A friend of mine has expressed his displeasure with my last post about Anna Nicole Smith. First, he doesn't like the picture I chose, saying it doesn't do justice to the star of his teenage fantasies. Secondly, he firmly believes Anna Nicole's story says something meaningful about our culture and he disagrees with some of what I wrote. Now, I agree that the story of Anna Nicole's life reveals something about our culture. I also believe our obsession with her death reveals something about our culture. But I don't believe these revelations have anything to do with why people cared about her in the first place. Millions of people have incredible life stories that reveal something meaningful about our culture, but they don't warrant nonstop news coverage. Part of Anna's cultural value can certainly be found in what she symbolized, but I would still argue she was not understood (by most) as symbolic. For most of us she was, as I said, boobs, money, sex and drugs.
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Language of the Deceased
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