I guess we should cut Reprise some slack—he or she is from Australia, not the U.S., and also may not be old enough to remember the “Jane, you ignorant slut!” routine from late-1970s “Saturday Night Live” . . .
That having been said, I wish some other pop-culture figures would start recommending books. Ossie Osbourne pushing Dickens? Will and Grace thumbing through Nevil Shute? Britney Spears holding (upside down) a copy of Jan Morris’ “New York 1945?”
I think this got covered in the other thread, but the book that began the whole book club thing, though not officially “Book Club,” was The Bridges of Madison County.
Wanna talk about cheap and dirty company?
Yeah, reprise may not know from “ignorant slut,” but the fact that nobody called the OP out for the thread title in all these posts should have been a clue that it was some kind of joke he didn’t know about. The fact that he immediately played the gender/race cards is…a bit annoying. My thought was “Oy vey. The PC Police strike again!” Well, this is a hijack…Back to Oprah:
I don’t hate Oprah. I don’t watch her show or read her magazine, but I do admire her. I admired what she did with her book club. Just getting a ton more people to read better-than-crap fiction was an accomplishment. An unmitigated good. I’ve read several books on her list. Some are outstanding. Some are, IMHO, maudlin junk. But it’s all better than Danielle Steel or Johanna Lindsey.
I’m sad that she is ending the book club. It was good for her audience, and good for the authors, and good for the publishing industry.
I am angry that she is not telling the whole truth about why she is dropping the club. I am angry that in her attempt to cover the truth, she is inadvertently damaging the same people she was helping.
The book club made me admire her more. But this situation is making me admire her less.
Point taken. :eek:
But, uh… wouldn’t that be “cheap and dirty Harry company”? 
Well, at any rate, Song of Solomon was near the beginning, because that Xmas one of my mom’s friends gave her ALL of the books on Oprah’s list up to that point as a gift.
I don’t really see how Oprah is “covering up” anything. I mean, we all can read between the lines, and are expected to do so on a regular basis. People are “let go” from their jobs, or, “leave to explore new career options.” We know what this means. We accept candy-coatings on a lot of things, 'cause it just keeps us all more friendly. If you really want her to come out and say, “it’s all about the ratings,” you certainly can feel that way, but don’t we all know that TV is always all about the ratings? Don’t we know that if the book club was making her and/or the network a fortune it would still be running (and perhaps have a number of successful spin-off shows as well)?
Plus, who says that ratings are the only issue. If we take for granted that they are always an underlying motivator for entertainers’ decisions, couldn’t we maybe accept what she says, that these days she’s just not feeling it?
[hijack]
Balduran, the “up high, down low, too slow” thing cracked me up. I haven’t thought about that in years!
[/hijack]
I’m with Zoff. How exactly do ya’ll know the woman is lying?
Could it not be a combination of low ratings AND the fact that finding compelling books every month is becoming difficult that’s behind her decision? It’s not either/or, people!
I would have more sympathy with the haters in this thread if it was evident that you were all rooting for the club in the first place. But so far, none of ya’ll have actually admitted to watching the goddamn show. So I don’t think anyone here is really that offended by Oprah’s throwing in the towel.
reprise, please reconsider. I have seen several reasons for people to cricize Oprah in this thread (ie, lying, pandering to ratings, lying about books, picking crappy books) and none of them have anything to do with success, race or gender.
If you sincerely believe I’m criticizing her 'cause deep down I believe black people and women shouldn’t be successful, then you have really misjudged me.
As I mentioned before, I don’t see these as mutually exclusive. She’s busy and the book part is taking up an inordinate amount of her time relative to the returns. The smart choice is to reduce resources spent in finding new books, which makes books that fit her criteria harder to find.
Oprah is, at worst, guilty of presenting her decision in a light most favorable to her. How awful! I guess she should have issued a much more detailed white paper on her decision-making process along with spreadsheets showing the pertinent ratings and income information.
I am still wondering why she is being held to this standard.
Monstro, you’re new here, so I’m guessing you didn’t get the memo. You’re not allowed to admit to having read the Oprah books on this board. You must adopt a holier-than-thou uber-intellectual attitude and say, “I’ve never read any of the Oprah books, but I know they’re all trashy romance Harlequin types.”
“I’ve never read any of the Oprah books, but I know they’re not worth the paper they’re printed on.”
“I’ve never read any of the Oprah books, but I know they’re just so much fluff.”
“I’ve never read any of the Oprah books, but I know anyone who does read them is a mindless sheep who can’t pick something for themself.”
Apparently, people who don’t read Oprah books are all psychic. :rolleyes:
The general consensus of most of the readers on this board is that unless it’s very obscure Sci-Fi/Fantasy, it’s not worth reading. :rolleyes:
Do a search in Cafe Society for some of the “What Are You Reading?” threads, and you’ll see what I mean.
Kinsey-oh get over yourself.
:rolleyes:
monstro
So, if you don’t like Oprah, you’re a “hater”?
Well, sign me up. I don’t like Rosie, either.
