Non-Event by Daniel Boston

It is, it appears, the nature of man to be frustrated with how short reality falls from his expectations.  

But every now and then he realizes how extravagant are those expectations.  

At least, this man.

This morning I am listening to an interview with Christopher Hitchens broadcast the day after the death of Princess Dianna in 1997.  Hitchens was an erudite, witty hard-man atheist whose thinking drove him to articulate wherever logic and reason and evidence led him.  It was nice when it aligned with your thoughts because his were so much better presented.  And troubling when he reached different conclusions because you knew you had to get your intellectual ducks in a row to address his argument.

Damn pic.twitter.com/uvr6APgmYs

— Rothmus 🏴 (@Rothmus) March 13, 2026

In this case, Hitchens is making the case that Princess Dianna was beloved in part because she was good at appearing to be good as distinct from actually doing good.  

In the midst of his comments he references

It's exactly that confusion what Daniel Boston in his book on the Non-Event says, "being well known for being well known."

Hmm.  Sounds interesting.  I don't think I have heard of Daniel Boston before, nor a book by that title.

I search Amazon.  Nothing close.  I try various permutations.  Nothing.

I switch out to Google for a more general search.  Still nothing.  Again with permutations of the query.

After a handful of iterations I get to an Google AI generated response, something to the effect that 

It appears from your searches you might be looking for Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America.  

I suddenly realize, I have been working off the auto-transcription from the video which missed Hitchens's English accented Daniel Borstin for Daniel Boston and that Hitchens was referencing the concept, the Non-Event, of the book rather than its title, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America.

I search the proper name and title and get 

Published in 1962, Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America argues that modern culture is obsessed with manufactured illusions rather than reality. Boorstin coined "pseudo-events"—staged, news-driven occurrences like press conferences—and defined "celebrity" as being "known for his well-knownness".

I have half a dozen Boorstin books, just not The Image.  Now ordered.  

OK, I spent maybe three minutes sorting out the confusion.  A very mildly aggravating wasted three minutes.

Until I am forced to step back and confront my lazy presumptuous taking for granted of a near miracle.

I am using an application (X) which kicks out for my attention an interview from nearly thirty years ago with an author whom I enjoy (Hitchens) who is now fifteen years passed, with a subtitled simultaneous transcription (with the trivial error of rendering Daniel Boorstin as Daniel Boston), recommending a book published sixty-four years ago of which I have never heard (incorrectly summarized by Hitchens as Non-Event instead of The Image) but which sounds intriguing and which is by another author with whom I am quite familiar and whose works I have enjoyed.  And I am mildly annoyed because it took me a couple of minutes to sort out the confusion of what the book was and by whom.  And then order it with the expectation it will be delivered into my hands for free in two days.

I hadn't realized how quickly I have presumed on the near miracle of our current existence.  Where, with just three minutes effort, I can find a book by an author I already enjoy on a topic about which I have more than a passing interest and recommended by a thinker whom I know of and respect.  Astonishing.