In the Fryer

Say it with me you guys:

Go Oprah Go Oprah Go Oprah Go Oprah

photo by george burns

Damn, is she sassy today or what? Doesn’t truthiness taste wonderful?

Haha! You used “truthiness” in a sentence. That’s my word. Steven stole it from me.

Aaron - is that your truth and you’re sticking to it? ;P

That was one helluva show…Oprah was pissed. It was a little painful yet entertaining to watch.

But don’t you think she is every bit as accountable for the entire debacle as he is? She isn’t taking him to task for defrauding her Oprah Book Club public… she was all about the fraud last week. She is taking him to task for embarassing her personally, once she had looked back and realized she could be percieved as being a party to defrauding her followers. The problem isn’t that her followers were taken in for a book that was nothing more than pap. It was pap before he was exposed. The problem is that “followers” are being encouraged to percieve such books as life altering. And that is ALL ON Oprah.

Uhrm….being British and not one for watching these shows, I MIGHT be slightly a minority, but don’t you smell ’setup’? She’s all indignant NOW, but i can’t help but wonder if this is a nicely contrived publicity stunt.
I’m suss that way - but I wrote it up on my blog I’ll link back to the screencap though.

[…] There’s a big fervor in the writing community at the moment, well, in the areas that contain people that watch Oprah, and care about non fiction versus fiction, or are writers that work from home.  Or who caught the ‘frey’ and are now hopping in on the action.I’m one of the latter I have to admit.One of my freinds had only that Oprah was sassy as a comment about it - I’m not sure what the general writerly concensus outside of my groups are, but I do know that deep down, I’m mighty suspicious.  I always have been, since ’smoking gun’ picked it up and the fuss started on The Write list, a list I’m on. Its gotten a bit silly on there now about it all, but the meat of the discussion, a week and a bit or so ago, was that it wasn’t true.  Oprah JUST managed to get this out of him now.  I mean, what?  Why give him more publicity? And that’s the crux of it I guess.  I cxan’t help but scream ‘publicity stunt, JEEZ!  Why are people so gullable!” at my email every time its raised.  But even that isn’t *really* true.  We’re so used to having ‘trusted’ sources now that when they reccomend something we are in there.The book buying public ARE easy to dupe - you can wave a bit of controversy in the direction of a boerd person and they, if in the right frame of mind, will latch onto it.  People, in general, unfortuantly do - we’re conditioned and raised in an envrionment where trademark, public support and celebrity are far more important than personal opinion. We’re not ALL like this, but studies have suggested that the average talk show watcher will willingly form opinions on a reccomendation of a celebrity.  Dr Phil, Oprah, Sally Jessie-Raphael all have practical cults surrounding them.On the 12th of Januray, Oprah branded  allegations that the author lied in “the memoir” “irrelevant”.  After all, she LOVES lifechanging books.  Yesterday however, it was a completely different story.In true ‘drama queen’ stylee, the only thing missing was a staple gun, she used emotive language like ‘conned me’, and flat out asking why he lied.  I’m amazed he didn’t cite artistic liscence, cause at least then he’d have looked arrogant and worthy of distain, rather than Oprah’s patsy.Last week it was all about fraud, frauding her readers of HER bookclub, this week, its personal, because she is now in the firing line too. Yeserday though, she managed somehow snake out of it, and is coming up smelling of roses, might defender of the truth and promoter of ‘worthy books -  despite the fact she admitted her turnaround was ultimately due to viewer and fan contact.  But I still can’t help wonder if deep down this was somehow a setup.Oprah has come out smelling of roses, the book IS a best seller, with a disclaimer, and one can’t help but wonder why she gave them more screen time. I’m not overly fond of the controversy mongering chatshows.  I don’t feel people should be rewarded and given MORE attention for thier mistakes, and that’s inherently what Oprah, Dr Phil….the chatshows abroad AND here do.  We’re a culture being taught that fame isn’t earned, its given to those who can be outrageous and do things without getting caught, even for a little while.And its a bad message.Writers are never going to learn HOW to be a best seller on merit if people like this get more attention than the best of us.  And where, at best, I’ll be a midlist blip, and proud if I EVER manage that - but I don’t like to watch my more talented friends become overlooked and jaded because of this.So if you’re going to do one thing today, in the wake of all of this, I’d suggest this.  Suggest or look out a suggestion of a GOOD book. I’m offering Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, Alistair Reynolds Chasm City and my own 12daysofrain, if you’re into poetry.  And yes, I know, its shameless.(Both of the books linked are to Amazon, with no affiliate tracker.) […]

Man.. she tore him up! I was so tired last night but I couldn’t stop watching LOL.

I think its a bit rediculous… it’s been a couple years. They’re giving him more publicity so people will start buying his book again.

I secretly enjoy the fact that Oprah, having given her all-powerful blessing, was screwed over just like everybody else. I like her and all, but it’s nice to see her come back down to earth every now and then.

