A famous author was saved by a fictional family and then wrote a novel about it
Meg Mason on Nancy Mitford, a lonely teenager, and the strangest thing to happen to this entire field this year.
The GuardianRead →
Two women died in the same month and the discourse is about whether you are allowed to be sad
Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem. One sang, one argued. Grief treated them identically and got accused of not knowing the difference.
Here is a test I would put to anyone who finds the parasocial grief coverage embarrassing: would you say the same thing if the person who died were a friend of yours? Most people would not, and that inconsistency is the entire problem with the discourse. Grief does not check your credentials first. If you sang along to nine and a half million people, you are allowed to be sad about her.
Notice, name, choose. That's the whole method.
The clerk's shelf - how this got here first
Sources
Dolly Parton, Gloria Steinem, and Why Grieving a Celebrity Feels So Personal ↗
Yahoo Lifestyle Australia · 26 SEP 2026
Where this sits in the encyclopedia
Grieving a person you never metCollective mourning of a public figure, and the persistent argument about whether it counts. Measured in studies of soap opera finales finding grief…Digital orphansThe problem of personal data held for the dead, and of services continuing, changing or ending for people who can no longer consent.
More from GRIEF
We all have one. You know their dog's name, their coffee order, and absolutely nothing about them
A widely-shared explainer on why every single person has a parasocial relationship and why most of them are fine.
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When a famous person dies it can feel like losing someone you loved
The Guardian ran this on the exact week Dolly Parton, Gloria Steinem and Liam Payne died. The timing is not the story. The timing proves the story.
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A woman died in Seoul and by the next day the argument was about whether the fandom was toxic
The pivot from a death to a discourse about ourselves, in about a day, in front of a diaspora that had to watch it happen.
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