DVC Fiction and Non Fiction James Freys A Million Little Pieces Discussion
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Discussion- Need two peer reply. Below is the poscast link
https://podcasts.apple.com/cy/podcast/oprah-gets-d…
Peer1–Are we justified in being critical of or even offended by A Million Little Pieces because of it’s fiction masquerading as nonfiction–autobiography, memoir ?I believe it is always justifiable to be critical of any type of art/literary work. In the case of offense, it depends on the circumstance, and for A Million Little Pieces, readers feeling offended by Frey’s inauthentic manner of presenting the very real struggles of substance abuse is a very valid response to the story. Like many already said, the feeling of offense might have been assuaged had Frey made it explicitly clear that A Million Little Pieces was a work of fiction– or even that it was partially fictionalized. Instead, he chose to falsely portray the novel as a true representation / memoir of his experience with drug and alcohol addiction. The capitalization of someone else’s experience reminds me of Asa Carter and his appropriation of Native culture in The Education of Little Tree– in both circumstances, the authors offended readers by being inauthentic. 2. Would James Frey be “canceled” today like so many other celebrities and pop-culture figures? What are your thoughts on cancel culture?In today’s culture, Frey would definitely suffer some type of consequences from the public if he released A Million Little Pieces. Our society increasingly values “authenticity” (even though faking authenticity has been a recent trend and social “art form”), so to so blatantly fabricate a story for a faux true / realistic emotional points would be greatly upsetting to readers today. Lately people are quick to assume the worst of each other and even the most innocent or well intentioned people have become victims of “cancel culture,” preventing people from being risk-takers or daring in their art– killing creativity across many forms of art and media. “Cancel culture” is important for holding people accountable and helping spread information about public figures’ hypocrisy and harmful actions, but there needs to be a limit to what is “cancelable.” Considering the circumstances is critical for a nuanced understanding of others’ opinions and perspectives on the world.
Peer 2–Are we justified in being critical of or even offended by A Million Little Pieces because of its fiction masquerading as nonfiction–autobiography, memoir? First, I personally don’t actually care that much about Frey’s lie. Usually, I read the book and judge the author separately. However, in this Frey’s case it’s not just a book’s problem. Because of the widespread influence of the book, many people were enjoying reading the book, inspired and encouraged by the book first, and thus became upset a lot by the book. And the topic of the book is not something relaxing or casual. The topic about addiction is serious and many people were suffering because of it. Imagine that you are trapped deep down in a valley, and then you see a helicopter coming to you and is trying to save you. However, just before the rope reaches you, you woke up from your dream and found that everything related to rescue was just a dream. You would be even more upset and distressed, and you’d rather not have had that dream. And in terms of this book, it could be the same case for at least some people, and that’s really bad. Generally speaking, I think people who have influence to the society should take the responsibility to be careful with what ideas they convey to the public-they should spread good to others and try to avoid possible harm to the society.3.Would James Frey be “canceled” today like so many other celebrities and pop-culture figures? What are your thoughts on cancel culture? First, my opinion is that James Frey would not be canceled today. The reason is simple; we have seen so many celebrities that have personal affairs and even spread negative ideas to the society, and they are still fine and some of them may even have more fans after doing something not acknowledged by the mainstream in the society. Making themselves controversial seems to have been a method that celebrities use to make them popular, if used properly. From my personal perspective, I think cancel culture only happens if something is harming the profit of the guys behind the scenes. Like most of the words today being canceled are not the words related to drug, alcohol, prostitution or even violence, but are the words that are harmful to capitals and the words that may make people to do deep thinking. This kind of controversial ideas are actually blindfolding us from thinking about some really important and meaningful things, and if someone talks about the really important things that may harm the profit of the person behind, they will cancel the words. Above all, I don’t think Frey’s book is in the list of possible cancellation.
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