I pretty much agree with Kai on this one. That Frey twit is being scapegoated on this. Oprah is a thousand times more accountable for garbage like this being both published and taken too seriously. I can imagine the phone conversation when she “called him in”:

Oprah: Frey, we’ve got a problem here. My neck is sticking out and I’m taking a lot of flack.
Frey: Yes ma’am.
Oprah: I’m going to have to bring you back on the show and chastize you publically.
Frey: Yes ma’am.
Oprah: The book club is in jeopardy. We’re talking dollars. I’m sorry that it is going to have to go down like this, but you have to take this bullet.
Frey: Yes ma’am.

Kai, Eebmore:

As much as I enjoy Oprah getting all sassy, I essentially agree with you guys as well. It made me uncomfortable to watch her tear into the publisher (”Don’t you fact check? Isn’t that your job?”), because I felt like her book club staff has just as much responsibility to do stuff like that if they’re going to plug a book that’s a memoir. So that aspect of it is definitely her fault, and it’s her fault for calling Larry King and defending him before she read all the documents from Smoking Gun as well.

And as hard it is was to watch that guy sitting there taking all the criticism, I did feel a bit sorry for him. If for no other reason, he either didin’t have permission or the balls to just say, “Look, this is what writers do. I tried to protect people by changing details and I tried to make myself more interesting the same way.”

I doubt anyone would have cared had Oprah not used his book as some sort of self-help bible.

Everyone from Bukowski to Miller has used the same technique to sell books, so that part isn’t shocking - it’s the denial and blame game that makes it exciting tv.

heh. but hey, there is a new literary hoax scandal which is about 10 times better (article is way way too long, but worth the read). Why is it better? It involves anti-semitism, hardcore gay erotica, and the exploitation and plagarism of Native Americans. It’s a 3-for!

But, for the whole contraversy over hyperbole in memiors thing, my favorite quote by an author on the subject was from david sedaris when he was asked if his stories were true. he said “they’re true enough.” heh. but, does not publish is essays as straight “memiors.” they’re creative essays based on events on his life.

I much prefer “creative essay” to memoir, anyhow. And I’d say I’ve learned much more from Sedaris than I ever could from Frey and his Fury (yes, capital F).

I’ve learned how to invite a whore to Christmas dinner, how to speak French and how to make my family’s quirks and annoying traits hilarious anecdotes and comforting reminders of my youth.

I’m not sure a suburban frat boy gone bad could give me that much.

First up, I’m really sorry that my trackback posted just about my entire post - feel free to kill it, I really don’t mind - I just wanted to link to the ’sassy’ comment.

Secondly, I don’t feel sorry for the author, but it does bother me that someone as high profile as Oprah could turn this into something as personal as a personal betrayal, without acknowledging that by the same token, her bookclub betrayed thier readers in a way. I know a few people - many people that take Oprah and Dr Phil et al as law - they just believe everything they say. That sort of pwer over a buying conciousness is…disconcerting. Maybe Oprah will learn from this, but I can’t help but feel that she’s used this to her own good, rather than actually admitting she should have looked at it sooner/apologised unmidigatedly.

Frey should be…treated with the contempt he deserves, and shouldn’t have ANY more attention over this, other than to make ammends for the lies, if even that.

i’m gonna have step in here and quote dear patrick (well, patrick quoting steve carrell in the film “Anchorman”):

LOUD. NOISES.

God forbid people accept the existence of subjective truth… or the fact that the truth is often the furthest thing from the Truth… or that “based on a true story” is actually fiction… or that “story” is smack dab in the middle of “history”…

Wait, are you telling me that those passages of dialog in Frank McCourt’s shizzle aren’t the exact words said. HOLY FUCK HE LIED TO ME.

Stories are stories. Living in the world we live in, and I think especially us ‘Mericans (though I lack any real outside America perspective) are just so afraid of people pulling a hoax on us that we kick away the good in a big ole knee jerk.

However long ago at the beginning of this silly fray, Oprah started off with, “it don’t matter, cuz the book has helped so many people,” before she went where she went. And the publisher’s responsibility? It’s a memoir, not a deposition!

Shit where was Oprah and the people’s dedication to the truth in Florida year 2000, or Ohio in 2004. That might have actually meant something.

(disclaimer, haven’t read the book and not intended as an endorsement of it — just noting the rhetoric flying around)

elevate the race

Mmmmmm. You may not want to read my post today, then. Not that you would…but in the event that you did, you’d see we are on differing sides of this issue. Not that it matters.

initially, when this whole scandal broke, i felt betrayed as a reader. i trusted that his words were more or less true, even though i found it hard to believe that an addict would have such amazing recall of details from years past. watching him squirm on oprah’s couch was part delicious, part excruciating. i felt sorry for him, but also shocked at the callous manner in which oprah wielded her bastion of power, chastising him for violating all things virtuous about the written word.