Inverse Relation

In ‘Ten Notes on Oscar Weekend’, Zadie Smith  explores the “inverse relation” between societal expectations of Hollywood and what Hollywood actors and actresses are actually like (213). In the beginning paragraph, Smith introduces the notion over-the-top fantasies of Hollywood by describing it as “La La Land! Red carpets; semisacred actors in an exclusive Valhalla” (212). There are differing notions, even within these exaggerated descriptions: “La La Land” connotes a fantasy world that, though pleasant, only exists in people’s minds (212). However, relating Hollywood to “Valhalla”, a place in Norse mythology that existed for warriors who had died, implies that being an actor or actress is equivalent to dying. Smith also states that “[t]he nominees are, by now, battle-scarred companions” (215).  The notion that being a Hollywood actor or actress is similar to being dead indicates that they are enslaved by their image to other people; the dead have no ability to change the minds of the living, and must instead be subject to the way in which the living choose to envision them.

A few times throughout the text, Smith refers to Hollywood stars as “human beings”, simultaneously reducing them and elevating them (217). To a person who isn’t in the movie industry, calling Hollywood stars “human beings” takes them from their pedestal of being an icon. Conversely, there is a section in which Smith describes the actors in a way that implies normalcy that is only interrupted by the public’s desire to hold them to their fantasies: “The actors, caught midway through conversations about their families, their dogs, a book they’ve read, a good restaurant in New York, now have to put their game face back on and become whoever it is the waiter thinks they are” (216). The actors are imprisoned by their own fame and the public’s expectations, and yet, as implied by their conversation, which includes everyday, normal people topics, they are actually just “human beings” who are interested in and wish to hold ‘normal’ lives (217). The “inverse relation” is that the bigger of a Hollywood star one is, the farther he/she is from being the person that the public believes them to be. Sections three and four, the first of which describes the Mondrian Hotel and the “hot girls” that occupy it and the latter of which describes a private party for the Oscar nominees, are facing each other, expressing the conflicting yet intrinsic relationship between public expectations and the reality of what Hollywood really is.