RANGE: From your secret daydreams through your fondest ambitions, all the way to the top of the glittering heap and back down to dim, grim obscurity, the Phantasma Glory manages careers. And although she specializes in such of the exacting, exhausting performing arts as havingyour-picture-taken, she has also made superstars out of economic advisors, greengrocers, diet doctors, and self-absorbed, vainglorious, shallow, and ambitious ladies and gentlemen from all walks of life. She is everywhere, flashing like a strobe. HABITS: As even a William Morris agent knows, the actual manufacture and exploitation of a celebrity is easy. The difficult part is motivating an ordinary citizen to undergo the simple but excruciatingly painful and boring process. That’s where Phantasma Glory comes in. In conspiracy with her fellow media-elves, The Hounds of News and The Mind Boggles, Phantasma Glory lures the starlets out of the corn fields, the expert commentators out of the ivory towers, the pop singers off the street corners, the fat kids onto the ledges— all into the blinding, brainless, and alltoo-brief blaze of the spotlight. Answering her casting call, cowboys run to Hollywood, morons in the stands take their shirts off for the cameras, dancers study voice, poets give readings, and the cowboys leave Hollywood for Washington. But unlike the crowds of fans, the business managers and the interviewers, the Phantasma Glory does not desert the formerly famous. Take a look at that punched-out contender, that burnt-out disco queen, that guy sitting in the ruins of his barrel at the foot of the falls. Still smiling, aren’t they? Because the Phantasma Glory still hovers near them, singing softly, “Fame . . . you’re gonna live forever …” HISTORY: The Phantasma Glory is a direct New World descendant of the Rhine Maidens, the Nymphs of that German river who guarded a fabulous hidden treasure and lured many a hero to his doom. (Richard Wagner, an egomaniacal, perfect example of fame-addiction, wrote an opera about them.) They betray their Rhine Maiden origins by two of their favorite Siren calls: “Take the plunge,” they whisper, and “Go for the gold.” In the United States, they have done some of their best work urging folks to give everything they’ve got for a shot at the Vice-Presidential nomination. SPOTTER’S TIPS: Look for the Phantasma Glory in places frequented by her victims: open casting calls, cable tv studios, passing through the Guinness Book Of Records, thumping guitars in the park, attending film school, or sitting alone in their rooms, practicing their autographs. The Phantasma Glory beckons you to the Coast. If you’re on the Coast already, to the Other Coast.
棲息地 甘い香りのするところ
ならいたるところにいる。 この
妖精たちは、人間の野望という
仮面に隠れて, とりついた人物
を栄光の座へとひた走らせる。
まるで競馬の馬につける遮眼帯
のように、彼にわきみすること
を許さず, 栄光はあらゆるもの
の犠牲のうえにしか輝かないこ
とを強制する。
サラリーマン社会において
は、この妖精たちは馬車馬のよ
うにしゃにむに働くことを要求
する。もちろん、家庭や家族を
かえりみるひまも与えない。や
がて妻や子どもたちは、夫や父
親のそんな姿に疑問を持ちはじ
め、やがて気づくだろう。 栄光
の座は彼ひとりしかすわるスペ
ースがないことを。
習性 この妖精たちは, 町工場
や喫茶店で働く平凡な若者たち
を、ほんの気まぐれからスーパ
ー・スターにしたてあげる。 そ
してもし彼らがこの妖精たちに
払う犠牲という名の報酬をもっ
ていなかったら、 彼らがスーパ
ー・スターになったあとで彼ら
から 「人なみのしあわせ」を見
返りとして奪い取ってしまう。
ジェームス・ディーン,エル
ヴィス・プレスリー, ジャニス
・ジョプリンなどがその例で
ある。
交通事故, 病気, そして麻薬
中毒と, 偉大なスーパー・スタ
ーたちは人生なかばにして散っ
ていった。 彼らにとって, 栄光
の座がはたして彼らの払った犠
牲にみあうものであったか、い
まとなってはもう誰にも訊いて
みることはできない。
またこの妖精たちは, けっし
て非凡な人間にはとりつかな
い。 非凡な人間は,自分自身の
力で栄光の座をつかむことがで
きるからである。 彼らは誰も踏
み台にせず、なんの犠牲を払う
こともなく, 栄光の頂上にたど
りつくことができる。
このように、妖精の力を借り
て栄光をきわめた者たちの末路
は痛ましい。 いたずらと呼ぶに
は、あまりにも残酷である。 け
れどもきょうもまた・・・・・・。
歴史 栄光の甘い香りは, カウ
ボーイをハリウッドへ向かわ
せ、やがてワシントンへと向か
わせた。
私立探偵の情報 映画の撮影
所, テレビ局のスタジオ, 俳優
学校,歌謡学院, 酒場のステー
ジ, 美人コンテスト。 才能がな
いかわりに、妖精たちの目につ
きやすい特徴をそなえた人間た
ちの集まるところにいる。 その
特徴とは,自己顕示欲と呼ばれ
ているものである。
160
Habitat
Anywhere that smells sweet. These sprites hide behind the mask of human ambition, driving their possessed targets in a headlong rush toward the seat of glory. Like the blinders put on a racehorse, they allow no sideways glances — forcing the understanding that glory can only shine at the cost of everything else.
In the salaryman world, these sprites demand work like a cart horse, driving blindly forward. Naturally they leave no time to look after family or home. Eventually wives and children begin to question that husband and father’s single-minded pursuit — and will come to realize: the seat of glory has room for only one.
Behavior
On a whim, these sprites transform ordinary young people working in small factories or coffee shops into superstars. And if those people didn’t have the payment called sacrifice to offer the sprites in advance — after they become superstars, the sprites take back “ordinary happiness” as their compensation.
James Dean, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin — these are the examples.
Car accidents, illness, drug addiction — great superstars fell in the middle of their lives. Whether the seat of glory was worth the sacrifice they paid — there is no one left to ask.
These sprites also never possess truly exceptional people. Truly exceptional people can seize glory through their own power alone — reaching the summit without using anyone as a stepping stone, without paying any sacrifice.
And so the fate of those who achieved glory with the sprites’ help is pitiful. It is too cruel to call merely a prank. And yet — today again…
History
The sweet scent of glory drove cowboys toward Hollywood, and eventually toward Washington.
Field Intelligence
Film studios, television studios, acting schools, singing academies, bar stages, beauty contests. Wherever people gather who lack talent but possess the quality that catches the sprites’ eye — the quality known as the desire to show off.
160
Phantasma Glory photos were taken on April 27-May 4th, 1982. we know this because of the magazines on the stand. Specifically the US Weekly Magazine First Annual Reader Poll (Best & Worst Dressed People , Suzanne Somers , Streisand , Cagney & Lacey , Rae Dawn Chong , Tom Selleck, Volume 6 #9