Marilyn Monroe will be deceased 47 years as of this Wednesday, but she lives on in my dorm room.

Monroe was the subject of one small and two large posters decorating my walls last year, as well as an issue of Vanity Fair in my bookshelf and one of my favorite novels, Blonde, by my favorite author, Joyce Carol Oates.

No poster store is complete without a half dozen of her images to choose from. Her mug is currently on Megan Fox's arm, the cover of a Life magazine tribute to her, and skirts, tops, and ball gowns for Dolce and Gabbana's Fall 2009 collection.

It's 47 years later, and the world is still captivated.

Newsweek in July posed the question "Why is Katherine Heigl so annoying?" of the beautiful modern-day platinum blonde. The simplified response was that she's overly opinionated and never keeps her mouth shut.

Perhaps we still love Monroe so much because she seemed as beautiful, malleable and close-mouthed about her personal life and opinions as Heigl is beautiful, stubborn and loud-mouthed.

With Marilyn, it is hard to separate fact from fiction, the real woman from the image -- and perhaps that is a large part of her appeal today. In a time of over-sharing, information overload and confessional writings from celebrities, a little bit of mystery is refreshing.

She is the embodiment of a sweet, talented girl taken advantage of by the world -- unpleasant childhood, mentally ill mother, multiple husbands and recognition primarily for her physical attributes.

Despite her place in cinematic history as an incredibly talented comedic actress, she will be remembered for bleached hair, a big smile and an affair with a president.

Oates' portrayal of her as an intelligent woman blinded by the promise of acclaim and the approval of men is more than 700 pages, beautiful and heartbreaking. The circumstances of her tale seem so different from today yet also familiar. Perhaps expectations for women haven't changed so much after all.

In short, Monroe continues to be a source of much fascination -- for girls and women, for men, for conspiracy theorists -- because she was both beautiful and tragic, two markings of an intriguing story. Maybe it is just our desire to witness something remarkable, that we can understand -- but not fully -- that keeps us interested.

In my bedroom, the small poster portrays Monroe acting, one large one depicts her glancing down through a car window in full hair and makeup, the other with hair undone and natural makeup, looking at a flower.

None of them feature her classic smile or famous lipsticked laugh.

And none of them show her with her naturally brunette hair, before she was packaged with a charmingly alliterative name, with some consonance thrown in for good measure.

It is the mixture of real and unreal that draws people in and keeps them interested.

Monroe was a self-described fantasy with the promise of a real person, or a real person with the promise of something more fantastic.

Her story is both fairy-tale-like and macabre, cheerful and tragic -- the perfect story to keep the world hooked for almost five decades.

Caitlin Sellers is a sophomore majoring in English and is The Daily Collegian's Monday columnist. Her e-mail address is cas5505@psu.edu.