Oprah Winfrey - Eat Me

The BBQ Pit
41

I’m just not feeling it on this one jarbabyj. So what if she recommends books? I honestly don’t understand how this is a bad thing. So what if people don’t “think for themselves”? I know this may be hard for some of us to believe, but some people simply don’t like reading, or have no interest in it. But if Oprah has a book club, they want to be part of that, so they read. And then their horizons are broadened. Maybe they’ll stop to think, “Hmmm, this book is pretty good. Maybe I’ll be interested in buying a book by the same author, or going to the library to look for similiar themes.”
And maybe some people are so busy that they can only read one book a month, so why not read one that you can talk to your friends about?
I usually don’t read her bookclub books, but I have on occasion. I never would have read The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (I believe) if not for her, and I would have really missed out on an excellent novel. Probably one of the best I have ever read.
She doesn’t have Classic Novels because the people who wrote the classic novels are dead now. The whole point of the book club was to have a book club meeting with the author. Kinda can’t do that with Dickens.
Furthermore, why does a book have to be 100 years old to have any literary value?

I’m sure Oprah does contribute to her own Angel Network. But that’s not the point. The point was to get the great masses to donate what few cents they could. Lots of people do not contribute to charities or help their fellow men. Again, this is a stepping stone, like the bookclub. The point was that everybody can make a difference.

Dr. Phil fucking rocks. I can really respect him because he doesn’t have the cuddly feel good crap. He’s blunt and forward, he gets his point across. But more importantly, he helps people.

Finally, just because someone is rich and famous doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy BBQ potato chips. It doesn’t mean they don’t like to read. It doesn’t mean you can take potshots at their weight. And it doesn’t mean that their fans are pieces of shit that you can look down on from your pedestal.

42

I can’t hate Oprah, because I’d like to think if I had my own talk show it would be very much like hers. The book club, while not perfect, is a great idea for many of the reasons already stated.

I used to think she had a holier-than-thou attitide, spouting common sense as if she invented it. The truth of the matter is Oprah has helped educate many people on matters of self-esteem, education and philanthropy. If my well-meaning but fiscally hopeless mother had watched an Oprah-esque show with someone like Suze Ormand (sp?) discussing personal finance, retirement planning and family budgeting 20 of 30 years ago, Lord only knows what a difference that would have made to my family’s finances.

Yep, Oprah’s a multi-millionaire – so she can’t eat Doritos? (Hell, no amount of money will part me from my snacks.) When Oprah’s does stuff like exposing her “glamorous” magazine experience or showing herself without make-up in the morning at a MRI lab, I believe that for the most part that Oprah’s pretty normal and well-intentioned. She never comes off as money hungry to me.

43

Mrs. Trion got a subscription to Oprah magazine for Christmas last year, and frankly we both find the thing pretty strange. First of all, why does her face have to be on the cover of every issue? Malcom Forbes isn’t on the cover of every issue of his magazine.

But the thing I find most disturbing are the ads. Plenty of ads for diet foods ad make-up. Does it really do the female mind any good to see lots of ads suggesting that you need to make yourself pretty and drop some weight?

44

Why, I’m glad you liked it! :smiley: (And BTW, Stoid, that’s ‘asinine’.)

But since you didn’t like my prior comment, let me add something a little bit more cogent.

Oprah Winfrey is an irritating, pretentious, self-important blowhard – and those are her good qualities! Yes, I’ll admit that she has contributed to charities and has done some good work, and I’d be a fool not to appreciate that. But everything she does screams ‘me me me, look at me and the great things I do!’, which takes away from the positive impact of what she does. It’s like watching that current crop of commercials where the company waves a flag around and tells you how great they are because they’ve contributed X amount of dollars to relief efforts. Hey, I’d take you a LOT more seriously if you just made those donations quietly and weren’t trying to squeeze some PR out of it by telling us about it!

(I guess, in the end, it really doesn’t matter what her public persona is, as long as in the end some good comes out of it… and as little as I agree with most of her book choices and her public persona, she has done good things. It’s just that her self-important, smarmy manner just absolutely makes me cringe.)

45

Yes, and damn them if they don’t. I just wrote out all my bills yesterday, went grocery shopping and now I think I have like fifty dollars for the next week. And yet I have to send my money in to Oprah? I don’t get it.

