"With no children, no religious group, and no immediate social circle of any kind, she had begun, as an elderly woman, to look elsewhere for companionship. Savage later told Los Angeles magazine that she had searched Vickers’s phone bills for clues about the life that led to such an end. In the months before her grotesque death, Vickers had made calls not to friends or family but to distant fans who had found her through fan conventions and Internet sites."
--From an article in The Atlantic
--From an article in The Atlantic
L.A. is a tough town for the lonely and the alone and the formerly famous.This is the death we fear when we say "I don't want to die alone." Poor woman.
ReplyDeleteStories about trends like this are always sad but they are just that, stories. It is at least improbable, and generally naive, to think that the immigrants that swarmed American cities early in the 20th century or, reaching broader, the average person (poor) throughout time and the frozen culture of human history, wasn't "lonely". There was no social media at all and each of them was in lockstep with a society that demanded precisely that: lockstep. No finding yourself through cat groups or leather groups or whatever.
ReplyDeleteCan modern media ever publish an accurate statement of modern people -- or does it demand a narrative, a story -- made up of non thinking adherance to a plot line?
"I've got it! Let's get some academic to opine on this former Playboy model and B - movie actress! Make it a trend."
"Brillant, J.G.! I'll get right on it!"
Meanwhile in the corner, the -- lonely -- researcher is saying..."er, but don't you know that throughout history it is estimated that 125 million lonely widows died poor and alone, most without internet, apartments or electricity and before the age of 40..."