Posted on 02/03/2006 6:54:48 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
Here’s something you don’t see every day: A minor criminal trying to convince the world that he’s much worse than he is.
As I’m sure you have heard by now, that’s what happened with James Frey’s memoir, A Million Little Pieces. After Oprah Winfrey selected it for her Book Club in October, Frey’s searing tale of his struggle with drug addiction and crime hit the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Frey’s portrayal of himself as a bad guy, rather than a victim, was seen as refreshingly honest. Many people credited Frey with giving them hope in their own battles with addiction.
And then, almost by accident, a website called “The Smoking Gun” uncovered the truth about James Frey. Looking for a mug shot of the author for their site, researchers found “repeated dead ends” in police records. The more they searched, the more fabrications they found.
For example, the violent incident where Frey hit a police officer with his car, and then fought the arresting officers? It was actually a simple drunk-driving arrest, no fighting happened, and no one was hit by a car. The three months Frey spent in jail? It was actually about five hours. Quite a difference. And many other details about Frey’s arrest record were fabricated as well.
And then there was Frey’s best friend in high school, who was killed in a train accident on her way to meet him. According to her family, the girl barely knew Frey and was not going to meet him at all. Frey had nothing to do with the tragedy, except to use it to embellish his story.
Confronted with the evidence, Frey did a remarkable 180-degree turn. This time, he chose to portray his accusers as the bad guys, instead of himself. “I never expected the book to come under the kind of scrutiny that it has,” Frey told interviewer Larry King. He insisted that the disputed parts were a very small percentage of the total book and explained that he stood by the “essential truths of the book.” To top it off, when Oprah called the Larry King show to support Frey, she claimed that “the underlying message of redemption in James Frey’s memoir still resonates.”
That’s classic postmodernism: The truth doesn’t matter as long as the story is compelling. A completely false worldview is okay if it’s helpful to you. This is how we get news shows that publish “fake but accurate” documents, directors who make fictional documentaries, and enhanced resumes.
To her credit, Oprah finally realized that no matter how compelling the story, the public is still squeamish about someone selling fiction as fact. She eventually changed her tune. She took Frey back on the show again, and this time, she took him to task for his dishonesty and forced him to admit that he had lied. Speaking directly to her viewers, Oprah stated, “I made a mistake, and I left the impression that the truth does not matter, and I am deeply sorry about that. . . . To everyone who has challenged me on this issue of truth, you are absolutely right.”
Good for Oprah. Let’s hope Frey has learned his lesson as well. Subjectivity, as he called it when talking to Larry King, is one thing; outright lies are something very different. Frey’s fictional memoir and his defensiveness show the corrosiveness of postmodern thinking. It’s a mentality that is far more dangerous to society than any of Frey’s made-up crimes.
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On the Other Hand....
Don't we "embellish" the history of our heroes, only to have that false image later smashed by some iconoclast?
For instance...
George Washington was a great leader, both political and military. However, he never threw a dollar over a river, never chopped down that infamous cherry tree, etc. And, in fact, he did have his human failings, such as being a slave holder (morally debatable even in his day), etc.
Do we do our heros any "favors" (or promote our cause) when we put them on a pedestal with false stories, burying any contrary evidence, just so we feel "inspired"?
My True Memoir:
Chapter 1 Watched TV
Chapter 2 Doing Nothing
Chapter 3 Toenail Picking
Chapter 4 More TV
Chapter 5 Sleep
Um...who's advocating that?
Yes but George Washington didn't make up those stories about himself.
Somehow, I don't see Regnery or Simon and Schuster calling you with an offer.
Aren't we all taught that these are not true? They are no longer a issue. As for the slavery... why white-wash the truth? It's a fact, and he wasn't the only Founding Father who had slaves.
Addicts are so tiresome..it's always soooo dramatic. EVERYTHING happens to them. It's always about them. Blah, blah, blah...
Good points.
I guess one difference (abeit quantitative rather than wualitative) is that we take pople who were already "heroes" and embelish their stories, rather than creating them on the fly out of whole cloth.
You're exactly right about addicts tendency to self-dramatize. They like to tell themselves that even if bad things happen to them they are still better off than the sober people whose lives are soooooo very boring.
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