Subject: Oh, well, somebody had to mention it ...
From: Cecilia Baader (ceciliabaader@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Nov 12 2001 - 02:07:19 GMT
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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