She probably held her dog hostage.
There’s something about the power to arrange “exclusive gets” that really irritates me about Oprah. Am I jealous? Maybe. But mostly I just don’t like how much INFLUENCE she has. And why? Because she has better taste than anyone else? Because she is smarter than anyone else? Because she is kinder than anyone else? Because she cares more than anyone else?
No.She just has more money than anyone else.
With money comes power. And she has a lot of it. So she influences things and people and gains default cultural capital in the process.
She is obviously bright and well read and a vigorous learner, as well as an astute businesswoman — that’s where the money comes from. But if I had to put the cultural future of the world in someone’s hands, I’d rather it not be the O Brand.
The Oprahfication of America doesn’t appear to embrace anything but a particularly shallow view of charity, of art, of communication, of relationships… just enough content to put in an hour. And then everyone’s okay, right?
Life just isn’t that clean.
And Harper Lee — with her statements about our abundant culture and “plodding along with books” and stodgy southernism — giving her big exclusive to O Magazine is one of the most ironic acts in the world.
Capote would think it rather fabulous, I think.
June 27th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Oprah annoys me.
June 27th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Oprah spawned Jerry Springer, and other trash! She’s first and foremost an entertainer, dabbling in serious social issues, w/o the expertise or at the right place. Putting on a spectacle of human suffering is so hypocritical to me, b/c then Oprah’s spectacle always needs suffering for the lights to go on — so how can she say she wants anything better for society? Pooey!
June 27th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
i love her and hate her at the same time. i REALLY hate when she plays “psychologist” and tries to diagnose her guests’ issues based on her limited knowledge gained from her friendship with “Dr” Phil….yes, she has done a lot of good things with her fame and fortune, but her holier-than-thou attitude grates my very last nerve.
June 27th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
I think somebody should give me enormous amounts of money and power, so I can show the world how much better I would be at wielding them.
No?
Sigh. Back to work, then.
June 29th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
She’s done more good for people and the world and the impoverished than I ever will. So even though I don’t like some of what she does, I think I’ll just leave her be.
June 29th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
thank god for oprah, the queen of promotional product placement “under your seat” philanthropy.
truman capote wrote to kill a mockingbird anyway.
July 8th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Meg… I can’t find where to email you from. It might be in your “credits” part of your sidebar, but it’s all discombobulated html. So I wrote this in an old post, so it wouldn’t disturb the current comment threads.
I have a fun meme that was passed to me, that you actually might like! The idea is to list ten things beginning with the first letter of your blog’s name. So you would list ten words starting with B that have some meaning in your life. You can check mine out to see how it’s done, if you like.