Oprah! and...more James Frey

So here I am, contemplating writing a new post to go along with the new beer I just opened and lo and behold, I have comments. Good comments too, check em' out. While I don't necessily agree with all of them entirely, I think each is well-put in its own way, and, to be sure, each has a valid point and one that certainly bears more weight than the fruitless cries of "fraud" and "liar."

Moreover, not only do I have comments, but the successblog has hits. O glorious day, a readership cometh upon me and wash over me and it was good. Well, that bit of nonsense should do an adequate job of driving them away, but really, all of this has a point--wait for it.

So I'm sitting here, sorta diggin' the fact that people have read my shit, and have even thought it was stimulating enough to warrent commenting on, and they are coming to my site via means other than those damn image searches (I've given up on images--I'm too lazy), and I think to myself: Self, you might as well go ahead and write yet another damn post about this David Frey character, and be sure to throw in the title of that book of his--A Million Little Pieces--and oh, this is important, put his name in the title, but maybe with something else...something real big, real important, that people will search for! Yea, just do that, and people wll flock, and it will really be a hoot.

I considered this, and I reasoned that yes, this would likely get me more readers than my alternative subject: why the "spiral" mac & cheese sucks. But self, I said, wouldn't that be sort of unauthentic and dishonest? Just doing something to get more readers? I mean, wouldn't that be sort of "cheap"?

(At this point, I run into a couple of problems: one, both of my selve's are, nonsensically, using the same italic font; and two, my aside's clearly cannot be yet a third voice in italics, and thus, again nonsensically must be in parethesis. Post degrading, readers leaving. I retrieve new beer as attempted remedy)

Cheap? No. Cheapness can only be a product of the product--not the marketing scheme. I mean, sure, skeezy marketing can make a product seem cheap, but that doesn't mean it is. So the only thing that can make thesuccessblog cheap is thesuccessblog--not the fact that you may or may not title your posts with the sole purpose of attracting readers.

Huh. Ok.

So I did. I name-dropped James Frey, I name dropped Oprah, and I did it all for the sake of fucking publicity. My question is this: does the quality of this post depend upon that fact? Or does it simply depend on how you react to what I've written, and whether or not it has impact.

I can't answer; I'm not you. And, to be completely honest, I can't say with any confidence that Frey's book is worth defending--I haven't read it. When I do though, I really just couldn't give a flying fuck whether what happens in the book happened in the "real world." The only thing that can make his story real is how he tells it, and the only thing that can make it fake--is the same.

As for Oprah--I can't stand her damn TV program, but the woman has influence. And where she stands on this issue is huge. Just like it is with every issue upon which she takes a stand. As far as I know, the only comments she has made since the fraud nonsense were made over the phone before the Larry King Live show tonight. Here is a report--I think her words are fairly on target. I hope she sticks to her guns.

Offering a refund is stupid and silly.