After Emma’s final presentation, I started to consider how Deborah Brandt’s idea of a literacy sponsor could be applied to Oprah and her book club. My mom was an avid member of Oprah’s book club from the beginning. She hosted monthly book club parties for her friend’s that coincided with the episode of Oprah’s book club. She had a bookshelf in her expansive library devoted entirely to the books that Oprah selected. I remember The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. After she was done with each book, she would pack it into a plastic grocery book and carry it over to my grandma’s house a few blocks over, so that she could read it. I used to sit on the stairwell during my mom’s book club parties quietly eavesdropping on my mom and her friends as they gabbed about whatever book they had just read. When I started to read, my mom suggested that I start with books that she pulled from that coveted shelf of Oprah’s selections.
Did Oprah sponsor my literacy? Inadvertently, yes. However, I don’t think that Oprah’s motivations are necessarily negative or malignant. She has conveyed a true passion for literature and has spotlighted remarkable works of writing. The books that I’ve read as a result of Oprah’s promotion of them have been formative for my own interests in reading and writing. I read my mother’s copy of The Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides when I was 16. I’ve read it so many times now and highlighted and written so many comments in the margins that it becomes difficult to decipher many pages. This book encouraged me to write. I’ve since read all of Jeffrey Eugenides work. Oprah’s sponsorship of literacy has permeated down through my mother and effected me. It’s interesting to identify the ways that a cultural figure like Oprah can promote and sponsor literacy beyond the means of education or political policy.
