Popularity Paradox

[petrushkagoogol]

Charles Bronson was a popular cine artist well into his eighties.
Newton was popular and enigmatic in-spite of being of a nervous disposition.
Unstable individuals on account of certain parameters like advanced age or poor health are remarkably stable in the popularity stakes.
Why this paradox ? :vava:

 

[sanctus]

Because to be popular you have to be either like the masses want (eg. pop-sgars, hollywood actors,...) or be different enough to make you interesting?

[exchemist]

 

Charles Bronson was a popular cine artist well into his eighties.

Newton was popular and enigmatic in-spite of being of a nervous disposition.

Unstable individuals on account of certain parameters like advanced age or poor health are remarkably stable in the popularity stakes.

Why this paradox ? :vava:

 

I don't believe Newton can be said to have been popular. I doubt that more than 5% of the population was even aware of his existence. 

[Turtle]

I don't believe Newton can be said to have been popular. ...

Then why did you say it? :doh:

 

... Newton was popular and enigmatic in-spite of being of a nervous disposition.

...

[CraigD]

I don't believe Newton can be said to have been popular. I doubt that more than 5% of the population was even aware of his existence.

It would be a work of serious scholarship, I think, to estimate how many people knew of a given 18th Century celebrity, but given that Newton was, in addition to a scientist and mathematician, a politician, with a couple of years in Parliament, and over 25 years as Master of the Mint and president of the Royal Society, my guess would be that his name and visage was about as well known in England ca 1725 as Albert Einstein’s was in the US ca 1960, well over 50% recognition.

 

There was much less international communication in the 18th Century than now, though, so Newton’s fame among ordinary folk was, I think, limited mostly to England, and highest in London.