Blog Post 8: Truth in Memoir

First things first, I have to get this off my chest...who cares if Oprah is upset that David Frey stretched the truth of his memoir? Now before all the scoffs, the oh em gee's or all the reasonings that Oprah is important is because she is queen of the world (I mean she did narrate Life... but that's not the point), I'll explain myself. I mean Oprah is a popular woman in today's society. She's opinionated, kind-hearted, all the good things in life. What I fail to understand is how Oprah's opinion of a book, whether she supports it or not, affects me. I'll probably end up reading the book if she supports it or not...no offense Oprah. If it's a good book regardless, most likely I'll find my way to plant my nose in the book. To me it doesn't matter if the book is true or not. Some would beg to differ, however it's my opinion. Now say if I were to mosey down the isles of Barnes and Noble looking for an autobiography on Oprah (she's a theme of today's post) for a presentation, I would hope that 100% of the content were true. That way when I get up in front of the class to discuss my findings, I won't say something outrageous such as, "Oprah was in the 1896 Olympics". A memoir I feel is different. Let's be honest, if I were to write a memoir it would be pretty boring. "Yesterday I woke up at 5:55 a.m...went downstairs and ate a muffin....and went to school" The mundane activities of my life bleeding all over the pages. We're all the same people. No one has magical super powers, or flies on a broomstick like Harry Potter. We all live pretty mundane lives nine times out of ten. So in order to make our lives seem somewhat interesting, we have to spice it up and exaggerate. I can understand the controversy that it really wouldn't be considered a memoir anymore, but like I said earlier...we're all the same people living out the same, mundane, average lives (Unless you're a celebrity). Another interjection of thought....how in the world is it that David Shields can get away with taking mutliple portions of novels, shove them together, and call it a new book? I'm pretty sure if I did that and slapped on a very tiny citation at the very end, I would be called out for plagiarism or given a zero in the class. All I'm saying is is if this David guy can get away with it...why can't I?