(S2, E8) Rest in Pieces
This week on Pop Culture Boner we’re getting a little gloomy. We’re talking celebrity deaths, the phenomenon of public grieving and the surreal nature of fame and immortality. Why does it feel so strange when famous people die? Why don’t friends and family get it? How are you supposed to grieve? It’s much less depressing than it sounds, we promise.
You can find references here:
Ali Finney (Well and Good, 2020) - There’s a Psychological Reason Celebrity Deaths Hit Us so Hard
Sharon R. Mazzarella (Popular Music & Society 19:2, 1995) - “The voice of a generation”? Media
Gisela Gil-Egui, Rebecca Kern-Stone & Abbe E. Forman (Celebrity Studies 8:2, 2017) - Till death do
us part? Conversations with deceased celebrities through memorial pages on Facebook
Jocelyn M. DeGroot (Death Studies 38:2, 2014) - “For Whom the Bell Tolls”: Emotional Rubbernecking in Facebook Memorial Groups
You can find a full transcript here.