A Few of You Here Mentioned Reading "Dreams Of My Father" and that you liked it

[rushmc 18]

Guess that shows you like fiction

This is one of many fabrications that have come out since Obama revealed that the girl friend in this book was a "composit" (what ever the hell that is) And that the real girl friend he wrote about was not confused by race as he claimed (she was a white girl)

Now this

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A new biography of Barack Obama has established that his grandfather was not, as is related in the President’s own memoir, detained by the British in Kenya and found that claims that he was tortured were a fabrication.
'Barack Obama: The Story' by David Maraniss catalogues dozens of instances in which Obama deviated significantly from the truth in his book 'Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance'. The 641-page book punctures the carefully-crafted narrative of Obama’s life.

I really like the claim that he did not play much on the b ball team because the coach taught white b ball and he played black b ball. And now we find out the real reason he did not play was because he was 8th or 9th best player on the team

So, it seems all of the race issues being looked into are really his, not some one else's.

BTW, it seems race will be a tactic used this Nov as well.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161817/Obamas-grandfather-Stanley-Armour-Dunham-tortured-British.html

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[davjohns 1]

I'm probably confused on the timeline. Did he have an autobiography before he did anything noteworthy? Isn't that odd?

I know it just wouldnt be right to kill all the stupid people that we meet..

But do you think it would be appropriate to just remove all of the warning labels and let nature take its course.

[1969912 0]

Looks like momma obama was a little kinky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMUlWbO1rhk&feature=player_embedded

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[rushmc 18]

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I'm probably confused on the timeline. Did he have an autobiography before he did anything noteworthy? Isn't that odd?

I might guess they were trying to control the story line from the beginning (and that probably is not that unusual)

I can’t even imagine what would be reported on by the big three had Bush done this

Now, the silence is just as deafening


Another example of this media bs is what Andrea Mitchel tryed to do to Romney yesterday

And that was so bad not even the rest of the big news outlets could cover her sorry ass

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[Andy9o8 0]

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what Andrea Mitchel tryed to do to Romney yesterday

OMG I heard it was like totally NSFW.

[skypuppy 1]

guess that's why it;s called 'dreams...'

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[bodypilot90 0]

For the rest of us his dream has been our nightmare!

[Shotgun 1]

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I'm probably confused on the timeline. Did he have an autobiography before he did anything noteworthy? Isn't that odd?

Not really. Many authors write memoirs without already being famous. I've read several books from Augusten Burroughs, and they are all memoirs. If you're a good writer and have an interesting story to tell, it makes sense to write about your own life. With Burroughs, he writes about the crazy family he grew up in, and then later about his life as a gay alcoholic. Obama wrote about his own struggles, and also has an interesting story to tell.

I read a lot of autobiographical stuff, and I generally assume that the author is going to take some artistic license. I also assume that no one remembers his/her own life exactly as it happened.

[Lefty 0]

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I generally assume that the author is going to take some artistic license. I also assume that no one remembers his/her own life exactly as it happened.

I suppose I should publish my own, then, if there are a lot of people out there like you. My moon landing on Apollo 11 and that time I may have invented the silicon microchip (or was it the McGangBang? I can't quite remember) would net me millions!

Provoking a reaction isn't the same thing as saying something meaningful.
-Calvin

[wmw999 2,148]

If you're entertaining enough and can write well, why not? It was written in 1995; he probably wasn't trying to run for president at that time. He thought he had a story to tell, and wrote about it.

I haven't read it, might or might not. But I certainly wouldn't expect a textbook given its genesis.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Shotgun 1]

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I suppose I should publish my own, then, if there are a lot of people out there like you. My moon landing on Apollo 11 and that time I may have invented the silicon microchip (or was it the McGangBang? I can't quite remember) would net me millions!

Hey, go for it! But I tend to buy used books or check them out from the library, so you're not likely to make much money from people like me.

And good luck on passing the moon landing and McGangBang as "artistic license" in your memoir.

[Lefty 0]

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And good luck on passing the moon landing and McGangBang as "artistic license" in your memoir.

Heh, I'll actually file those under the "can't remember my life exactly how it happened" category.

Provoking a reaction isn't the same thing as saying something meaningful.
-Calvin

[skypuppy 1]

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I'm probably confused on the timeline. Did he have an autobiography before he did anything noteworthy? Isn't that odd?

