DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21216#0092
and that their perception of her "sacrifice" (of going on the air every fifteen
minutes for a minute or two over an eighteen hour period) served to cement
some of those images (of Smith as a doer of good, and one who was sincere in
her beliefs and highly patriotic). Merton's aims, although not totally free from
reification of society, are more modest than Klapp's but certainly as productive
(the rest of the study however may well have been a good deal more expensive
than Klapp's research). Merton's emphasis on understanding the public images
surrounding a "star" is reflected in what follows, as is Klapp's notion of the
need for nondiscursive Symbols (e.g. as in ritual and the "vicarious voyage of
the hero").
II Religious Images
In the early sixties Baez was often portrayed in quasi-religious terms. The 1962
Time cover story was subtitled "Sibyl with Guitar". An account of her appear-
ance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival called her "the acclaimed high priestess
of the contemporary folk movement". Besides these pagan word pictures,
symbolizing either the conveyor of the messages of the gods, or the one officiat-
ing at some solemn rite, there were the images borrowed from Christianity. We
have already mentioned how a fan called out in Newport, 1960 "She's it, she's
the Virgin" as the crowd requested that she sing Virgin Mary. Her looks were
described as Madonna-like. A decade later Kathleen Fury wrote:
And her face — fine boned, darkly beautiful and dominated by brooding
eyes — is the kind of face one sees in religious illustrations (Redbook, May,
1971, p. 79).
In a picture story on Baez' Institute for the Study of Nonviolence (in an issue
on California, Look, June 28, 1966) there is a füll page photographe leading off
the article, where Baez hands are raised in a position normally associated with
the attitude of prayer, her face is in quiet meditative repose. Baez herseif has
seen the propensity for her fans to project on her some image with religious
connotations as having to do with her physiognomy. An earliör Redbook article
states:
To some she is, as one friend put it, a "celebrity saint" and she refers some-
what ruefully to those who choose to see her in a religious context. "I guess"
she explains "that my face is the kind that people associate with a fairly com-
mon religious type, but I'm not anything as far as formal religious affiliations
go." (p.55 in Redbook, Jan.,1967, Joan Baez "I'm really a Square")
87
minutes for a minute or two over an eighteen hour period) served to cement
some of those images (of Smith as a doer of good, and one who was sincere in
her beliefs and highly patriotic). Merton's aims, although not totally free from
reification of society, are more modest than Klapp's but certainly as productive
(the rest of the study however may well have been a good deal more expensive
than Klapp's research). Merton's emphasis on understanding the public images
surrounding a "star" is reflected in what follows, as is Klapp's notion of the
need for nondiscursive Symbols (e.g. as in ritual and the "vicarious voyage of
the hero").
II Religious Images
In the early sixties Baez was often portrayed in quasi-religious terms. The 1962
Time cover story was subtitled "Sibyl with Guitar". An account of her appear-
ance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival called her "the acclaimed high priestess
of the contemporary folk movement". Besides these pagan word pictures,
symbolizing either the conveyor of the messages of the gods, or the one officiat-
ing at some solemn rite, there were the images borrowed from Christianity. We
have already mentioned how a fan called out in Newport, 1960 "She's it, she's
the Virgin" as the crowd requested that she sing Virgin Mary. Her looks were
described as Madonna-like. A decade later Kathleen Fury wrote:
And her face — fine boned, darkly beautiful and dominated by brooding
eyes — is the kind of face one sees in religious illustrations (Redbook, May,
1971, p. 79).
In a picture story on Baez' Institute for the Study of Nonviolence (in an issue
on California, Look, June 28, 1966) there is a füll page photographe leading off
the article, where Baez hands are raised in a position normally associated with
the attitude of prayer, her face is in quiet meditative repose. Baez herseif has
seen the propensity for her fans to project on her some image with religious
connotations as having to do with her physiognomy. An earliör Redbook article
states:
To some she is, as one friend put it, a "celebrity saint" and she refers some-
what ruefully to those who choose to see her in a religious context. "I guess"
she explains "that my face is the kind that people associate with a fairly com-
mon religious type, but I'm not anything as far as formal religious affiliations
go." (p.55 in Redbook, Jan.,1967, Joan Baez "I'm really a Square")
87