The book club has nothing to do with it-I don’t think I’ve ever read anything from her book club, (I don’t know how many were there), but I couldn’t care less.
I just think she’s a snob. And Dr. Phil gets on my nerves.
A “hater” is anyone who’s giving another person heat over something. Genuine hate is not required to be called a “hater”, just a general beef.
Oprah-hatin’ ain’t nothing to be ashamed about. I’m always hatin’ on her and I encourage my friends to do likewise because it’s a fun activity. Just make sure your hate makes sense, that’s alls I’m sayin’.
I hate you all. Equally.
Well, that’s not true. I hate some of you more than others, and others less than some, so it all averages out.
That’s right. Reading critically is an exercise for the intellectual elite/effete. After all, in this thread, people have only mentioned those "obscure SF authors Faulkner, Twain, and Joyce. I think Ernest Hemingway, writer of Obscure Geek SF Book Nobody but Dopers Reads was also mentioned.
It’s fine to loathe her. My husband loathes her. She can’t make a move without him griping. That’s his opinion.
However, some of you are really stretching to make your own disgust with her into something more than just personal opinion but rather some moral imperative. She “lied” about the reason for dropping the book club? Oh come on now, let’s ease up a bit. We’re speculating about the ratings thing (though I have no doubt that was a factor) and as Eonwe has noted, candy-coating things is hardly something Oprah invented. I too would prefer TV people were more honest about how $$ influences programming decisions, but I hardly find that justification for going after Oprah with both barrels a-blazin.
If she bugs you, fine. If you don’t like her book choices, that’s fine too. If it irks you that she’s got tastes that she can no longer fulfill with today’s literature, more’s the pity. But gee whiz, such vitriol, my friends!
Minor hijack…Amen to the “Oprah thinks she’s the center of the universe” opinion. And the “fingernails on the chalkboard incarnate” was pure genius. I don’t know what it is, but that woman drives me insane, everytime I see her or hear her voice I want to jump through a window. I think it started when she no longer let any “ordinary” people (not a celebrity of some sort) share the precious stage with her, they are now regulated to the first row in the audience. I guess her ego got too big and there is no longer any room to share. Anyways, sorry for the hijack.
Well, I’m happy to report evidence to the contrary. With the book swap, I think I got a small cross-section of avid readers. Granted, it was only 45 people, but I think that represents a good variety of the book nuts here. Anyway, I had them each supply some guidelines as to what they liked to read or were willing to read. SF and Fantasy were frequently mentioned, but few people (if any) said this genre was their exclusive favorite, and no one seemed to think that other types of books weren’t wroth reading.
The most frequent comment was “no Harlequins, please.”
Just to clear up the thread title – of course, it’s a Saturday Night Live reference, and one worth explaining. For those of you who never saw the early seasons of that show, their “Weekend Update” section included a take-off on the Sixty Minutes “Point-Counterpoint” segment. Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin would debate a controversial issue, such as abortion; Curtin would go first, then Aykroyd would invariably begin his response, “Jane, you ignorant slut!” which never stopped being funny. (He would continue with something like, “I am always against funding abortions, with one exception – had I been around when your mother was carrying you, not only would I have paid for the abortion, I would have performed it myself!”)
So my thread title was 1) an attempt at nostalgic humor, and 2) a recognition of the fact that this is, in fact, the Pit, and not Great Debates. The inappropriate is appropriate here, and if I feel like calling somebody a slut for no reason whatsoever, I’ll indulge myself. It doesn’t mean I actually think Oprah Winfrey is a slut, anymore than I think Jane Curtin is a slut (except in a particular perverse fantasy I’ve entertained since 1975).
So, Reprise, please forgive me. Ignorant slut.
a question, then a comment:
I am curious:
out of all the people that think Oprah’s book picks are ‘mindless’ fluff (or what have you)…
How many of you watch Network TV (i,e “friends” type shows)?
Do you exclusively watch PBS type programming (masterpiece theater etc.)?
If so, then what is the difference really?
Is there a difference in ‘Fluff’ Tv and ‘Fluff’ literature?
* * *
I really don’t understand all the Oprah animosity.
But then, that could just be me. I guess because I don’t really watch TV much that I don’t know much about her, currently. I guess I must really live in a cave: last time I saw Oprah was when I lived at home (7 years ago). I have no idea who this Dr Phill is. I only see her stickers at the bookstore ( I have read a few. I didn’t have a problem with the choices I read.) . I see her mag at the Doc’s office (but I don’t read it. usually have a sketch pad to doodle in).
So what I don’t get, if one hates her so much, why is she so much a part of your life to allow such hate?
easy…because she’s EVERYWHERE!!! There’s NO…ESCAPE…
Oh, I don’t think Oprah’s books are fluff. Not at all. Almost the opposite.
A lot of them tend to be extremely well written, with serious social issues. I just don’t really like dealing with social issues. I have read one, exactly one book promoted by her. She’s Come Undone, by Wally Lamb. It recieved very favourable reviews, and many people I spoke to liked it.
I couldn’t stand it. I have enough stuff do deal with in my life, I don’t want to get all depressed about the serious issues someone else is having.