The beautiful came to this city [Hollywood] in huge pathetic herds, to suffer, to be humiliated, to see the powerful currency of their beauty devalued like the Russian ruble or Argentine peso;to work as bellhops, as bar hostesses, as garbage collectors, as maids. The city was a cliff and they were its stampeding lemmings. At the foot of the cliff was the valley of the broken dolls.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the painful realities faced by those who chase beauty and fame in Hollywood.
Salman Rushdie's quote critiques the seductive allure of Hollywood, illustrating how many individuals, drawn by the promise of beauty and success, ultimately face humiliation and degradation. By comparing their journey to that of 'stampeding lemmings,' he emphasizes the tragic outcome of blindly pursuing fame, leading to a valley filled with unfulfilled dreams—symbolized by the 'broken dolls.'
In practice
During a speech on the dangers of fame, this quote could provide a powerful anecdote.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
Gods always behave like the people who make them.
Actual life was chaos, but there was something terribly logical in the imagination. It was the imagination that set remorse to dog the feet of sin. It was the imagination that made each crime bear its misshapen brood. In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak. That was all.
All things may corrupt when minds are prone to evil.
I'm the kind of person who jumps around when he talks because everything is connected.
In my view all salvation for philosophy may be expected to come from Darwin's theory
When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.
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