Now anyone can be a difficult genius.
Try it. You’ll like it.
De nuestro amigo Ben.
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.
