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In my last post on Oprah, I wrote:
I think every guru has a cultivated image. Anyone who lives for a following and for adoring crowds must be doing subtle image building (and alterations). And Oprah is no exception.Part of that cultivated image is how special this "guru" is, who went through some difficulties some time in his life, and who overcame them through a combination of resilience and luck. Everyone can be resilient, but not as resilient as this guru. And not everyone (in fact very few people) can have the luck and good fortune bestowed on him.
This is how Oprah presents herself. The interesting thing about her revelations on her difficult background is that she describes them as incidents over which she had no control, and almost all of them could be blamed on the initial horror of the abuse she suffered as a child.
Kitty Kelley seems to be straightening out those facts. For example, she writes that Oprah’s promiscuity, which she acted out in the form of prostitution, could have been her desire for money in order to appear equal to her highschool friends, and not an angry reaction to her abuse and abusers.
Oprah as a materialistic teenage prostitute deflates the whole guru/goddess image that she has been cultivating. It’s no wonder that she keeps as silent as possible about her background, and provides carefully constructed variations when she does speak out.
I'm beginning to think I should have a whole category just for Oprah. In the past six months, I have been writing intermittent posts about the her, and have deciphered a few things just by watching her shows. And, Kitty Kelley's book came at a surprisingly appropriate time (for my blogging schedule, that is).
As far as I know, Kelley doesn’t try to decipher the Oprah Mystique; she just provides the facts. Could that be a mission I can take on?
