To think Elizabeth Gilbert massively manipulated public perception with Eat, Pray, Love?

[NotMySpiritualMother]

I know Eat, Pray, Love was a cultural moment but honestly, the more I reflect on it, the more uncomfortable I get. It was marketed as a journey of healing and self-discovery but at its core it was a hyper-privileged escape fantasy dressed up as a mental health breakthrough. She made a fortune off the “spiritual travel for broken women” blueprint and has since rebranded herself multiple times - including shifting narratives about her sexuality, personal life and identity in ways that feel strategic more than authentic.

AIBU to think that the public was groomed into seeing her as a spiritual guide, when really it was just marketing wrapped in incense?

Well obviously! All these 'journey' books are written to make money, so they will all twist and bend the truth into something sellable.

I don't think she did it to make money. More, you can be anything you want to be. As long as you're the one telling the story lol. And come on, nothing wrong with writing yourself a nice wee chunk of Javier Bardem.

💯

I read about 20 pages and could not stomach her self absorbed nonsense, and read a few parts where she is travelling to see if I was missing anything but it was once again filled with the same nonsense this was the height of Eat Pray Love hype

I have no idea how the book became the book you must read but having done a lot of the traveller trails in Asia you meet people like EG all the time

If you want to read a really good funny book about spiritual awakening during travels read Are You Experienced its hilarious

People have always been a sucker for highly embellished "I had such a wild time in foreign lands" stories though. Just look at bestsellers through the ages - The Alchemist, The Story Of San Michele, Seven Pillars Of Wisdom, The Odyssey etc.

My autistic 15 year old son and I watched it at the weekend. He sat quietly through the first bit in Italy then exclaimed ‘oh fir crying out loud. Cliche or what? She’ll find herself through love? What bullshit’. Then a little later he asked why on EARTH it’s Raj’s favourite movie? ‘ (from big bang which is why we watched it to begin with’) I just got self indulgent navel gazing vibes and also reminded of the similarly excreble the salt path where you just want to shake the main protagonist and tell them to grow the fuck up.

You didn’t take all that guff seriously did you?!

I don’t think this is particularly shocking for most memoir writers though. I think the uproar over the not so authenticity of the Salt Path is a perfect example. But there have been so, so many others - Shantaram (which by the way I loved, even if it turned out to be more fake than originally touted). A Million Little Pieces is another example. A lot of memoir is contrived, sometimes not by the authors, but forced by editors. I did really enjoy Eat, Pray, Love at the time, but I don’t think she is a fantastic writer. I read her book about marriage (forget what it’s called, but it came after) and I found it a bit annoying.

These weird AI posts are getting weirder and weirder.

The toe-curling title was enough to put me off reading it. 🤢

She's a ghastly woman.

I love signature of all things too

Didn't it turn out that she already had the book deal BEFORE she went off and found herself?

@NotMySpiritualMother "AIBU to think that the public was groomed into seeing her as a spiritual guide, when really it was just marketing wrapped in incense"

you really need to look at the word grooming. I know it gets over used on here, but seriously, this is mad

She wrote a book

I haven't read it - not this, nor any of her others.

Did she get offered some kind of major religious role and I'm unaware? Even if she did, a grown adult makes a decision about what they think of people

Nobody was forced to see her as a spiritual guide. WTAF?!

if you were looking for something in that vein, you could try reading "cave in the snow" about Tenzin Palmo, an English lady who became a monk/nun. (that description will make more sense if you read it). The book was written by Vicki McKenzie.

My mum has a couple of friends who actually left their lives to go and live life within spirituality or religion - we don't hear from them much, understandably.

I just can't take this book seriously in the way that you've described it, I just thought it was that this lady went travelling and wrote about how she felt. I wasn't aware she was issuing some kind of instruction manual that we're all supposed to follow!

She sounds like a business woman flogging words that people think they need to hear 🤷‍♂️

But the public are responsible for what they choose to buy and read.

What staggered me - and I hope I’m remembering this correctly - is that she pitched the book to a publisher before she went! - I think the advance went towards
her travel cost.

Her recent writing about loving her addict friend is weird too.

Don’t like her at all, but envious of her success!

I'm perplexed at the outrage that she funded the trip by proposing a book about it to her publisher; while not a household name she was an established and well-regarded writer before EPL came out. I don't think she or her publisher had an inkling what a phenomenon it would be, the advance was generous but seems modest when you compare it to how stratospheric the book went. I enjoyed it fine as an escapist read, and wasn't looking for any life lessons from it.

I've not read anything more recent as she does seem to have swerved deep into self-help territory but I quite want to read the new one, it sounds utterly off the hook. I'm sure she did a Q&A on here a few years ago, maybe she'll be back to promote this book??

If that's what she did then full marks for business sense and for pitching skills

I don't understand why people are surprised by marketing or business generally.

I really enjoyed the book when it came out. The film adaptation was awful. Her novel, the Signature of all things, is brilliant and not at all what you'd expect from EG. She is a talented writer. But she is also clearly quite mad and increasingly so. Her effusiveness about love, joy etc reminds me of Neil Gaiman - and he turned out to be a massive groomer. They've both written books on engaging your creativity in a magical way as a writer, interestingly. Actually good books. Both are talented, and creepy. I loved them both at one time and yes on reflection I feel a bit groomed!

I can't see anything about that on her Wikipedia page?

Maybe not. It's in the book though.

Seriously, did no one else see a series of threads on mn a couple of years ago, that were like a variation on this recent book? Same characters but roles mixed up - dying wife, moves to the back of beyond to live with friend, husband gets together with friend.

Why can't people make their own mind up? Critical thinking is lessening these days people seem to need others to think for them

Never read the book, never saw the film, but everything I've heard about her has made me roll my eyes and choose to avoid. She seems very self-obsessed and odd. Not relatable in the least. That said, people who 'follow' her do so of their own free choice, so I don't much care one way or the other.

Wasn't it obvious just from watching the movie she was an over entitled moaner with nothing to complain about? I remember thinking you're escaping from what exactly? You're stressed out because? the whole thing was a wank from the start, quite enjoyed the movie but even when they were trying to make her out to be some cultural guru with the full weight of a megastar and Hollywood to paint her as a heroine I wasn't impressed, and that was 15 years ago.

Had no idea she was still selling wank to the public. Hell mend them.