Well pepper, I’d like you to go through the OP and find where ONCE I mentioned her weight. ONCE.

I’m not saying that because she’s rich and famous she doesn’t like potato chips, I’m saying she’s a liar if she wants us to believe that she wants to hang out with all of us at a giant feel good pj party. I LIVE HERE. I know that she dines at restaurants that I’ll never get into, she has houses that I could fit the state of Rhode Island in, she is ROYALTY, not someone you hang out with at the Salt n Pepper diner.

It’s just this idea she has that everyone agrees with her always. When I watch her show (and I do when I’m home sick, my grandma and I like to bitch about her :smiley: ), she says things like “WE love what you’re saying Dr. Phil, don’t we?”

and everyone cheers! Oprah knows what all of us are feeling all the time!

nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
LEADER
LEADER

LEADER

And fine, read her books. Guess what, for every book she tells you to read, there are hundreds more that will never get the publicity of her sticker and might very well be better or as good as those, but these women will never find them because Oprah didn’t deem them worthy.

jar

46

No. She assumes that some part of the population will decide to take her advice. There are all kinds of groups like this. The Book of the Month Club is based on a similar premise. They recommend stuff. Those who like their recommendations will tend to take note of future recommendations. Those who don’t, won’t. It’s a self-correcting system.

As I mentioned above, she doesn’t know your tastes and doesn’t claim to know your tastes. She lists books that suit her tastes. So, if her recommendations are consistently contrary to your taste in books, don’t listen to her. Even the mindless drone housewives who are too stupid to understand The Jungle can understand this idea.

Maybe some do. But if they like the book, who cares? And implicit in this statement is the idea that people who buy books from the Oprah Book Club are stupid. The assumption that people who listen to Oprah are uneducated lemmings is pure elitism. Are you privy to some information about the average Oprah book buyer that the rest of us are unaware of? Are you really so sure that they:[ul]
[li]Don’t think for themselves?[/li][li]Are too stupid to read A Tale of Two Cities?[/li][li]Don’t ever make an independent decision on a book purchase?[/li][li]Only ever buy books from the Oprah Book Club?[/li][/ul]
I know this is the Pit, but you’ve made a hell of a lot of assumptions. I’m glad for your intellectual development that you read Les Miserables (and I assume you read it in the original French – it’s the Oprah types who would rely on an English translation), but some people just don’t share your taste. It doesn’t make them idiots.

47

Zoff, I already listed an example: My mother. If you’d like another, it’s my aunt.

Who never read books EVER. She never reads books that I suggest she read or my father, or anything…but all of the sudden…BAM!

Oprah said I should read books.

If you need more examples, go to a book store and ask them about the OPRAH readers. I had to hear about them every night when boy got home.

What I want to know is what made Oprah the authority IN THE FIRST PLACE, with the first book she recommended.

I’m not trying to be elitist at all. I promise. I am not an elitist reader. I read classics because I like to use literary allusion in my writing. but most nights I sit in bed and read Archie Comics. Stupid? You bet, but I picked it out myself.

Again, I don’t mind book recommendations. But when a woman rushes in to Borders and says “I don’t know the title, just give me the next Oprah book”, it doesn’t seem like a deep love of reading is spurring them on.

If I told you to read the Kommandant’s Mistress by Sheri Szesman…would my mom read it?

No.

But if OPRAH did, she would

jar

48

Well, jarbabyj, I guess we have ourselves an anecdotal standoff. I give you my wife and my mother. Both have read some books from the Oprah Book Club. Both read a great deal and choose their books based on their own criteria.

So the fact that she’s reading now is bad? Sure, you wish she’d listen to you, but do you think that the fact she’s reading is a net negative?

But you don’t get stories about women who don’t need to ask him where to find the book or ask for the book by name because he either doesn’t see them or it doesn’t annoy him. I suggest that the women who blindly ask for Oprah books are no “the OPRAH readers” they are the annoying Oprah readers.

I don’t think she claims the role as an authority. She suggests books she likes. Period. If people take her up on the suggestion, fine. If not, it’s no biggie.

I think our basic difference is that you are assuming the annoying people who ask your husband for the latest Oprah book are representative of everybody who has ever read an Oprah book. They’re not. Your husband’s experiences are just anecdotal. If, say, my mother or wife wanted the latest Oprah book they could find it without asking so they would be excluded from your data set that you use to judge Oprah readers.

