-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email A book with an intentionally cheeky title like “ How to Become Famous ” sounds more like the work of a teenaged TikTok star than a 69-year-old Harvard professor, but trust that Cass R. Sunstein knows what he’s talking about here. During a recent conversation with Salon, the professor, former White House administrator and prolific author of books like "How Change Happens” says that “I’ve never had so much fun with a book” as he did with his eminently readable newest one.
Taking the initially explosive, entirely enduring allure of The Beatles as his jumping off point, Sunstein explores the mysteries of why certain figures have made a lasting impact on cultural history. Some — like John, Paul, George, Ringo — have defined their own eras. Others — like Jane Austen and Robert Johnson — have grown in stature over time.
What made them connect? And, significantly, why them and not the forgotten others among their talented peers? Sunstein refuses to settle for simple explanations. “The idea that if you had an unhappy childhood, or if you just spend 10,000 hours on something , or if you really are determined to get on the radio, that it's going to work out,” he says, “is culturally present, but comical.” Instead, he suggests a variety of variables that reveal the complexity of the enduring glory that gives us a Stan Lee or a Joyce Carol Oates.
And, as he discusses with Salon, the book is also a meditation on the huma.
