Celebrity Inspired Book Clubs- I don't
know too much about Oprah's Book Club. I have often thought it was
silly and "Who is she?" Like, who cares what Oprah's
reading? But the sad fact is that many, many people DO. There are
many people who take her suggestions seriously. One of the reasons I
don't have respect for her book club is because of my spiritual
viewpoint. I have heard things about her recommending "spiritual"
books that are anti what I believe. That she believes differently
than me is all fine and good. It's not OK though that she has such
tremendous influence and spouts her suggestions and opinions to so
many people who unquestioningly believe everything that comes out of
her mouth. That to me is not OK. This
was proven with the James Frey book. She went on and on about it and
made the guy millions of dollars because everyone believes everything
she says and his book was a disgusting fake. Which leads to ...
Fake memoirs - I think fake memoirs are
a disgrace. I think if a publishing company is publishing something
as a memoir then they should bother to do all necessary investigation
to make sure it actually is a memoir. I was disgusted after reading A
Million Little Lies: Exposing James Frey's Fiction Addiction. This
man made millions of dollars off of lies. It's disgusting. He was
being hailed for his, "unprecedented honesty," and it was
lies. "Frey's tall tales would, of course, be pretty funny if so
many people didn't actually believe them." (2006) This is the
sad thing about this particular memoir. It deals with addiction. First of all addiction is horrifying on so many levels to the person living it. This man made money by pretending to have lived the hell that so many truly do. He also portrayed himself as bad and a criminal because of the addiction and this is so not the case with so many addicts. They are fine, beautiful, good people who are just very, very ill and need help. Worst of all, and most harmful, Frey
claims he had an "unconventional recovery" in the book. He
rejected the Twelve Step approach and considers addiction a weakness,
not a disease. Anyone who has suffered from alcoholism and addiction
as he claimed he did knows that it is a disease and if one could just
will themselves out of it like he claimed he did there would not be
any addiction in the first place. He said his recovery was, "hinging
on his ability to continually surmount temptation, thanks to a
superhuman will..." This is NOT how recovery works. If the sick
person had been able to do that then they would never have been
addicted in the first place! The article said, "For those struggling with substance
abuse, Frey is a shiny, relapse-free success story, a man who beat
formidable odds with steely resolve. For desperate people, there
appears to be magic in his approach..." What he has done with
his lies is just evil in my opinion. There is no magic way out of addiction. AA and the twelve step approach
has saved millions of lives... but it's work. He has made people think
they should be able to JUST STOP and that they are not sick they are
weak. This is so erroneous and harmful and hurtful! He made millions of
dollars off these hurtful, medically, and scientifically wrong lies. It's
absolutely disgusting and he made millions off it - in large part
because of Oprah. Oprah didn't know what she was talking about - but
everyone believed her. Very sad.
I don't believe it is sad that people follow Oprah's recommendations. Many people don't go to public libraries or use online sources to find book recommendations. Having a celebrity recommend books is what many people, especially elderly people, use as their source. I look at it the same way as how I use Goodreads. Sure, I may be recommended a book by a stranger I only know through the Internet, but I still listen to the recommendation because I trust them based on their reading taste. If people enjoy Oprah's other readers, then they should listen to her other recommendations.
ReplyDeleteIt's not necessarily sad that some people read everything on Oprah's book club, at least it gets them reading and talking. If it gets them reading it's something, maybe they'll get turned on to reading other stuff they pick on their own? Good prompt response, full points.
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