Lisa,
I understand that since you are such an intellectual, these ‘shallow’ discussions are at times tedious for you. Obviously the show is not for people as ‘deep’ as you.
Hey, I thought we'd agreed that I'd watch Oprah and see for myself what the discussions are like. The comments she made in the article I posted, however, were shallow, and you don't have to be any sort of intellectual to see that.
You have called the people who read books on Oprah’s book list middle-aged,
No, no, no. I observed that a camera shot of her audience showed a group of mostly middle aged women waving the books around. This is an fact. Middle aged women are Oprah's demographic. This is also a fact. I never said that everyone who reads the books she recommends is middle aged.
Oprah-messiah followers
I never called them that, either. The phrase "Oprah-messiah" was used in a complementary way, indicating that she was doing something useful that wasn't being done in universities (you know, where all we snobbish intellectuals cower and hide).
who engage in shallow discussions of literature just so they can brush with Oprah’s celebrity.
As stated, I'll be tuning in to make a more informed judgment of the discussions. And I never said they read "just" to have a brush with celebrity. I speculated that this was a part, perhaps a big part, of why they read what she's recommending. I think it's a good speculation, too.
You say they would not read if Oprah didn’t tell them to.
I wondered. I didn't say.
None of these statements have any basis in objective fact.
Some of them do. Some of them are opinions and speculations and I never claimed otherwise.
You lump a great deal of people into one group. You have a bias. You have a prejudice. You are stereotyping, just as Sheila said you were. It is really annoying.
You've misunderstood a great deal of what I've said. You've conveniently skipped entire paragraphs I've written in which I expressed uncertainty and characterized my remarks as speculative. But what I have written is still on this thread, and makes plenty of sense to me. I'm not going to keep repeating myself.
Yes, it is literature. Children’s literature.
If you reread my remarks, you'll see that my concern is the enthusiasm with which some adults read the book.
And finally, Dedalus, you were incredibly rude to Shiela in that last post and were a real ….(no name calling allowed on this board, but you know what you were).
I was incredibly rude to Sheila -- and what have you and she been to me? Whatever else they were, my remarks about her writing were correct, and there's plenty of objective evidence to prove it. I never would have said anything about it, indeed, I hardly would have noticed it, if she had not been boastfully proclaiming her great love of the written word as she simultaneously abused it.
Sheila,
Ded: What a rude, arrogant ass you are. No, I don't spend all day pouring over my posts to make sure I am grammatically correct. I don't write my posts in word and carefully edit them for morons like you. I have much better things to do with my time.From complete ignorance to crass insults, you're at least consistent in one thing: your utter irrelevance in relation to the ongoing topic of this thread.
I post quickly and let others know how I think or feel.
Yes, I thought you probably did, which is why I wrote: "Let's hope that's because you're careless and casual here, and not because you don't know any better."
You are so rude. Also, if you knew anything about being a writer that is why they have editors.
If you know anything about being a writer, you'd know that editors have better things to do than fix grade school error mistakes. Correcting goofs with there, their and they're is not what editors do.
I really don't want you to ever, ever reply to anything I post nor will I you.
Well, too bad. You're on my thread, and you've been consistently rude to me. You've dismissed me because of my age, mischaracterized my remarks, and butchered your native language while proclaiming your love of it. Anyone bold enough to call herself an writer should take care to write at least somewhat correctly. It doesn't take all day to fix a painfully obvious mistake. A second or two, since you're in the company of adults, is all that's required of you.
You are the one that can't read. I was describing other reasons to read, such as the women that are waving the book.
So was I, in great detail, only you've never once responded to any of that, deeming it unworthy of your attention.
I read for many reasons and it dependes on what I read at the time of course. For me I really read the books not just the excerpts before I choose to make a decision on there worth as literature.
I've read enough of the Harry Potter books to say a thing or two about Rowling's style, tone, and narrative structure. But 95% of this post hasn't even been about Harry Potter.
Dedalus