PicoBlog

Jim Morrison. Marilyn Monroe. John Lennon. Jimi Hendrix. Whitney Houston. Elvis Presley. Brittany Murphy. Kurt Cobain. Michael Jackson. There have been plenty of entertainment icons who led puzzling lives that ended with mysterious deaths; in some cases, a small number of obsessives claimed the celebrities were still alive. Dead or alive, those celebrities were shuffled off the stage and out of the limelight, leaving the public to linger on their former images and artistic output.

Singer Britney Spears, one of the top-selling artists of all time, seems to have disappeared from public view over the past few years but for one of the most bizarre and befuddling Instagram accounts in the history of that site. There is disagreement amongst her fans as to whether the person in the Instagram videos is really Spears. The videos feel uncanny; my gut tells me it's a double, but then I had the same unsettling reaction to her VMA appearance in 2007. The mystery album of 2004 only adds to the intrigue.

Plastic surgery furthers doubt as to what’s real, but no matter how much Michael Jackson changed his appearance, there was (to me) something that was still essentially “Michael Jackson” there, and no matter how good a Michael Jackson impersonator might have been, everyone could still tell the difference. Ditto with Madonna. There is also Photoshop, but again, while it might make a person look better, they are still essentially identifiable.

There are other elements to Spears’s Instagram that don't add up. Fans are left with questions for which it seems impossible to find answers. Where is she? Who is running her Instagram? Is it all an elaborate prank? Is she in danger? Is she still alive? The media reports on her Instagram posts and what the fans are saying but leaves it at that. There is no further investigation.

As one Youtube commenter put it: Isn't this just downright scary though. Someone so famous , yet, no one can help her. The people that have control over her ,are more powerful than law. That's terrifying. What are we gonna do? Call the cops? It's just so absurd this can go on in the public eye. Other commenters reply that she is having a mental breakdown of some kind, or that she is drugged, or that she is releasing steam from her conservatorship and/or healing from trauma and should be left alone (I assume she would get off social media if she really wanted privacy). Of course, internet commenters could always be bots as opposed to real people.

I have begun to wonder if this is all part of an AI project or psychological test of some kind, an experiment in capturing the public’s attention to determine if they can discern “doubles” or “fakes” and gathering their various reactions. Will we believe media or our lying eyes? Are we disturbed or complacent in the face of such uncertainty? If that seems farfetched, take a look at her Instagram and get back to me.

If a new, well-reviewed biography by a reputable publisher came out about Spears, I would, like most librarians, purchase it for my library’s collection, even if I felt the book consisted of utter fabrications. I would, however, begin to feel increasingly uneasy if I thought we were moving into a world of unreality.

We aren’t there… yet. On most pressing topics, there are still alternative viewpoints to mainstream opinion being published, and, even when not reviewed by the major journals, those books are popular enough that they warrant purchase by libraries. Although they could be “off base” in any number of ways, having a wide range of opinions in circulation helps prevent an “Emperor’s New Clothes” situation from taking absolute hold.

Top photo: Britney Spears - 52235180387.jpg/ Wikimedia Commons

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