Preview:

  A person's repution is one of the most important things he possesses and it deserves protecting.The key to(介词） building a good name is to be consistent.You will not win the favor of the public or the people around you overnight.In fact,it will take many years of efforts before you establish your proper place in society.Once you have earned a good name,be careful to maintain it with civilty,integrity and humility.

The Tail of Fame

An artist who seek fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who,when he captures it,

dose not know what else to do but to continue chasing it.The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destru-

ction.

"Don't quit your day job!"is advice frequently given by understandably pessimistic family members and friends to a budding artist who is trying hard to succeed.The con-

squent of fame is difficult at best，and many end up emotionally if not finacially ba-nkrupt.Still ,impure motives such as the desire for worshiping fans and praise from p-eers may spur the artist on.The lure of drowning in fame's imperial glory is not easi-ly resisted.

Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of exploiting their talent for sin-ging,dancing,painting,or writing,etc.They develop a style that agents market aggressi- vely to hasten popularity,and their ride on the express elevator to the top is a blur.

Most would be hard-pressed to tell you how they even got there.Artists cannot remain

idle,though.When the performer painter or writer becomes bored,their work begins to s-how a lack of continuity in its appeal and it becomes difficult to sustain the attent-tion of the public.After their enthusiasm has dissolved,the public simply moves no to the next favor of the month.Artists who do attempt to remain current by making even m-inute changes to their styles of writing,dancing or singing,run a significant risk of

losing audience's favor.The public simply discounts styles other than for which the a-rtist has become famous.

Famous authors' styles——a Tennessee Williams play or a plot by Ernest Hemingway or a

poem by Robert Frost or T.S.Eliot——are easily recognizable.The same is ture of pain-

ters like Monet,Renoir,or Dali and moviemakers like Hitchcock,Fellini,Spielberg,Chen

Kaige or Zhang Yimou.Their distinct styles marked a significant change in form from o-thers and gained them fame and fortune.However,they paid for it by giving up the free-dom to express themselves with other styles or forms.

Fame's spotlight can be hotter than a tropical jungle——a fraud is quickly exposed,a-nd the pressure of so much attention is too much for most to endure.It takes you out

of yourself:You must be what the public thinks you are,not what you really are or cou-ld be.The perfomer,like the plitician ,must often please his or her audiences by sayi-ng things he or she dose not mean or fully believe.

One drop of fame will likey contaminate the entire well of a man's soul,and so an art-isit who remains true to himself or herself is particularly amazing.You would be hard-

pressed to underline many names of those who have not comprosised and still succeed in the fame game.An example,the famous Irish writer Oscar Wilde,known for his uncomp-romising behavior,both social and sexual,to which the public objected,paid heavily for remaining true to himself.The mother of a young man Oscar was intimate with accu-sed him at a banquet in front of his friends and fans of sexually influencing her son

.Extremely anger by her remarks,he sued the young man' mother,asserting that she had damaged his "good" fame.He should hired a better attorney,though.The judge did not s-econd Wilde's call to have the woman pay for damaging his name,and instead fined Wil-de.He end up in jail after refusing to pay,and even worse,was permanently expelled from the wilder circle of public favor.When things were at their worst,he found that no none was willing to risk his or her name in his defense.His price for remaining tr-ue to himself was to be left alone when he needs his fans the most.

Curiously enough,it is those who fail that reap the greatest reward:freedom!They enjo-yed the freedom to express themselves in unique and original ways without fear of los-ing the support of fans.Failed artists may find comfort in knowing that many great ar-tists never found fame until well after they had passed away or in knowing that they

did not sell out.They may justiy their failure by convincing themselves their genius is too sophisticated for contemporary audiences.

Single-minded artists who continue their quest for fame even after failure might also like to know that failure has motivated some famous people to work even harder to suc-ceed.Thomas Wolfe,the Amercian novelist,had his first novel Look Homeward,Angel reje-cted 39 times before it was published.Beethoven overcame his father,who did not belie-ve that he had any potential as a musician,to become the greatest musician in the wor-ld.And Pestalozzi,the famous Swiss educator in the 19th century,failed at every job he ever had until he came upon the idea of teaching children and developing the funda-mental theories to produce a new form of education.Thomas Edison to be quite dull.Un-fortunately for most people ,however,the failure is the end of their struggle ,not 

the beginning.

I say to those who desperately seek fame and fortune:good luck.But alas,you may find that it was not what you wanted.The dog who chase his tail discover that it is only a

tail.The person who achieves success often discovers that it dose more harm than good

.So instead of trying so hard to achieve success,try to be happy with who you are and

what you do.Try to do work that you can be proud of.Maybe you won't be famous in your 

own lifetime,but you may create better art.

新视野大学英语

Unit 1

Section A

Note