Not really. Many authors write memoirs without already being famous. I've read several books from Augusten Burroughs, and they are all memoirs. If you're a good writer and have an interesting story to tell, it makes sense to write about your own life. With Burroughs, he writes about the crazy family he grew up in, and then later about his life as a gay alcoholic. Obama wrote about his own struggles, and also has an interesting story to tell.

I read a lot of autobiographical stuff, and I generally assume that the author is going to take some artistic license. I also assume that no one remembers his/her own life exactly as it happened.

Seems to me the guy that wrote 'a million little pieces' caught some flack for making stuff up. There's a difference between misremembering stuff and creating composite characters in a book. There's also a difference between a memoir and fiction...

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[Shotgun 1]

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Seems to me the guy that wrote 'a million little pieces' caught some flack for making stuff up.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I haven't read it. Though I know a few people who really like that book despite the controversy.

This thread made me pull Obama's book off the shelf and re-read the introduction. I'm not going to type the whole thing (maybe it's on Amazon?), but here are a couple of quotes:

(This was published in 1995.)

"The result is autobiographical, although whenever someone's asked me over the course of these last three years just what the book is about, I've usually avoided such a description. An autobiography promises feats of worthy record, conversations with famous people, a central role in important events. There is none of that here."

"Finally, there are the dangers inherent in any autobiographical work: the temptation to color events in ways favorable to the writer . . . selective lapses of memory. Such hazards are only magnified when the writer lacks the wisdom of age . . . I can't say that I've avoided all, or any, of these hazards successfully. Although much of this book is based on contemporaneous journals or the oral histories of my family, the dialogue is necessarily an approximation of what was actually said or relayed to me. For the sake of compression, some of the characters that appear are composites of people I've known, and some events appear out of precise chronology. With the exception of my family and a handful of public figures, the names of most characters have been changed for the sake of their privacy."

(emphasis mine)

Anyhow, this book had nothing to do with my voting for him or whether I will vote for him again in November. But it appears that he was up front about the composites and such when the book was first published. Not such shocking news of deception after all.

[skypuppy 1]

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Seems to me the guy that wrote 'a million little pieces' caught some flack for making stuff up.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I haven't read it. Though I know a few people who really like that book despite the controversy.

This thread made me pull Obama's book off the shelf and re-read the introduction. I'm not going to type the whole thing (maybe it's on Amazon?), but here are a couple of quotes:

(This was published in 1995.)

"The result is autobiographical, although whenever someone's asked me over the course of these last three years just what the book is about, I've usually avoided such a description. An autobiography promises feats of worthy record, conversations with famous people, a central role in important events. There is none of that here."

"Finally, there are the dangers inherent in any autobiographical work: the temptation to color events in ways favorable to the writer . . . selective lapses of memory. Such hazards are only magnified when the writer lacks the wisdom of age . . . I can't say that I've avoided all, or any, of these hazards successfully. Although much of this book is based on contemporaneous journals or the oral histories of my family, the dialogue is necessarily an approximation of what was actually said or relayed to me. For the sake of compression, some of the characters that appear are composites of people I've known, and some events appear out of precise chronology. With the exception of my family and a handful of public figures, the names of most characters have been changed for the sake of their privacy."

(emphasis mine)

Anyhow, this book had nothing to do with my voting for him or whether I will vote for him again in November. But it appears that he was up front about the composites and such when the book was first published. Not such shocking news of deception after all.

James Frey did pretty much exactly what barry did and got raked over the coals for it. If he'd been running for president I guess he would have avoided all that.

A composite character can never be a good thing in an autobiography.

Incidently I'd argue with barry on what constitutes an autobiography. It doesn't need to be about feats of worthy endeavor, conversations with famous people, or a central role in important events. Possibly some really great autobiographies don't include those things.

It does however need to be true. And while events can be colored by the viewpoint of the person living it, the facts cannot be changed in a memoir. Otherwise it's fiction.

Barry sold everyone a line.

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[Shotgun 1]

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Barry sold everyone a line.

He wrote a book. I don't think he was writing it from the perspective that it would one day be the "autobiography" of a U.S. President.

[loumeinhart 0]

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If you're entertaining enough and can write well, why not?

The best part about being a conservative is comparing the network ratings