I recently read Carrie Fisher’s memoirs, Wishfully Drinking.

If in the medium you’re reading this the blurb on the front is too small, it reads, “Funny as hell… Get someone to read this rollicking book aloud to you.” This quote is attributed to Entertainment Weekly.

I don’t know what’s wrong with Entertainment Weekly, but if you have any capability for sympathy with a human being who is suffering, this book is anything but funny or rollicking. Yes, Carrie Fisher makes jokes about her various experiences. Yes, she was witty. But I think that, with a few exceptions, to laugh at it you’d need a heart of stone.

And I thought that My Wicked, Wicked Ways was depressing. (Admittedly, I only read about 10% of that; it’s a much longer book.)

Of course, not everyone in Hollywood is awful. It just seems that way because modern media with it’s almost free reproduction means that the only thing that matters in Hollywood is charisma in front of a camera. (because slight advantages can translate to enormous increases in sales, with no major downsides.) When you select that hard for a single trait that isn’t the product of a constellation of virtues, it’s unsurprising that you won’t get specially virtuous people. And of course fame is very dangerous to the soul; ordinary people do not do well with it.

I really need to move on to more cheerful books.