Celebrity dies, world stares at his dead face

by Irina Slav

Say a prayer for journalism, if you’re religious. Or maybe not, because what’s trending right now for Paul Walker is beyond anything a normal human being would consider allowable.

Guy, famous guy, dies in a car crash. It’s a tragedy, even more so because, as far as I understood, it was a charity race. And what’s the most shared image? His dead face, for heaven’s sake. Cleaned up and shocking. It’s a dead face, people!A shattered dead face. Why do you want to ogle a dead face? Yes, that’s ogling, some perverted, morbid form of enjoyment. You, fans, do you really need to see this to believe he’s dead? Or you need the shock as an adrenaline boost? What, you can’t cry if you don’t see this face this way? Forgive the outburst, but I heard this person’s name for the first time today, I don’t know anything about him, apart from the fact that he died violently. Good that he was doing charity. Tragic that he died. Any premature death is tragic. Do we need to see it up close to believe it? Who wants to see kids who died from leukemia? No takers? Why? Because they’re not celebs? Words fail me. There must be some basic respect towards people, celebrities or not. At least in death.