You know, if the ratings were dropping on the book club episodes, couldn’t she just have done it as an aside project-maybe only mention it once during the show-Oh, and new book for this month is blah blah blah by so and so.
And the books would still have her cute little sticker on them.
Blech. I can’t stand her. She’s such an attention whore. She thinks she’s just God’s gift to everyone and she’s so enlightened and we need to breath on her every word.
Blah!
Right. If she had said she was dropping it because of low ratings, everything would be hunky dory. No criticisms at all.
:rolleyes:
Remember all the criticism she got when she started the book club? Now she is wrong to stop it. Sheesh.
Face it, to some people, Oprah can do no right. She is a victim of her own success and others’ jealousy. I am not a huge fan, but I am tired of seeing the poor woman bitch slapped no matter what she does.
NO ONE is angry that she’s dropping it. They’re angry at her saying, “There are no longer any good, worthwhile books to read.”
THAT, my friend, is what we find offensive!
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Guinastasia
They’re angry at her saying, “There are no longer any good, worthwhile books to read.”
[QUOTE]
So you put words in her mouth, then condemn her for it. Peachy.
What she said is “It has become harder and harder to find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share.” She’s not saying there are no good books. She’s saying it’s hard to find books she personally wants to share. She took shit because people thought she was setting herself up as the authority on literary taste and now she’s taking shit for dropping it because she’s having trouble finding stuff she subjectively likes. I’m with Brynda on this – she’s damned either way.
Has anyone here ever read an Oprah book pick?
I’ve read a handful, not because they were on her list but because they’re eye-catching when you walk into the library. They aren’t heavy reading, but they usually have a good tale to tell. I don’t read books to dissect the diction and I don’t like to pour over the symbolisms and the leit motifs within them. I leave that kind of stuff to AP English students and English majors. Most people read to be entertained and Oprah is an entertainer. She’s never claimed to be anything else.
I think it’s noble that she’s brought her love of books to the unwashed masses. If she were an editor of a literary magazine, I think she would be deserving of all the heat she’s gotten over the quality of her picks. But cripes, she’s a day-time talk show host! Just a peg up over Rosie. For most of her audience, Faulkner and Joyce are inaccessible. This isn’t putting down her viewers; it’s just a statement of fact. I don’t consider myself stupid and even I admit I wouldn’t revisit As I Lay Dying or Portrait of a Young Man as an Artist unless I had to. If she had chosen such works, people would say she was trying to be elitist while alienating her viewers. And she’d still be hated by the book-snobs.
If she’s gotten more people to read, I think that enough is worthy of praise, even if her picks aren’t “cool” or “tough” (Beloved isn’t exactly leisurely reading, however). I can’t stand the woman personally, but the book thing is definitely not on the list of reasons why you should hate her. At least IMHO.
Ah, this is my first post, so be gentle…
I have read 3 or 4 of Oprahs pics, and they never fail to do this…
When I’m not feeling real confident, and my life looks like it’s residing in the toilet…I pick up an Oprah book. I have never met anybody who has a worse life than the people in these books. A real pick me up. Makes you feel like you got the world by the ass.
I read A Lesson Before Dying. I did not particularly like it, but I thought that the plot was not bad, and it certainly was a sad story. Since this was for a school assignment, all of my friends also had copies. Some had Oprah stickers some didn’t, but what really bugged me was that the ones with the stickers were more expensive. That could (emphasis on could because I doubt it myself) mean that people could be paying Oprah to put her sticker on their books, and that also that the publishing companies see that sticker as a reason to charge more for their books.
As for Huck Finn, I love this story; however, in many schools Mark Twain is now frowned upon because of his use of language that could now be seen as racially biased. So Oprah probably would not want to reccomend this book to the masses due to the bad publicity it could get her.
But you dumbass, that wasn’t the reason she’s dropping the book club! She’s dropping it-because the RATINGS for the bookclub shows are dropping!
It’s all about the ratings. So she’s LYING.
Good GOD, pull your head out of your ass and read, goddammit!
[nitpick]Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man[/nitpick]
I was supposed to read it for AP English last year, but I loathed it. I’ve only put down a few books in my life half-way through and this was one.
I have little doubt that ratings are a consideration, but she simply said that it’s harder to find books she wants to share. Guess what? When you run a media empire you have to make choices about your time and resources. If the book club episodes brought in massive amounts of viewers she could devote more of her staff’s time to finding books. But the episodes are poorly viewed. This, coupled with what I imagine is a massive increase in authors trying to get their books selected, means that it’s simply not worth devoting the resources to finding the books. Ratings and trouble finding books are not mutually exclusive explanations. In fact, they are most likely connected.
And this still leaves the fact that you materially misrepresented her comments in order to launch your attack. You do understand the difference between what Oprah said and what you claim she said don’t you?
As an aside, does being challenged about Oprah always cause you to launch personal attacks or are you just trying to be a cool “in your face” poster?
