Jim, Andy, James and Oprah

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Jimmy Fever
Date: Feb 2, 2006 1:51 AM

I sent an email to the op-ed section of AM NY about that James Frey controversy and they printed it in todays (Wed) paper.
Flippin' Sweet.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Ol' Bill Hellenbach
Date: Feb 2, 2006 1:06 PM

Thats great. I fuckin' hate that "paper". I refuse to read it because it steals jobs from journalists by existing almost wholly on AP and Reuters wire pieces. That's why it's free, and that's why I boycott it. But that's still awesome news!

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Jimmy Fever
Date: Feb 2, 2006 2:29 PM

yeah, fuck them anyhow. Commie scumbags.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Ol' Bill Hellenbach
Date: Feb 2, 2006 8:17 PM

I don't give a shit if they are commies or capitalists....I'm just tryin' to make a fuckin' livin' here!
And while I am on the subject...FUCK James Frey too! That fucker just made it nearly impossible to sell a memoir that makes any mention of prior drug use whatsoever. ALL the publishers are deservedly leery of purchasing such manuscripts and will be for a long time.

ps. I was told to just have any materials pertaining to said subject translated into another language and consequentially (hopefully) published in that languages native country.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Jimmy Fever
Date: Feb 3, 2006 4:47 AM

I can appreciate that you are trying to earn a living by writing. I admire anyone that can support themselves through their art. I think that is what everyone is losing sight of. It's ART. A memoir isn’t an Autobiography. It's a collection of writer’s memories of his life, an account of the experiences a person lived through, translated by his minds-eye and with the artist's tongue. As far as publishers being leery of buying a memoir, I seriously doubt that an entire genre will die out. If money can be made off of something, it will see print. I am not going to pretend to trust these corporate scumbags. As far as I know, this whole controversy was a carefully orchestrated ruse. A scheme hatched in some boardroom by greedy media moguls. They could have all sat around an imported marble conference table, rubbing their hands together as they plotted to pull the wool over the world’s eyes. Everyone could have been in on it, including that damn Oprah. The only truth I can count on in this whole ordeal is that everybody attached to it is getting paid. Doubleday is selling millions of books, Oprah is getting tons of free publicity, and James Frey is practically a household name. If you ask me, Oprah is the big phony. She read this drug addict-alcoholic’s book, and was so moved by it that she chose is it as the next cog in her mighty book club empire. She sticks a stupid sticker with her name on another persons art, promotes it to the point where there is such a buzz that reporters start sticking their nose in to the authors life in a clearly malicious attempt to scandalize the guy. Instead of supporting him as the author of a book that she was so touched by, she throws him under the bus to save face. Meanwhile, Ms. Winfrey had the nation’s top fibber, George W. Bush on her show and she never once called him a liar. She damn near sucked his dick. It’s so hypocritical, it’s almost funny. Talk about a fake.
I read both of his books back-to-back in a matter of days, well before the controversy, and nothing is going to change the fact that I enjoyed them immensely. Seriously, I laughed, I cried, I read the sequel. He writes a good story. Period.
What I wrote to that rag of a paper was in response to some idiot saying that the author should be sued. The precedence that would set would be unthinkable. We can’t set our society down a path where an artist can get sued for presenting his take on the world around him. For your convenience, I took the liberty of including my letter:

"When an artist paints a landscape, do we question him about the colors he chose to use? If the sky is not painted with the exact shade of blue, do we call the artist a liar? Is the artist’s work any less beautiful if he chooses to make his sunshine a different shade of yellow?
Frey’s work of art speaks truth directly to me. The brushstrokes he has chosen to use may not be an exact representation of the colors of reality, but it tells me the truth regardless.
And that’s real."

-Jim

----------------- Original Message -----------------

From: Ol' Bill Hellenbach
Date: Feb 3, 2006 8:17 PM

Very well articulated, (not that I would have expected anything less but I didn't want to sound condescending). I agree with you 100% about Oprah. However I can't say the same for your view on the reporters at TSG.com being "obviously malicious". The website that "out-ed" Frey is one that depends solely on such investigative journalism. The only thing worse than Oprah's sucking Bush's dick would be if writers like those at TSG did not dig deep to discover the truth about scumbags like Bush. Unfortunately for Frey, he fell into the dragnet this time.
This whole thing could have been avoided from the get-go if Frey had simply touted his book as a roman à clef.

And on a personal note, I also enjoyed A Million Pieces immensely but I certainly stop short at calling him a great writer or even the book well written. When the first book came out people were calling him the next Eggers or Leroy. I had a problem with this mostly due to the sophomoric and pedestrian tactic Frey employs of repeating the same word or phrase over and over again for dramatic effect. Most learn that this is a clichéd method while attending "Poetry 101". That doesn't mean that the book was not highly entertaining -so was the film "Conair" but the director was never compared to Orson Welles.

BUT.........

He is making quite the living as a writer while my living is done with Mom. And as I have yet been paid for writing a book review, I am certainly no expert.
Your letter to the editor of AM was better written than the majority of passages in Frey’s novel.
And that's real.