James Frey A Million Little Pieces And Fraud
Posted on | December 9, 2009 | No Comments
The James Frey a million little pieces incident is one that I absolutely adore. Frey’s lies, well told to be sure, ended up embarrassing not only himself and his publishers, but the people – like Oprah Winfrey, to name the most famous of them – who praised him up and down for his ‘gritty and honest’ retelling of his life in the gutter.
For those who aren’t aware of the james frey a million little pieces affair, let me summarize for you. Frey was an entitled white kid from an upper-middle-class background. He wrote a book called “a million little pieces” which gained both fame and critical praise from people across the spectrum for his supposedly accurate portrayal of how someone with seemingly so much given to him can spurn it all for a life of drugs, drinks and depression.
The problem was, it wasn’t a true story. Frey may have taken a few bong hits here or blown a few lines there, but he was hardly the Robert Downey, Jr. character from “Less Than Zero.” He was, in short, a fraud.
Unfortunately for Oprah, but fortunately for both Frey and his bank account, nobody realized this until Frey had spent months on the best-seller list and gone on publicity and book tours promoting the james frey a million little pieces experience, as it was called.
I find the whole thing delightful as an example of style triumphing over substance and the media’s obsession with glorifying the least glamorous aspects of modern life. People looked at Frey after he was revealed to be a fraud and said “the emperor has no clothes,” but the reality is the whole thing showed that it’s the media who are the clothesless emperor in this situation. They don’t do their job, they don’t intend to. They’re in the business of building up and then tearing down celebrities, and Frey – he of the priviliged upbringing then drug-riddled teens and twenties – was a perfect hero for them.
Nobody thought to do a background check. Nobody thought to do their job. The media has no clothes.
The funniest thing about the whole james frey a million little pieces ordeal is that the book is actually a pretty damn good read. Frey’s adept with prose, creates interesting scenes and scenarios, and generally speaking, gets into scenes when he should and gets out of them when he should. It’s a good book.
Of course, it’s also a great topic for parody, and nobody does parody better than Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park. Their spoof episode of the james frey a million little pieces affair is called “A Million Little Fibers”, and it’s some of their finest work.
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