Why all the vitriol about Oprah? I just don’t understand it. You seem to personally dislike her because you think she thinks she’s “God’s gift”. I have to admit I don’t follow her every move, but what has she done that’s so horrible? It seems people dislike her simply because she’s successful and famous. She then uses some of her fame to launch a book club for which she’s attacked. She then stops the book club and she’s attacked. Unbelievable.
No Baby Tuckoo for you? Pity. But I have to say that I’m 14 years removed from AP English, and that shit still gives me nightmares. 
I have to attempt to defend Oprah here. She shared books, it was fun for some and got people just a bit further removed from Jerry Springer which I can’t really be sad about. Society needs to make the baby steps toward enlightenment and encouraging reading as a sought after value is not something I will ever deride.
So some people read books she liked, so what? It doesn’t hurt you at all. And for those of you insisting she has to be lying, let me point out that you don’t have a clue what is in her mind any more than she has a clue what’s in yours. You can only judge people on what they say and do, not what you think they are thinking.
So she hawked some books, it was fun, now she wants to stop. This isn’t dropping the atom bomb, there’s no huge ethical decision to be considered. Lay off the woman if you’re going to piss and moan about talk show hosts pick ones that actively support the downfall of the human race.
Zoff
I actually think you are taking a generous interpretation of this. To me it sounds like she is saying there are not enough good books out there for her to go to the trouble of sharing them. But that’s just my reading of it. I really don’t have an opinion of her one way or another other than I think this is scapegoating authors when there are other circumstances for her dropping the club. She could have easily made a statement that would not have this interpretation.
“Slut”? cite please.
If you want to criticise a highly successful black woman who is now one of the most powerful mediaa players in the US today, then I think you can possibly come up with something more original than “slut” and I’m sure that you can provide something more than tabloid quotes to support you venom regarding this woman.
You can’t?
Well let me remind you that the accusation of “disproportionate influence” has been levelled at many WHITE women - Marilyn, Jackie, Rosalynn, Hillary…
Do I like Oprah’s show? NO!!! Am I glad that’s she’s worth almost half of what Bill Gates is? You bet.
I don’t see people starting threads about Sally Jessie, or Ricki, or Jerry and calling them sluts.
Oprah started off as a poor black woman and she clawed her way to the top - as did many white males. Get over it.
Don’t like her show, think her taste in books sucks, but you get to call her a “slut” just because she’s brokent he glass ceiling?
WHAT- EV-ER
Fair enough, you’re entitled to your interpretation. I happen to think that there is a substantive difference between “there are no good books” and “it’s hard for me to find books I really want to share”. It would be great if she continued the club or changed it’s focus. But she’s not going to and that doesn’t make her bad.
It just seems to me that there is an underlying assumption that Oprah has some sort of public duty to continue the book club and that by scrapping the club she is denying authors of something they deserve.
I just don’t think Oprah can win in this situation. She has been attacked for (1) thinking she’s God (though this argument is a big stretch), then attacked for (2) the slight to authors by discontinuing the book club. So she’s attacked as an all-powerful arbiter of literary taste then attacked for discontinuing the club because the discontinuation by an all-powerful arbiter of literary taste is an inherent slap at authors. Yet she’s never claimed to be the final authority on literature. She just started a book club for her viewers. It’s her critics that have falsely said she’s assumed the mantle and then she’s attacked again for failing in her duties. I’m not saying that you in particular have done this, but this is the kind of incredible vitriol the woman provokes for some reason.
I’m not a big fan of Oprah, but I think the constant book club attacks on her are a little strange. This might make me a non-reading dumbass with my head up my ass, but that’s something I’ll have to learn to live with.
reprise-the ignorant slut is an old SNL bit.
Reprise, this isnt a colour thing, so please dont make it into one.
Oprah lied about why she was dropping the book club. Claiming that “there are no more good books that she ‘must’ recomend” is a big fat lie. Simply put, the raiting on the book club shows were dropping, and she got rid of the segment.
this woman has a massive ego and to make it sound like there are no more good books out there that her audience might enjoy is a freaking kick in the teeth to authors.
she could still encourage people to form their own clubs, and run the book of the month through her “O” magazine, but no, there are “No More good Books that she must recommend”.
Shit Ratings = No more Good Book recommendations out there, at least in Oprah’s universe.
See, this is what I have a problem with. First of all, she didn’t say there were “no more good books” she said it was “getting harder” to find good books she wanted to recommend. Second, a lie is a deliberate misstatement of objective fact. It’s Oprah’s opinion that it’s hard to find something she would want to recommend. Why is this woman being called a liar for stating her subjective opinion?
If I go to your favorite pub and ask you what lager you recommend, you’re not a liar if you say there are no lagers you’d feel comfortable recommending. The fact that there are lagers I or others like doesn’t make you a liar because it’s your opinion.
She has a section on her website that has suggestions on how to form a book club, so your argument doesn’t hold. Of course, I’m sure she’ll be attacked for arrogantly assuming she knows the best way to form a book club.
Not true. your putting words in my mouth before I’ve even opened it.
The big fat lie has nothing to do with “No books she feels comfortable recommending”. She dropped the Book Club because the ratings dropped. She is trying to cover that up by claiming there are no more books she wants to recommend.