The "Candle in the Wind" Trick

We can deplore the effects of fame on the famous -- it's easy -- but if we do, we are also deploring the only reason we know about their existence. It's what I think of as the "Candle in the Wind" trick, after Elton John's and Bernie Taupin's famous song about Marilyn Monroe. The singer regrets the fame that destroyed Marilyn Monroe's life, and puts forward the standard notion that she would have been better off as the original "Norma Jean":

They set you on the treadmill
And they made you change your name...

Hollywood created a superstar
And pain was the price you paid...

He imagines that he would have gotten along with the "real" Marilyn:

...I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid...

Goodbye Norma Jean
From the young man in the 22nd row
Who sees you as something more than sexual
More than just our Marilyn Monroe

But, but, but. There are plenty of "Norma Jeans" out there, beautiful, lively, charming young women, who do escape the ravages of fame, because fame never comes calling. These women are situated in the "real world," they are not tragic, and they are knowable. Does Elton sing songs about them? Of course not. Marilyn Monroe's fame, however deplorable its influence on her life may have been, is the only reason the singer is able to assume the posture of caring about the "real" her. With fame, we want to have our cake and not eat it, too.