, some of them right in the classroom.Meanwhile, the small signs of civility and respect that hold up civilization are vanishing from schools, stores and streets.Phrases like yes, maam, no, sir, thank you and please get a yawn
34、 from kids today who are encouraged instead by cursing on television and in music.They simply shrug off the rewards of a good name.The good name passed on by my father and maintained to this day by my brothers and sisters and me is worth as much now as ever.Even today, when I stop into Buck Davis sh
35、op or my hometown barbershop for a haircut, I am still greeted as James Williams son.My familys good name did pave the way for me.2A He was born in a poor area of South London.He wore his mothers old red stockings cut down for ankle socks.His mother was temporarily declared mad.Dickens might have cr
36、eated Charlie Chaplins childhood.But only Charlie Chaplin could have created the great comic character of the Tramp, the little man in rags who gave his creator permanent fame.Other countriesFrance, Italy, Spain, even Japanhave provided more applause (and profit) where Chaplin is concerned than the
37、land of his birth.Chaplin quit Britain for good in 1913 when he journeyed to America with a group of performers to do his comedy act on the stage, where talent scouts recruited him to work for Mack Sennett, the king of Hollywood comedy films.Sad to say, many English people in the 1920s and 1930s tho
38、ught Chaplins Tramp a bit, well, crude.Certainly middle-class audiences did; the working-class audiences were more likely to clap for a character who revolted against authority, using his wicked little cane to trip it up, or aiming the heel of his boot for a well-placed kick at its broad rear.All th
39、e same, Chaplins comic beggar didnt seem all that English or even working-class.English tramps didnt sport tiny moustaches, huge pants or tail coats: European leaders and Italian waiters wore things like that.Then again, the Tramps quick eye for a pretty girl had a coarse way about it that was consi
40、dered, well, not quite nice by English audiencesthats how foreigners behaved, wasnt it?But for over half of his screen career, Chaplin had no screen voice to confirm his British nationality.Indeed, it was a headache for Chaplin when he could no longer resist the talking movies and had to find the ri
41、ght voice for his Tramp.He postponed that day as long as possible: In Modern Times in 1936, the first film in which he was heard as a singing waiter, he made up a nonsense language which sounded like no known nationality.He later said he imagined the Tramp to be a college-educated gentleman whod com
42、e down in the world.But if hed been able to speak with an educated accent in those early short comedies, its doubtful if he would have achieved world fame.And the English would have been sure to find it odd. No one was certain whether Chaplin did it on purpose but this helped to bring about his huge
43、 success.He was an immensely talented man, determined to a degree unusual even in the ranks of Hollywood stars.His huge fame gave him the freedomand, more importantly, the moneyto be his own master.He already had the urge to explore and extend a talent he discovered in himself as he went along.It ca
44、nt be me. Is that possible? How extraordinary, is how he greeted the first sight of himself as the Tramp on the screen.But that shock roused his imagination.Chaplin didnt have his jokes written into a script in advance; he was the kind of comic who used his physical senses to invent his art as he we
45、nt along.Lifeless objects especially helped Chaplin make contact with himself as an artist.He turned them into other kinds of objects.Thus, a broken alarm clock in the movie The Pawnbroker became a sick patient undergoing surgery; boots were boiled in his film The Gold Rush and their soles eaten wit
46、h salt and pepper like prime cuts of fish (the nails being removed like fish bones).This physical transformation, plus the skill with which he executed it again and again, is surely the secret of Chaplins great comedy.He also had a deep need to be lovedand a corresponding fear of being betrayed.The
47、two were hard to combine and sometimesas in his early marriagesthe collision between them resulted in disaster.Yet even this painfully-bought self-knowledge found its way into his comic creations.The Tramp never loses his faith in the flower girl wholl be waiting to walk into the sunset with him; wh
48、ile the other side of Chaplin makes Monsieur Verdoux, the French wife killer, into a symbol of hatred for women.Its a relief to know that life eventually gave Charlie Chaplin the stability and happiness it had earlier denied him.In Oona ONeill Chaplin, he found a partner whose stability and affection spanned the 37 years age difference between them, which had seemed so threatening, that when the official who was marrying them in 1942 turned to the beautiful girl of 17 whod given notice of their wedding date, he sa