{"id":660,"date":"2007-12-18T15:09:16","date_gmt":"2007-12-18T23:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godammit.com\/2007\/12\/18\/the-meaning-of-oprah\/"},"modified":"2007-12-18T15:09:16","modified_gmt":"2007-12-18T23:09:16","slug":"the-meaning-of-oprah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godammit.com\/the-meaning-of-oprah\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meaning of Oprah"},"content":{"rendered":"

The time is ripe for Oprah Studies, and an essay<\/a> in The New Republic is a perfect synthesis of all the ways we might regard Oprah’s impact on our culture.<\/p>\n

I was enjoying the essay until I came upon the dreaded ‘paradigm shift.’ There is no getting away from that damn paradigm shift: I was reading an article about Otis Redding<\/a> the other day and boom, there it was.<\/p>\n

That said (little smiley face thing!), it’s a great essay, filled with incisive observations. Here are a couple:<\/p>\n

In TV terms, Oprah’s multiplication of herself into simultaneous actual, fictional, and didactic selves was on the order of Picasso inventing cubism.<\/em><\/p>\n

For all the show’s seesawing between horror and inanity, and precisely because of its cunningly orchestrated subtext of racial catharses–a la the exchange with Julia Roberts–“The Oprah Winfrey Show” is a racial utopia based on the exchangeability of colorless human pain. There is something beautiful and profound about that.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oprah! How can we ever grasp the reach of your influence? I know one way. The night I sat on my couch like an enormous slug at 2:00 AM and watched a repeat of Oprah’s ‘Bra’ show was a pivotal \u00a0moment in the narrative of my lingerie.<\/p>\n

Oprah and her expert berated everyone for wearing the wrong size bra, even allowing themselves to feel up the unwitting \u00a0victims who had agreed to try on \u00a0the new sizes.<\/p>\n

The revelation was delivered like the sermon on the mount: You \u00a0need to go smaller around the back and larger in the cup! \u00a0Every volunteer found that this was so. It was a joyous experience for all concerned.<\/p>\n

I went out and got a new bra, \u00a0following the holy formula. Sure enough, my bra fits better and my boobs have never been happier. \u00a0<\/p>\n

I will do anything Oprah wants, except vote for Barack Obama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"