they act and their behavior. Usually it encourages people to act in extremes, whether that be extremely good or extremely bad. Most of the time, publicity only goes to celebrities who are going against the social norm, and doing something different. People are more interested in reading about something crazy a celebrity did, rather than them going out and having a respectful lunch. Complaints A common complaint of modern celebrity culture is that the public, instead of seeking virtues or talents in celebrities, seek those who are the most willing to break ethical boundaries, or those who are most aggressive in self-promotion. In other words, infamy has replaced fame. The social role of the town drunk, the court jester, or the sexually indiscreet are not new, but arguably, the glorification of these individuals is. Society selects celebrities that provide the most entertainment and news stories as the most notorious. Explanations One possible explanation of this trend is that an artificial importance has been created in order to promote a product or a service, rather than to record a purely biographical event. As more new products are launched in a world market that is constantly expanding, the need for more celebrities has become an industry in itself. Another explanation, used by Chuck Palahniuk, is that this exaggeration of modern celebrity culture is created out of a need for drama and spectacle. In the book Haunted, he describes the pattern of creating a celebrity as a god-like figure, and once this image is created, the desire to destroy it and shame the individual in the most extreme ways possible. Tabloid magazines are the prototype example of this theory. Posthumous fame Some creators such as poets, artists, musicians, and inventors are little-known and little-appreciated during their lives but are feted as brilliant innovators after their deaths. A desire to achieve this type of posthumous fame may have motivated Alan Abel, Adam Rich, and Pauly Shore to stage their deaths. In some cases, after historians uncover a creator's role in developing some cultural or technical process, the contributions of these little-known individuals become more widely known. Sometimes a false death mention can cause a person to rethink their legacy. Alfred Nobel founded the Nobel Prizes after an erroneous obituary labeled him a "merchant of death" due to his invention and selling of dynamite. People who were far more famous after their deaths than during