“I Vant To Be Alone”

Greta Garbo didn’t play the game. She made her movies and then wanted to be left alone. She didn’t want to have to be a celebrity and have her every move reported to and photographed for the rest of the world.

The late J.D. Salinger is almost as famous for what he didn’t do – namely, build on his early fame with more stories and more public appearances and interviews – as for what he did. The media, we call people like that “reclusive.” It’s as if we simply can’t understand why people wouldn’t want to talk to us. Constantly. I mean, we have newspaper columns and radio shows and tv programs to fill, and, now, blogs and Twitter feeds too. “We’re the media, man! C’mon, we made you! You have to talk to us!”

In an era of Reality TV, when it seems everyone’s dream is to have their whole life televised for the world, we wonder about people who don’t need that kind of attention. Sometimes, there’s a medical or mental reason, as with the late Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd, whose descent into mental illness left him living out post-1970 life in his mother’s house, trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid press and fans.

And sometimes people (famous or not) are just naturally reclusive. But with people like Sade, who’s been out of the spotlight for a decade, or David Bowie, who’s all but disappeared since his heart “episode” a few years back, and even with Garbo, we’re not exactly talking about Emily Dickinson (who truly was a recluse – not leaving her house or even her room for years at a time). These people go out, shop, hang out with friends, etc. They just don’t choose to invite camera crews along.