And just for the record, I don’t take your critique of the Oprah Book Club personally because my wife and mother have read some of the books. I make fun of some of the stuff they read, too. I just do it on a case-by-case basis.

49

The weight comment was directed towards Zanshin.

I wasn’t aware that if you didn’t contribute Oprah would hunt your family down, murder your parents, torture your husband, and kick your dog. I don’t have any money for anything. I don’t feel pressure to donate to the Angel Network. I don’t let myself get all bent out of shape over what someone on TV is doing. And I certianly don’t allow myself to get all bent out of shape over what people I don’t even know choose to do with their money.

So? It makes her a bad person because she has money? She didn’t come from money. She was like “the rest of us” for many, many years. As a matter of fact, she had it worse than some of us. I don’t think it’s her job to be concerned about how you feel about the way she chooses to spend her money.
Sure I watch her “must have” shows and I know I’ll never, ever be able to afford most of it. My life will never be her life. But just because she lives in large houses and eats in fancy restaurants doesn’t mean she can’t identify with her fans. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t know what it’s like to be poor, frustrated, fat, with low self-esteem. I don’t think that people like Oprah because what she is, they like her because she’s who they could be.

Well, I imagine if someone took the time to go to her studio to see her show, then that person probably does agree with what Oprah has to say. It doesn’t make any sense to travel there, or to tune in and watch every week, if you hate the host and disagree with everything that’s said.

:rolleyes:
It seems you are looking at this from the wrong angle. The women who read the O books aren’t saying to themselves, “Man, I used to be an avid reader, but now I’m a mindless Oprah drone, so I’ll only read what she says.” It’s more like, “Man, I haven’t picked up a book since “The Scarlet Letter” was assigned in high school. But I could be part of a nationwide book club, and I trust Oprah, maybe I’ll try this book.”

So The Fuck What?! Jesus Christ, you have to have a deep love of reading to go and pick up a book? What the fuck is all that about? So do women who don’t have a deep love of reading by the time they are what? 30? should just never be allowed to read again? Because hey, what’s the point, if they can’t compare it to great works of literature, and write a motherfucking doctural dissertation on it?
So, I guess IOW, the only people allowed to read are the ones who love reading as much as you do. For everybody else it would be a pointless and empty activity, and they are better off watching “As the World Turns”?
Fuck that shit.

50

First off, if people choose to watch her show they do. I watch her on occasion, depending on the subject and I take it like I would any other program – with my brain. Oh and I am not a housewife, I am a self-employed and independant woman. I also think that most “housewives” and others that catch her show do so while using their brain like me. If you hate her so much tune her out.

She may be rich and I don’t even watch her Angel Network stuff but because she’s rich doesn’t mean she can’t (um free speech) ask that people get involved in community projects. Some not-so-well-off people do much more than just handing over a check, they work in the community they are trying to help. Encouraging people to do good is not a bad thing. I am sorry you see it in the light you do but one person can’t do it all by selling some jewels. It is more important that WE ALL get involved in our communities. I don’t think she’s being selfish at all when she does talk about charities on her show, in fact it inspires many. That’s the good thing about celebrities, they can get word to millions about charitable work and donation.

You are placing her in the role of dictator. Guess Chicago is the only place in the US where a dictator is around. Hmmm, they have this nice little book club here in town where they make RECOMMENDATIONS on good books people might like. Personally, I have never been drawn to feel that Oprah or any other person is forcing me to read books I don’t choose to. Going on a limb there jar.

Um yes.

[QUOTE]
Why don’t you read and discuss Les Miserables? Tale of Two Cities? The Jungle? or new classics like A Prayer For Owen Meany? OR ARE THOSE BOOKS TOO HARD TO READ? Too much big words for your pretty little head?

[QUOTE]

I don’t know all the books Ms. Winfrey has on her read list but maybe she has found some modern books that appeal to her and many in her audience.

Actually, I think she was more along the lines of Phil Donahue. Thought provoking subjects with an edge but I hardly think she was anything like Jerry Springer. That’s just stretching it a little far. Sally Jessie R has always been a hundred times worse than Oprah and she just kisses the line of Jerry Springer type shows.

