How To Disappear Completely

currently watching Oprah (which is Harpo backwards)

As Laura K. knows, grad school is great because you can talk about whatever you want to. And since my Celebrity Culture class talked about Oprah extensively in class, and I had never seen an Oprah episode before, I borrowed the prof's 20th anniversary special collection.

Oprah is one of those people you can't lose with: you make a lot of money (or friends) if you like her, you make a lot of money (or friends) if you hate her. Her book club has made many authors rich. Her book club has even made authors who turned her down rich.

What I find fascinating is the parallels betwen Oprah and Andy Warhol: this quest to surround oneself with celebrity, to create celebrity. Of course, they had different aesthetics on how to do this. And while Oprah constantly pulls the "authenticity" card (she does what she loves because she loves it; she shows celebrities as "real" people; she shares "real" emotions), Andy Warhol was unabashedly mercenary ("when asked as an exercise to paint what I loved, I painted money"). And yet they weren't so different: Andy Warhol claims to have left commercial advertising because he wasn't allowed to be "creative." Oprah teaches (or has taught, at least) business classes. And she's filthy stinking rich.

If anyone has read Bourdieau, they will know what I will say next: "We have an interest in being disinterested." For some reason, Money and Passion are split across a huge divide. If you are known for loving one, you will be disqualified for having the other. And yet, those who can successfully negotiate themselves as "into it for the love of it" will gain enormous "street cred" that will eventually pay off in huge dividends....but only if they are "into it for the money," too. We live in a world of ironies, my friends.

Oprah is one of those people that (to me anyway) looks much more beautiful at 50 than at 30. Maybe it's because big hair and Goodwill kind of tacky clothes, which apparently were huge in the 80s, just do not appeal to any sort of aesthetic in me (and there was one episode with Mel Gibson--yikes! His hairstyle and tapered jeans may have looked good on Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, but on a 30 year old???? And girls were swooning over him. I was appalled. He too looks so much more handsome post-50). Now her hair is tamed, her clothes simple, but elegant, and she carries herself more calmly. I watched footage of her "Heartprints" show from both the 80s and the 00s. Heartprints is a series in which Oprah invites someone who has made an impact in her life to appear on her show as a thank-you. In the 80s, Oprah was a bawling, nearly hysterical mess. By the 00s, the tears merely glistened, along with a stifled little snuffle. I wonder if it was because she was accused of so much emotionalism and touchy-feeliness. The subtle gestures show she still has a heart, but is mature and capable of keeping herself together.