DC:
Yours is a deep and wonderful essay on the issue of truth in literature, or literature which claims to be true insofar as the events described happened in the tangible world.
But here's an alternative look:
Frey's little inconsequential work, which will vanish in importance with the next Oprah show, is something like a roman a clef, which is a work of fiction with real characters, and sometimes stretches the facts.
It's also something like an admittedly stretched version of Norman Mailer's New Journalism of the 60's, which was a way of reporting "news" and events in the way they effected the witness. The Left loves this stuff then and loves it now, even though it confirmed Mailer's transformation from a posturing genius into a posturing boob.
In addition, literary frauds and deceptions are everywhere, in every age, in every memoir and historical account. Most biographical stuff is absolute bullsh**. Most newspaper accounts of anything from yesterday are absolute bullsh**. Remember how jesting Pilate answered the question?
I'm bothered more by this one because it issued from the Oprah cult. But that's because I think she represents the worst of American pop culture, and her taste in books is lightweight.
Rhod,
You make a great point. There are falsehoods everywhere, too numerous to count. We all fail to tell the truth on a number of levels. If we are honest, we must admit this.
Here, Frey did so serially and Oprah ran with it. Why? Because she liked the story being told. Heck with the facts. Don't confuse me with the facts, please.
My real beef is with her, not so much him. He is what he is, and people will now judge him accordingly.
Oprah is worse than Frey, in my view. She is pretending to be different than Frey. Yet, she is worse. And her cult will forgive all. A few tears, a group hug, and we move on.
Its Oprah. C'mon. Where does one lie start and the other one stop? Just keep the batteries in the emotional dildo fresh.
Gnadfly,
Exactly. That's the point. Maybe, just maybe some will escape the Cult now. I doubt it, but we can hope.
Very interesting name, by the way. Your name sounds like something that would be discussed on Oprah, ad infinitum.
The whole episode would be sort of like Bill Clinton hosting a special on "Lying in Politics: Can America Survive?" ... biting his lower lip, hugging guests, and getting all worked up. And then congratulating himself for "gettting it".
You get the picture.
Probably if you start adult life with the assumption that anything which springs from the celebrity system, which today includes politics as much as entertainment, is a fraud, you'll be fairly safe from deception.
"Bush Lied", is an exception, because Bush Lied is a lie. In the same way, when Carter said he would never lie to us, he was lying. And Maureen Dowd created the most amazing and evil construction of all recently by claiming that when Clinton lied, he was giving visual clues to the truth.
Dowd is not banal enough to be simply evil, she is overtly and explicity one of the most horrific and wretched human beings in public life. In her snarled and knotted brain, lying is, in Clinton's case, the conduit for a vaguely concealed truth, and the process is charming and entertaining. This is sick.
As for the Oprah cult,There is nothing in it which couldn't be dismissed immediately by a casual reading of any philosophy from any age and any culture. Oprah's party is the celebration of the Eternal Self.
Seeing through a glass darkly is something previous educated and non-educated generations took for granted, and it wasn't cycnism, it was wisdom.
So what is it really, at first she defended Freys credibility, then the pressure started building( from the little people who know the difference between a lie and a falsehood, or an embellishment) and she has backed away, to save her sorry fat 'butt' albeit in a very clever fashion, still the same, she has backed away from her adament defense of the indefensible.
She even had Frank Rich, from the NY Times, on her show, to help defend Oprah's defense of a Liar, he related Freys lies to the lies the President has, (of course the president did it with malice), supposedly, told, of course he insists the president has lied, as do all good liberals.
The problem as I see is this, they believe what they say, whether it is a lie or not it doesn' matter much to them, especially when you live in a world of 'make believe' as they do. The people are stupid and 'they' are the Press and what they say goes, or at least it used to. It started with BJ Clinton's definition of what 'is' is, Maureen Dowd said , (I think it was on oprah, doesn't really matter), but she said she always knew when BJ was lying, because he would insert an inuendo to alert the 'elite' where to look for the truth. They always defended BJ when he lied and would have to re-interpret what he said, especially if it was an all out lie. The scattering rat syndrone.
This whole thing is so convoluted only an idiot would believe anything these morons are saying. This logic runs parallel with the thought line that they are 'main-stream' America.
Far beyond their Ivory towers, the real main-stream America knew first off that she, Oprah was defending a Liar, and said so. Larry King had Frey on to defend himself from the accusations that his book was fiction rather than a truthful account of his life and Oprah even called in to defend him, which says she too knew early on he was a liar and made up half of the stuff in his book.
Now however, she is contrite for having deceived her audience, saying she was duped, ergo she(Oprah) is the real Victim here, not her audience, this is another liberal ploy to save her fat ass. The difficult part is trying to convince the people who had figured it out early on and knew that Oprah, knew and was supporting and defending a liar.
This is the make believe world of the Kerry's kennedys and the rest of the Liberal elite, they know best and never question them otherwise you wind up with trash like this, sorta like shining a light in a damp basement to watch all the Liberal rats scatter when the light comes on.
Mark:
Wow.
Rhod
Thanks, this Alito thing and the attempted filibuster has me really pumped and we just got to nail these pin heads whenever we get the chance.
mark
Great commentary, as usual. I figured if I talked about Oprah I'd get y'all stirred up.
It really is amazing to watch Oprah ... she will get no real scrutiny in the media, though, now that she has bit her lower lip and gone contrite.
It's up to us troglodytes to make it happen.
Well, yeah, DC. The lamp of civilization is kept alive by the scribes and toilers in the shadows...and the ladies around them. We're just watching the hamsters on the wheel and reporting on it...thanks to you.
You watch Oprah?
Wow.
No, C-Fish ...
Talking about watching how the media covers her. Deep breath, my man.
I've been locked up in my closet drinking tequila and living only on twinkies for the last few days worried that you had gone over the edge.
I can't begin to tell you how relieved this makes me.
However, if it turned out that you were watching Oprah, I had a question for you on how I should best wash my shootin' pants because they're covered with gun oil.
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