Look, I realize that you hate her show. TUNE HER OUT, it’s that simple. I like you, you seem reasonable most of the time but your OP is pretty far out there. I don’t like nor dislike the Oprah show. I watch it on occasion. Sometimes I can’t stand the woman myself but why worry about a show that you don’t like anyway? Expend your energies to other things.

But that’s just my opinion.

51

Jarbabyj also forgets the boon Oprah has been to struggling authors. The Deep End of the Ocean and Midwives, for example had been commericial failures until Oprah recommended them to her audience. I was working at Barnes & Noble when Oprah mentioned a diet book (wasn’t even a book club selection) on her show, and the book, which had been out of print, was rushed back into print by the publisher and shot to the top of the non-fiction bestseller list. Oprah has become a heavyweight in the publishing industry.

Oprah’s Book Club is a positive force, and I applaud her for it. On the other hand, she unleashed Iyanla on the world, so the karmic balance has not yet been righted. :slight_smile:

52

What a talented, vigorous rant. What a crock of parrot shit.

Oprah is a role model. She is a modern archetype of success and empowerment. To me she’s intelligent, confident, and opinionated - to you she’s haughty and pretentious. Catty much?

The book club is a service to those unfortunates who are not already big readers. It gets their noses in books. Here’s a hint: if you are already an avid reader, you aren’t one of the people her book club tries to reach. Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible was one of her picks, and that book is magnificent. Perhaps you read it. If not then you fucked up, and maybe you could use her help after all.

jarbabyj, your talented, vigorous, and rather psychotic rant is mean and abusive-sounding. There’s just got to be something personal here you’re not sharing, like Oprah killed your dog or shit in your hat or something. Otherwise I’ll have to conclude that you are a friggin’ loon. I waited on her and her entourage a few times years ago and they ran me ragged and left a shitty tip. I have at least some small reason to think she’s not all that, yet I think the opposite. I wanna know what she did to you.

53

Fine Got It. I’m in the minority. She’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.

And techchick, I DO tune her out. But not unlike our old pal Michael Jordan, in Chicago, it’s sort of hard to tune out our Self Appointed Patron Saint. Every time I turn around I’m hearing about what a great person she is what she’s doing now, how she’s going to die for all of our sins next Good Friday.

I guess that in a dream world, I’d be in a book club that recommended classics that everyone should know. Books that made a difference that I may not know about. I’ve never read the Prince by Machiavelli, and yet everyone talks about it. It’s a book of reference because it’s such a classic. I would love it if Oprah said, “here’s the novel that won a Pulitzer Prize. It’s a PROVEN piece of literature. I think we should read it”.

I guess we’ll agree to disagree. I don’t like Oprah. She strikes me as a phony. Me, jarbaby. And I’m realizing now as we go through this public flogging that maybe my bigger problem is with OPRAH VIEWERS like my mother or my aunt or 3/5ths of Chicago who take her word as gospel.

I saw on OPRAH…

OPRAH says we should eat here

OPRAH says I should read this

OPRAH says I should send my money here

And buy these sheets

And eat these potato chips

And go to this shrink

And believe this religion

SO I DO.

and pepper:

Bitte. There are fifty billion people in the world who love books and reading more than me. I read a book maybe once a week. I’m saying everyone should read WHATEVER THEY WANT, and I think they’ll enjoy their reading time more if they pick things out based on THEIR interests and THEIR life and THEIR experiences rather than Oprah’s.
jar

54

Jesus, what’s wrong with NOT liking Oprah?

I don’t care if she reccomends a book and someone sees it, and says, hmmmm…sounds pretty good.

BUT…why does she have to act like she’s the end all and be all?

Remember that stupid libel suit against her? I disagreed with it-but afterwards, she was running around, yelling, “Free speech rocks!” It just sounded so, I don’t know, smarmy?

She just, she just irks the shit out of me.

Same with Rosie O’Donnell. I wish they would BOTH fall into a black hole, never to be seen.

55

Damn. My response got eaten.

Suffice it to say, I’m a Libra. If y’all love her, I guess she’s great.

She rubs me the wrong way.

I’m not trying to imply that my reading choices are better, I’m trying to say that I wish…more women AND men, made book choices on their own rather than having it assigned to them like in school.

And if we ARE going to have book clubs, let’s have them feature classics that everyone should have in their repetoire. Wouldn’t Oprah be much better served to suggest proven classics or books that have won pulitzer prizes…proven works?

