Doors fans who flock to Jim Morrison's grave in Paris everyyear may soon have much farther to go. There are rumours that hisfamily wants to repatriate the Lizard King's remains to hisoriginal home in the bohemian LA suburb of Venice. But don't worry.You no longer even have to go to Pere Lachaise cemetery because nowyou can pay your respects at one of the singer's many "virtualshrines". At Jim's Grave, you can see the headstone(http://fermi.clas.virginia.edu/whb5a/Jim-Morrison.html). There isalso an official shrine to The Doors (http://www.thedoors.com)."Although Morrison is no longer with us, his spirit, poetry andmusic can be found here," promises the home page.
True, lurking around this Virtual Valhalla cannot compare withthe atmosphere of hanging out next to Jim's real grave with otherDoors fans, most of whom were not born when their hero took thatultimate bath. Where do you put your joss sticks? And poking aroundthe official Elvis shrine (http://www.elvis- presley.com) is not apatch on the King's real home. For diehard fans, the idea that youcan "worship" your chosen star on the Web is sacrilege. But thathas done nothing to dent the growing popularity of virtual shrines.When The Independent did a search, it found thousands devoted tocelebrities such as Tom Cruise, Madonna and Cindy Crawford runningon computer servers across the globe. Although Hollywood starsaccount for the vast majority of virtual shrines, Web worship isnot just an American phenomenon.
Neither are shrines just for celebs, dead or alive. There is nopriestly committee to vet entrants into the virtual hall of fame,so anyone can be venerated in cyberspace. Yes, dear reader, in thedemocratic world of the Web, even you can have your own shrine,however unremarkable your life.Many of the personal sites running on the Web servers ofInternet service providers have just that feel. They have addresseslike "members.aol.com/xxxx3333" and typically consist of anauthor's mug shot, followed by a limp biography and apseudo-intellectual quote. They must get very depressed at thetrickle of visitors they receive.But why do people create Web shrines to celebrities? Whatpossesses them to put so much electronic effort into eulogisingpeople they have almost certainly never met? Many virtual shrinesare labours of love, rivalling sites created by teams of Webdesigners in their complexity and size - pages and pages of trivia,picture files, sound clips and all kinds of special effects.Most Web shrine creators seem to be school or college students.Few of these sites are run by official fan clubs. In a survey ofvirtual shrines, Computer Life magazine equated the practice withteenagers plastering their bedroom walls with posters of sports ormovie stars. "The obsessions themselves are not new, only themedium is." The Web, it said, has become "just an enormous virtualbedroom".Whoever is being venerated, the aim is always the same. Theworshipper is saying: "This person is cool and I want you to know Ithink that and you must think that, too." The Web allows anyone topush this belief to a worldwide audience, institutionalising it andturning it into a kind of religion. Many virtual shrine creatorshope that the star they are worshipping will eventually notice and,who knows, send them an e-mail!But for students using university Web servers to host theirshrines, it is not easy getting attention. As soon as theygraduate, their shrines disappear. The two movie star lists at GTNHotlinks (http://www.gtn.net/movstar1.htm andhttp://www.gtn.net/movstar2.htm) try to keep pace with these moves.They have links to almost 400 virtual shrines, for stars rangingfrom Pamela Anderson to Kate Winslet.Rock shrines also tend to melt away, especially if record salesdecline. But stars such as Jimi Hendrix seem to shine for ever.There are hundreds of Hendrix shrines, plucking over every last bitof his life. Among music stars who are still alive, Michael Jacksoninitially appears to top the rankings. But on closer inspection, itseems that many of these sites are anti-shrines, dedicated todestroying his reputation. So that makes Madonna the winner in therock category by default.Sports stars are nowhere near as popular as movie or musicstars, perhaps because their fans tend to be more locally orregionally focused. This applies to even the biggest Americansports stars. For instance, Michael Jordan has hosts of shrines setup by American basketball fans, but very few British ones. Oneexception is Diego Maradona, who has a global following. Check outTribute to Diego Armando Maradona(http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1862/maradona.html).Some of the most obsessive shrines are those devoted tocult-celebs such as the Princess of Wales. Di's global followingstretches from Britain to Israel to Argentina to Korea. As well asbulging picture galleries, many sites offer a facility for sendingmessages to the Queen of Hearts. "This page is dedicated to thebeautiful Princess Di," declares the Israeli- run Princess Dianapage, "with best wishes for future happiness." The site claims40,000 visits a month. So great is the cyber-worship of Diana itlooks set to last long after she dies - and even increase, if thenumber of virtual shrines devoted to that other cult blonde,Marilyn Monroe, is any guide. At the moment, Marilyn is narrowlyahead in the all-time rankings.The Virgin Mary herself cannot begin to compete with this levelof devotion. But there are plenty of shrines dedicated to her."The Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the 20th century"(http://members.aol.com/bjw1106/ marian.htm) lists all the placesshe is known to have appeared.Hard as they try, political leaders do not seem to inspireserious devotion in cyberspace. Even figures such as Maggie, Marxand Mao do not appear to have virtual shrines. Perhaps theiradmirers are embarrassed. At least there is a site "in honor of thegreatest president of this century" - Ronald Reagan(http://www.dnaco.net/bkottman/reagan.html). "We fight the tide ofliberal lies," the page declares. Good capitalist that Ron is, thisshrine would not be complete without its gift shopn
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий