A Million Little Pieces is a great book.
That's what matters.
I don't care that Her Royal Suckiness Oprah doesn't approve.
Someone seriously needs to knock her right off her high horse, anyway.
The man wrote a very good book.
Who cares that he lied a little bit!?
The only difference between James Frey and Dave Pelzer is that unfortunately for James, everything he mentions in his book is on record somewhere else. That's why he got found out.
And I would much rather read (entertaining) "lies" about jumping off third floor balconies than a boy who's mother makes him eat his own vomit. I mean, wouldn't that have killed him?
Look at any "memoir". I dare you to find a 100% accurate account of someone's life on paper.
Bottom line is, books are a source of entertainment. As long as they're doing their job and keeping the reader happy, it doesn't matter whether it involves lies or exaggerations.
I don't see what all the fuss is about!
ubergirl
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15 comments:
I Really Enjoyed Reading a child called it!!..
I mean I couldn't take my eyes of the book!!..and I haven't read the other book (A Million Little Pieces)..maybe later;)..
^ yeah samething here..
but seriously Dave Pelzer's books are AMAZING!!
I'm totally with you on Oprah. She needs to shut up. Also, Dr. Phil needs to die. The two of them together are like a black hole of suck. You have to be careful who you say that around, though. Their fans are a)brainwashed, and b) vicious.
hello.
I completely agree with u on James Frey. ITS AN AMAZING BOOK. PERIOD. Yes, maybe he might have distorted the facts, but that doesnt mean we shouldnt appreciate good talent!
and about that article about dubai desert rock. i really wanted to go. funny how u made it and u live in saudi arabia, and i didnt when its a few minutes ride from wher i live.
although im relatively new to this world of blogging, i must say uve got a great blog going here. u express urself very well.
blog on!
oprah rocks ur just jealous ;) the book is amazing tho and james frey needs 2 get a life
he shouldn't have passed off his book as memoirs. Oprah is as fake and conceited as they come, what an idiot.
james frey is a GENUIS businessman, all of this was planned out, for god's sake look at the friggin publicity he got from his fraud memoir! oprah isnt the on to blame, she just advertised his book (right b4 she got a heck load of cash out of him) and then after they discovered his book was a lie, she had to stand by her ethics and morals because thats the "right" thing to do.
-L.I.B
I don't think that the revelations about Pieces tarnish the entertainment value of the book, just the credibility of its author. And I think it's normal to respect works of art a little less if you don't respect their creators.
It's a shame Frey didn't write a fictional book based on his life story -- er, wait, he did. It's a shame he didn't market it as such.
If Oprah is not that good, how come her program scores so highly on ratings
She scores high on the ratings cos shes an uncle tom!
The problem is one that is defining the relationship between information and entertainment. This is particularly problematic in American cable news organizations. There are certain bits of information that can only be known by specific people (e.g., the proceedings of a political body are only known to those present), so when we hear them reported, we expect them to be true because we cannot really verify the stories ourselves. As the volume of information increases (particularly due to the internet), it becomes even harder for an indivdiual to verify everything you hear.
Think about what it would be like if this were a newspaper rather than a memoir. We expect facts, because they tell us that what they write is factual. If it turns out that the article was actually full of purposefully misleading editorializing, that would be a problem, because it calls into question the validity of everything else in the document. Now, that article may be perfectly and beautifully written, but that doesn't change the that it was did not serve the purpose for which it was designed.
Because it was a memoir, and marketed as such, this is significant -- only Frey would know the details of his life. If a publishing house has the latitude to print things that it claims are factual that not only are incorrect, but are intentionally deceptive, and then profit from them, it calls into question every other nonfiction piece of writing they have published. In fact, it even calls into question pieces of nonfiction other publishers have printed as well, because Doubleday is not some amateur operation printing books. If they could be so delinquent in their duties as a publisher, maybe some others may be as well.
It may not detract from the book as far as entertainment goes, but it does go from a tale of personal conquest to more of a fantasy -- it loses some of the personal relevance because it didn't really happen. I have not read the book, so I cannot speak to its literary value, but I write opinions for my college newspaper so I can speak to importance of facts versus editorializing. By saying that you don't care if this book, published as a memoir, is true or not, you are inviting publishers to lie to you, so long as you are kept entertained along the way. And that is dangerous.
I agree, they made way too much of it like he was some really bad guy who lied all the time. But he shouldn't have put fabrications in his book and put himself out there. He was risking the chance to be ridiculed. It seemed to be a very self destructive move on his part.
I'm not a big fan of Oprah but she's good at what she does and was probably just hurt and humiliated at being lied to. Her reaction is understanable.
Yes, Pieces is a great book.
Child Called It is, well, not lol.
Only idiots like Oprah and watch her show. Unfortunately there are way more idiots than normal people in the world.
And that my friend is why Oprah's show is popular :)
Engineer: I see your point. But I honestly don't care whether what I'm reading is real or not. I mean, it certainly is not something that will change my life. I read fiction as much as I read non-fiction. It doesn't matter to me personally what's real and what's not.
However, I do agree with the fact that it's not good for the publishers.
James Frey is very very VERY talented. Whether he wrote fiction or non-fiction is not something that realy matters to me.
Did you know that Oprah went on CNN defending Frey and his book to the hilt? She got burned pretty bad (reputation-wise) for sticking up for him, which is likely why she turned on him with the vehemence that she did.
Frey may be a talented writer, but if you are writing fiction (even if it is inspired by actual people and events, as most fiction is) then it should be published as fiction. Frey took a gamble, figuring (correctly it turns out) that if he marketed his book as non-fiction, it would sell more.
Big gamble and he lost. Which is often what happens when you take a chance.
I am also curious as to why you don't like Oprah. She is incredibly powerful woman and answers to nobody. She is self-reliant and confident, qualities I would thought you would admire. And she is really really self made; her "royalness" is earned, rather than bestowed by birth.
...that said, in all honesty, her show is not my cup of tea and I don't watch it either ;-)
You may think James Frey lost the gamble, but he didn't.
The controversy only boosted sales of his book, it remained on the bestsellers list even AFTER the truth was revealed.
As to why I don't like Oprah; I just don't. She seems fake to me. That, and she thinks she THE SHIT, which she isn't.
She's "been through" everything, and on every episode she HAS to remind EVERYONE of how charitable she is, and she shamelessly plugs all her crap on every single episode. I think she's powerful because the audience gave her that power, I don't think she earned anything.
They chose to watch her show and buy all her crap.
She just is not something special, I think.
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