I guess I must be missing something here. She strikes me as a phony who’s grand show of humanitarianism always seems to end up with her making another million dollars.

And yes, tech, I could tune her out…if I didn’t live in Chicago where every day I have to hear something else about her from some other outlet, radio, t.v., newspaper. Her show is on twice a day here.

So, I guess she’s the greatest thing ever. :shrug:

I just wonder if my mom will ever read something I, her daughter of 29 years, suggests.

jar

56

And I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks all the Oprah books are lightweight fluff.
And also I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb (not Lambfucker, thank-you-very-much :wink: ). It is an incredible book.
Another good one is White Oleander by Janet Fitch.

And to dispute a point brought up by someone else, the first Oprah book was The Deep End Of The Ocean by Jacqueline Mitchaud, not ** Bridges of Madison County**. AFAIK, BoMC was never an Oprah book. It’s not listed on her site.

57

I forgot to add. I don’t read “classic” literature. I read books I am in the mood for.

I do find it snobbish that you think that you and your father are more in tuned to what people should read. My mother was a university English Lit professor. She had books that were from the classics (she had to) to the very contemporary mindless dribble. She loved to read and reading was her life. But she NEVER once professed that I should have to read classic lit for children. She let me read whatever I choose to read.

When I was young (she died when I was 15) she would let me read any book in her library. I read Carrie, not a boo about it. I would ask her to buy me teen age romance books.

To this day I still have my Laura Ingles Wilder collection, Charlotte’s Web and a few other books she gave me – not because I loved them so much as she gave them to me. But she never poopooed the idea that I might read a bad book. The idea of reading is not always to be the smartest in the world. The idea of reading is to give people a place to expand their life a little. It could be a romance novel to find themselves in a sexy place with a sexy man. It could be a thriller where you think you know the murderer but there are so many twists and turns you can’t stop. It could be a book on your local history to understand how your city or region came to be. It could be a simple story about a simple person that you can relate to. Reading isn’t about reading a book like “Moby Dick” or “War and Peace” it’s much like any other artform. Some like Andy Worhal (sp) and some like the Velvet Elvis. Some like Bach and some like Quiet Riot.

It really doesn’t matter what people read. I think it’s great that someone that never used to read suddenly finds reading a passion. It happens to be Oprah recommendations? Okay, you hate Oprah but if she inspired someone to read, then I am all for it. The book its self is not the problem it’s the snobbery I see coming from you. That is truly sad.

58

After reading some of the other posters’ comments to this thread, I realize I’ve ruffled some feathers with my first comment. And after looking at it again, I can see that comment was out of line. I apologize for that comment – it was inappropriate and insensitive. I may not like Oprah as a person, but her struggles with weight gain and loss have nothing to do with my feelings about her personally, and I shouldn’t use that as a springboard for cheap jokes at her expense.

My apologies again.

59

I have to agree that the House of Sand & Fog was a great book. We read it for our book club but then we met after 9/11 and found it too depressing to discuss. Really. We didn’t talk about it at all. I didn’t know it was an Oprah selection.

Jar, my love, I really don’t think her recommendations are truly preventing other books from being read or published. It’s true, when she picks a book it gets a real nice buzz, but the people who buy Oprah books only because they are Oprah books wouldn’t be out there buying other books if Oprah stopped making choices. That’s a bit of an assumption on my part, granted. But avid book readers are going to find the good ones out there just like we always have. And also (alas) read a few dogs. And it sounds as though there are more than a few people who, like you, avoid a book once Oprah says she likes it. So maybe you’re balancing out Her Evil Influence, a bit? :slight_smile:

60

A proven piece of literature?
:rolleyes:
People should only read “proven” pieces of literature?
:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
What’s wrong with saying, “Here’s a book that’s a pretty good read at night before you go to bed. It’s got mystery, romance, intrique, something for everybody!”?
BTW, who decides what piece of literature is “proven”? The Pulitzer Prize? Fuck, I guess 99% of the books should just be burned, because nobody should read them ever. After all, they aren’t “proven”.
And I repeat, the purpose of the O Book Club is to have a discussion with the author. You can’t have a discussion with Jane Austin.
I don’t care if you hate Oprah. Won’t keep me up at nights. However, I am bothered by this whole idea of what books are “worthy” to read.