Background
for Teachers
The first classroom activity concerns the memoir A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. This graphic memoir, of a man overcoming his drug addiction, published in 2003, achieved massive success, topping the NY Times bestseller list for non-fiction. Its status was achieved in great part by the fact that Oprah Winfrey endorsed the book and included it as one of her book club selections. In 2006, however, a report was published in “The Smoking Gun” newspaper stating that much of the memoir was fabricated. A long controversy ensued, with Winfrey at first defending her book club selection and then denouncing Frey on her TV show. Frey’s editor, Nan Talese of Doubleday, also weighed in on the debate, claiming that Winfrey had been “mean and self-serving.” As recently as July 2007, the author Joyce Carol Oates, in speaking about the difficulties of “memoir” writing, discussed the Frey controversy: "This is an ethical issue which can be debated passionately and with convincing arguments on both sides. In the end, Oprah Winfrey had to defend her own ethical standards of truth on her television program, which was courageous of her; and Nan Talese had to defend her standards as a longtime revered editor, which was courageous of her." (http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1648140,00.html?cnn=yes)
In any case, Frey’s publishers were ordered to refund the cost of the book to any readers who had felt they were deceived by it, and the “memoir” now contains an apology from Frey. Some libraries and bookstores have re-cataloged the book as “fiction,” but not all have done so.
The main controversy here is whether Frey’s accounts, embellished as they are, should now, or ever been classified as memoir rather than fiction. Several other ethical questions arise as outlined above.
Some websites which give more background to this ongoing controversy, include:
(http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1648140,00.html?cnn=yes)
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/jamesfrey/0104061jamesfrey1.html
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200601/20060126/slide_20060126_350_102.jhtml Oprah Winfrey’s questions to James Frey about the authenticity of his book.
“A Million Little Embellishments: Truth and Trust in Advertising and Publishing” http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1391
In the second activity, the students will write their own account of a personal experience. Then they will discuss how far they embellished their accounts to make them stronger and/or more interesting.
The third activity is an example of a real SAT writing question that students will face. This activity will help them understand just how far they can go in creating situations that make a stronger answer, and to understand what would be considered “unacceptable.”
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