Subject: Re: Oh, well, somebody had to mention it ...
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Mon Nov 12 2001 - 09:02:43 GMT
I totally understand Franzen's concern, but he'd be in some good company
on the Oprah list -- Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, etc. Plus, it'd
help his book sell tons :)
Still, it warms my heart to see Oprah get blown off :)
Jim
Cecilia Baader wrote:
>
> This is a literary listserv, after all.
>
> So Jonathan Franzen is in big trouble with everybody and their brother
> because he made some rather stupid remarks about how he didn't like the
> Oprah seal on his book. She'd made his book a selection of her book club
> and he accepted it, but then went on to say that he was uncomfortable with
> the association.
>
> Winfrey then turned around and stated that if he was uncomfortable, she'd
> rather not have him on her show.
>
> Franzen's got a point. If I'm browsing the racks and I see the Oprah seal
> on a book, I'll sometimes put it back immediately because I've been so
> often disappointed by her selections in her past. If the audience that
> he's attempting to reach is me, then he's right, he's going to lose us.
> But then, he might gain an entirely new audience, the Oprah audience,
> which is no small thing.
>
> Take it a step further: would Salinger, in his early hungry years, have
> allowed an Oprah seal on The Catcher in the Rye? No, but he allowed it to
> be a main selection of the Book of the Month club. It's the only reason,
> some people say, that it took off the way that it did.
>
> So what is this, then? A necessary marketing tool that one must take when
> it's offered? Was Franzen right to express discomfort? Should Oprah have
> allowed his comments to slide? He is, after all, the author of a book
> that is just as good today as it was a month ago.
>
> Publishing is big business these days, and it's nearly impossible to make
> the break in. Even Jerome David Salinger had to resort to like tactics
> forty years ago, and it appears that it's gotten worse. So where does
> this leave us? Was Franzen right to make a stand?
>
> Regards,
> Cecilia.
>
> Post Script:
> Neal Pollack wrote the funniest Royko-esque essay on the whole thing, for
> those of you who have been following this:
>
> http://www.nypress.com/14/45/news&columns/culture.cfm
>
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