Brandon's Pop Culture Site

You may be thinking that James Frey’s mistake was writing a nonfiction book with lies in it. But I would have to disagree with you there. There have been many memoirs over the years that have been called into question as being truthful. I would be willing to wager that in almost ninety percent of memoirs there is some embellishment going on. In the end the writer is trying to sell books. In one of the most famous biographies of all times Mason Weems tells of a young George Washington who upon cutting down a cherry tree stood before his parents and declared, “I cannot tell a lie.” Apparently Mr. Weems didn’t have such qualms about telling lies because we now know this for the utter fabrication that it is. In many early twenty century so-called biographies wild west outlaws and heroes lives were recalled, all their harrowing adventures and great quotes, the only problem is the writers of these books didn’t even seem to make an attempt at getting the stories correct and after a while Wyatt Earp became as much of a fictious character as a historical one. Still today we are trying to sift between the truth and legend of many historical figures. Now don’t misunderstand I am not trying to condone James Frey’s lies, my only point here is if you read an autobiography or biography and believe every word and account in it you are dangerously naïve, but if any of you are interested I will gladly sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. A writer’s job is to tell a story people want to hear, fiction or non-fiction. But there is an even more core thing here too; people will lie, especially about themselves. There is not a person reading this who hasn’t been telling a story about themselves and made themselves sound better than what they actually were, or sometimes in case worse than they actually were, I myself have uttered the phrase, “I almost died.” This is harmless enough, but probably not technically true. One could say that there are two engines that drive us to do this, one is the need of self-preservation and the other is the need for attention. Depending on where your moral line is, you will tell a lie that you believe is in your best interest and/or is harmless. So America stop acting shocked at what Mr. Frey did, most of you have done it to, the only difference is you probably didn’t make money on it.

No, lying wasn’t James Frey mistake, character flaw maybe, but not mistake. His mistake was apologizing on Oprah. No from what I saw that wasn’t an apology as much as a tongue lashing and “Boo”fest. James Frey sat there like a whipped puppy and took the scolding and apologized profusely the whole time and made himself look like Oprah’s bitch. At first you may not think this is a mistake, but him trying to make amends.

Last year the only book to self more copies than A Million Little Pieces was Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. That is no small feat for a nonfiction book, but there is a very easily stated reason for this. Oprah added it to her book club and raved about ceaselessly. Oprah is very powerful and influential and her voracious fans ate it up, buying the book in hordes. Mr. Frey had already milked that cow dry. If James Frey had gone on Oprah and the second she started to go off on him jumped up Jerry Springer style and got right back in her face to the point that he had to be hauled off the stage by security, that would have been the clip on the news for the next two months and every one of us that doesn’t like Oprah and got a kick out of watching him go off on her would have run out and bought the book. It would have probably been bought by people that were neutral on Oprah as well, out of sheer curiosity. He probably would have doubled his profits and more importantly it would have helped him on his next book.

Let’s face facts, no matter how good his next book is, it will be a cold day in hell before Oprah puts her stamp of approval on it. He has zero chance of getting back into that country club, but he could have created a new base by standing in defiance of Oprah. And apparently those that were his new fan club wouldn’t be shocked if we found out his next book was bull too. Now I am guessing that he harbors some hope that he can get back into Oprah’s inner circle and he probably didn’t realize how much of a pussy he would look like on her show. I can’t say that I blame him, Oprah is powerful and influential and any book that she signs off on is a bestseller, I am sure the temptation to get back on her good side was powerful. But not trying to create a new fan base was a mistake.

It could still be fixed though Mr. Frey. I submit to you that you should go on Howard Stern and go off on Oprah. Howard Stern will probably help and more importantly you will get Oprah’s attention again and she will denounce you as a heretic on national television. It will make all the news shows for at least a week, and new fans will pick up your book just to spite Oprah. Think about Mr. Frey.