2023 has been the year of reading memoirs for me, apparently. From the highly emotional and influential "Crying in H Mart" by Michelle Zauner to Questlove to Matthew Perry to my most recent, "Governator Arnold Schwarzanegger." I guess my consumption of them comes along with lack of social interaction and hearing about people tell me their stories, so I resort to celebrities to tell me their own hyped-up or self-aggrandizing (in Arnold's case) or self-loathing (in Matthew Perry's case, sadly) or self-justifying (in Amy Schneider's case, more in a sec) but which are nonetheless fascinating reads and character studies.
Not all memoirs reflect well on the person writing them. I would love to write a memoir about my life (this blog is kinda it) but it would likely show all my flaws, prejudices, and unpopular opinions and bad takes, and while I do get the chance to get my own story out there and try my best to appeal to the reader for sympathy and understanding, that can come off as arrogant and disagreeable anyway.
Take, for example, Arnold's life story in his own words: it's a 700-page massive tome with a huge picture of his face on it (to be fair, most memoirs of famous people do have their face on it) but NOWHERE in the book can I find anywhere where he says he got lucky, caught some good breaks, or won the genetic lottery/ the game of life lottery. At times it feels like a personal advertisement for his next political or personal life campaign, telling only of the good things he did like sponsoring an education bill for education in California or seeking a ballot intiative for the Califronia people, but of course he did that for political gain in preparation for his running for governor in the 2003 recall election (of then-governor Grey Davis). He meekly admits to an affair with his housekeeper, and even having a secret child with her that he claimed to his then-wife wasn't his, because he was caught publicly having done it, not from the goodness of his heart of coming clean. Of course he just gently slides right over that, devoting a couple pages to it. Also the praising of various celebrities like Dustin Hoffman, Sylvester Stallone, etc. but then just taking a shot at James Cameron for being too controlling. (A sentiment shared by many actors, to be fair). The book served as a reminder that if not for Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, Arnold might have beat Donald Trump to becoming the latest pompus celebrity president....only the fact he was born in Austria stopped him for running. To think just because you're an actor with a history of success you can become governor or even president, you got to be pretty egotstical, which famous people have developed years of being told only "Yes" and never "No.'
Speaking of, Rachel Dratch and McCauley Culkin just dominated on the most recent episode of Celebrity Jeopardy, with Rachel winning in the end by pulling out canine infectious tracheobronchitis is "kennel cough" and the classic IHop pancakes and bacon dish is "Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity," further reinforcing the notion that comedians are smart. And McCauley, I though he grew up to be another lame child star....turns out he's a pretty chill guy at least from watching him for an hour on prime time television!
And unfortunately for Amy Schneider, whose memoir "In the Form of a Question" (kind a expected a more original title, TBH, than the generic Jeopardy-related one. See "Prisoners of Trebikistan" as a catchy one) and whom i really respected and admired during her Jeopardy run, it made me have mixed feelings about her. The book had some of the expected portions like Amy's early life and her previous marriage and how she became so smart/ so good at Jeopardy, but her transformation to transgender rubbed me the wrong way: Amy has been open in that she still likes women, and she admitted to being a little excited to seeing femailes in the dressing room and admiring some of their bodies. That may seem like a pretty innocent thing for someone who truly thinks of themselves as a woman, which I do believe Amy does (I'm sure this post will be later flagged as transphobic now whenever I become famous- yea right), but should her right to be transgender precede other women's privacy in the locker room not to be ogled by any person who likes females? I guess there are lesbians who will be in the locker room who like women's bodies, but that does seem to me to be a little different than someone who transitioned from a man. to be doing it. Not questioning Amy's personal motives for transitioning, but what if someone else saw that as an opportunity to identify as female to get into the women's locker room? Or (as a kind of extreme example by right wing, but similar line of thinking), what if a prisoner identified as female to get into the female prison? Should that one person's right to identify as a certain gender override everyone else in society? Also kind of like the Lia Thomas trans swimmer issue: should she be allowed to compete with women and express herself placing her own needs over others? In both cases I think the reasonable solution is to have a separate category for trans athletes or trans locker rooms ( logistically difficult I know). So I didn't see that as a "win" for Amy on behalf of the transgender community, the more she wrote about that topic the less I was convinced.
You know whose memoir I'd loved to have read? Princess Diana's, who died at age 36 (my current age!) in 1997 but probably had so many more life experiences (married into the Royal Family, for one) than I had at my age. (My Sundays consist of 3 hours trying to talk up random guys in between chess matches at the lcoal cafe). The Crown Season 6 started up its last season most recently (My dad apparently loves the show and actually asked me if the show was on yet, making me feel like a millenial explaining the new world to my Boomer dad). The show is generally even-handed in regards to coverage of both sides of the Diana v. Charles and Queen Elizabeth conflict, but the last several weeks show Diana somewhat in a negative light, able to manipulate the media into getting what she wants and being openly combative to Charles and Camilla's relationship. I wonder what she'd have to say now....and if the rumors were true that foul play contributed to her death? (Spoiler: we didn't find out and likely will never know for sure).
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