Oprah's next Book Selection

[Robert Mahnke]

I used to do some research for Richard Marius, a Tennessee author sadly no
longer with us.  He told me once that he knew McCarthy when both of them
were just starting out, and that while McCarthy can be a difficult guy to
get along with, he had great respect for McCarthy for having decide to
eschew marketing himself and doing author appearances and otherwise playing
the games that authors have to play to sell themselves.  McCarthy hadn't
want to do that stuff, and so he didn't.

So it's particularly odd to me to see McCarthy becoming Oprah's choice.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Bryan Snyder
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 4:33 PM
To: kelber at mindspring.com; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: Oprah's next Book Selection

There is something to be said about pouring your heart and many years of 
your life into art... and fighting the editors to keep certain things that 
they may not fully grasp in the concept of the art... and then to have Oprah

use your art (arguably (or not) Franzen's opus so far) to promote her show 
and her brand.... and not wanting to see people buy the work you've invested

so much into, simply because a professional yenta tells them to...

I mean - I understand what oprah does is for the common good, she gets 
people to read who otherwise wouldn't (or would read crap), but Franzen does

have a point that he doesn't want people buying his book because of the seal

on the cover... he wants them buying it because of word of mouth, genuine 
interest, or something about the summary strikes the shopper... pretty much 
anything other than groupthink.

I see both sides and if I were Franzen... it would kill me to have my 
book(art) used for such self-promotion and profit, regardless of the small %

who will read the book and GET IT, as opposed to the large % who will simply

await her majesty's next choice.

Franzen gets the nod here in my opinion.  The creator should have the final 
say.

B



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 3:39 PM
Subject: RE: Oprah's next Book Selection


> Oprah deserves a lot of credit (particularly being a TV personality) for 
> getting a lot of non-readers to read.  It's a good thing that she's 
> encouraging people (mostly women) to read literature, rather than just 
> crappy romance novels.  Jonathan Franzen's hissy fit, removing his book 
> from Oprah's reading list, showed him up to be the asshole he is.
>
> Laura
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com>
>>Sent: Mar 28, 2007 3:17 PM
>>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>Subject: RE: Oprah's next Book Selection
>>
>>http://amazon.com/gp/product/0307387895/sr=53-1/qid=1175107560/ref=tr_2002
11/104-0123184-1917503
>>
>>Hmmm... Does she consult the unhappy author before including a novel into
>>her book club? Is AtD next down the line?
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
>>http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
>>
>