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A Million Little Lies: The Oprah Smackdown
I don't really like Oprah Winfrey but today's show is cool as shit. If you don't know the story about James Frey and his craptastic book she recommended, A Million Little Pieces, here's a great article about the situation from The Smoking Gun. And just to say it, I fucking love The Smoking Gun. Ahh, so kick ass.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html
Frey was on her show today and Oprah ripped him a new asshole about all the lies he told in the book and the various interviews he conducted promoting it. This amuses me because of two things. First of all, I looked at his fucking book when I was at Barnes and Noble and I get that it's written from supposedly his fucked up drug addled pov but the thing is just... chaotic and you can't get a hold of his train of thought.
Which I get. That's what he wanted. But still, I felt there was no point in reading it. To me, writing is about clarity of emotion and expression. I think to be a truly gifted writer or at least someone who is trying to be your readers should be able to read your words and instantly get a sense of what you're feeling, you know? What you're trying to express with those words. His book was a jumbled mess of conflicting thoughts and there was no clarity at all. Some could argue that his lack of clarity is what he was trying to get across but isn't it sort of lame to write an entire book where the only emotion you get from the protagonist is that his mind is a fucked up mess? What does that give you?
Which, AGAIN, I get. That's the point. But just because I get the point of a writing technique doesn't mean I have to like it.
What I find amusing is the fact that he lied about all of these things he put in his book and he says the point of the lies was to make the book more effective. More powerful. Which just shows his crappy writing style, I think. I mean, if you were a good writer wouldn't you be able to convey that through the truth of your experiences? And if your real life wasn't fucking dramatic enough why couldn't you have simply written or said you wrote the book from not YOUR pov but the pov of just some nameless former drug addicted person?
Anyway. I don't know the entire story on James Frey because I never read his book all the way through and I have really no interest in Oprah or her stupid ass book club. lol. But I still found it just delightful how she ripped him apart and he had no ability to defend himself against her. Honestly, it was some cool fucking shit. Now I sort of want Dubbya to go on Oprah. Heh. After seeing her destroy James Frey I'm sure she'd be able to do some nice things to him too. If you want to see some of her smackdown here's her official site. They have a clip up.
http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml
RE: Check out this description of one of the most douchey parts of his book and the reason I rolled my eyes and decided to give up on reading this crap...
And then there's the time in Paris (he's supposedly fled to Europe after jumping bail in Ohio) when, on his way to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Seine, Frey stops into a church to have a good cry. There, a "Priest," while pretending to listen to Frey's description of his wrecked life, makes a lunge for Frey's crotch. "You must not resist God's will, my Son," says the priest. A vicious beatdown ensues, with Frey possibly killing the grasping cleric, whom the author kicked in the balls 15 times. Mon dieu!
He's such a lame ass. lol. I swear, the more I contemplate this whole thing about Frey he reminds of the people in high school who make up that fake boyfriend or girlfriend from Canada so they don't seem like dateless I've never had sex in my life nerds. I'm starting to think I'm already getting back into the mentality of professional writing and I swear, I know it's bad but I just know when it comes time to doing the feedback round tables in classes again I'll make people cry. I did it before and most likely I'll do it again.
Fucking writers need to separate themselves from their work. It's not you, dumbass. It's something you produced. You know, like a piece of poop.
God, I'm gross.
RE:RE: Bwahahaha... fake captions from the Frey appearance on Oprah today.
http://www.gawker.com/news/james-frey/index.php
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html
Frey was on her show today and Oprah ripped him a new asshole about all the lies he told in the book and the various interviews he conducted promoting it. This amuses me because of two things. First of all, I looked at his fucking book when I was at Barnes and Noble and I get that it's written from supposedly his fucked up drug addled pov but the thing is just... chaotic and you can't get a hold of his train of thought.
Which I get. That's what he wanted. But still, I felt there was no point in reading it. To me, writing is about clarity of emotion and expression. I think to be a truly gifted writer or at least someone who is trying to be your readers should be able to read your words and instantly get a sense of what you're feeling, you know? What you're trying to express with those words. His book was a jumbled mess of conflicting thoughts and there was no clarity at all. Some could argue that his lack of clarity is what he was trying to get across but isn't it sort of lame to write an entire book where the only emotion you get from the protagonist is that his mind is a fucked up mess? What does that give you?
Which, AGAIN, I get. That's the point. But just because I get the point of a writing technique doesn't mean I have to like it.
What I find amusing is the fact that he lied about all of these things he put in his book and he says the point of the lies was to make the book more effective. More powerful. Which just shows his crappy writing style, I think. I mean, if you were a good writer wouldn't you be able to convey that through the truth of your experiences? And if your real life wasn't fucking dramatic enough why couldn't you have simply written or said you wrote the book from not YOUR pov but the pov of just some nameless former drug addicted person?
Anyway. I don't know the entire story on James Frey because I never read his book all the way through and I have really no interest in Oprah or her stupid ass book club. lol. But I still found it just delightful how she ripped him apart and he had no ability to defend himself against her. Honestly, it was some cool fucking shit. Now I sort of want Dubbya to go on Oprah. Heh. After seeing her destroy James Frey I'm sure she'd be able to do some nice things to him too. If you want to see some of her smackdown here's her official site. They have a clip up.
http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml
RE: Check out this description of one of the most douchey parts of his book and the reason I rolled my eyes and decided to give up on reading this crap...
And then there's the time in Paris (he's supposedly fled to Europe after jumping bail in Ohio) when, on his way to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Seine, Frey stops into a church to have a good cry. There, a "Priest," while pretending to listen to Frey's description of his wrecked life, makes a lunge for Frey's crotch. "You must not resist God's will, my Son," says the priest. A vicious beatdown ensues, with Frey possibly killing the grasping cleric, whom the author kicked in the balls 15 times. Mon dieu!
He's such a lame ass. lol. I swear, the more I contemplate this whole thing about Frey he reminds of the people in high school who make up that fake boyfriend or girlfriend from Canada so they don't seem like dateless I've never had sex in my life nerds. I'm starting to think I'm already getting back into the mentality of professional writing and I swear, I know it's bad but I just know when it comes time to doing the feedback round tables in classes again I'll make people cry. I did it before and most likely I'll do it again.
Fucking writers need to separate themselves from their work. It's not you, dumbass. It's something you produced. You know, like a piece of poop.
God, I'm gross.
RE:RE: Bwahahaha... fake captions from the Frey appearance on Oprah today.
http://www.gawker.com/news/james-frey/index.php