Big Bro; Daniel Defoe; Fo' Sho'

Courtesy of my friend Rachel, a comparison between the life and death of Big Brother's Jade Goody and that of Moll Flanders, of Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. Compelling, superlunary, and brilliant.

(Mervyn Peake's illustrated cover for Moll Flanders)

"Life in the Goody/post-Goody world is an exemplification of Defoe's ideas regarding tireless and impossible reinvention of character, especially in the public eye, against all kinds of shilpa-related-adversity, it's what Jade achieved. She is basically the savior of the facebook generation, Big Brother has given his only daughter for us, that we may follow her example. She is a quasi Christ-like figure who was condemned (the shilpa front pages are like the trial, the carrying of the cross, her crown of thorns) and died in order to show us that all forms of media exposure are legitimate, and by following her example we will come to learn that only life documented and performed is authentic, legitimate existence.
What Jade did on a macro-level (in the eye of the media) we must do in our own lives, by following Jade's example we will find happiness, only through complete eradication of autonomy, depth, privacy can we truly be living life in the way that the (face)Book of Goody advises. We can only aspire to her frontpage exposed greatness, where her death/marriage etc etc was on the front page we can tag ours on facebook."

This suggestive and illuminating comparison between Goody and Christ puts one in mind of Pontius Pilate's offer to the public. Was the vote for Barabas or Jesus the world's first example of a (rigged) reality eviction? Answers on a postcard; in Aramaic.