Eat Pray Love: A Nuanced Critique

on September 3rd 2004 author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert got on a plane from New York to Rome kicking off a year-long journey that would change her life in ways she didn't expect she was a depressed wreck following a nasty divorce and subsequent toxic romance so in an extreme effort to get her life together she'd pitched an idea to her publisher she was going to write a memoir about her travels and path to self-discovery in her words it wasn't so much that I wanted to thoroughly explore the countries themselves this has been done it was more that I wanted to thoroughly explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country in a place that has traditionally done that one thing very well I wanted to explore the art of pleasure in Italy the art of devotion in India and in Indonesia the art of balancing the two in February 2006 the book was published Eat Pray Love one woman searched for everything across Italy India and Indonesia and Elizabeth who I'll just call Liz was blindsided by the overwhelming response I thought I was committing career suicide because I left my really good job and I had been sort of known as a literary author and then I went and wrote this very emotional very vulnerable Memoir and I thought I'm sorry world that I have to do this but I have to do this nobody's going to want it and then I'll go back to doing stuff people want me to do and it appeared that I was incorrect the Memoir exploded in popularity infiltrating book clubs everywhere it sold over 10 million copies and was adapted into a 2010 film directed by Ryan Murphy and starring Julia Roberts of course widespread popularity is usually accompanied by a counter-reaction as much as people revered it it seemed there were just as many if not more who absolutely detested it whether or not they read the book or watched the movie whole section of people who were like some sort of like a messiah this is my favorite book in the entire world and there are people who like I wish you didn't exist I think it's one of the most polarizing pieces of media in recent history and I wanted to explore that whether it's as extraordinary as fans believe whereas Hollow as critics claim though obviously it's all subjective in the end I read the book for this video and can't say I loved it but I can understand the appeal for a couple reasons first Elizabeth Gilbert isn't a bad writer she's gotten somewhat of an unfair rap in the writing sphere because of this book it's no mystery that media predominantly cater to women and girls is largely mocked and dismissed and held to a much higher standard of scrutiny including its authors sometimes dunking on writing quality makes sense but I don't think this is one of those times she knows how to put a story together in an engaging way she seems intelligent and well spoken and comes off as self-aware to an extent did you have any idea just how much your very personal story would resonate with so many women I totally knew when I was sobbing on the bathroom floor at three o'clock in the morning in total the suicide despair that someday Julia Roberts would want to be part of that no I liked her descriptions about the histories and cultures of places she visited I enjoyed some of her journalistic work and insights on creativity and I might even give her fiction a chance at some point that's not to say the book doesn't have its faults which I'll get to but at least the writing isn't atrocious secondly the main selling point of Eat Pray Love is of course the element of escapism of living vicariously through the adventures of someone who can essentially take a paid year off it's also Loosely marketed as self-help self-improvement though this wasn't necessarily Liz's original intention she has considered just why it caught on as much as it did concluding that it's because the book is ultimately about quote what happens when one human being realizes that her life doesn't have to look like this anymore that everything including herself can be changed women resonated with the concept of having the agency and willpower to shape their lives the way they saw fit there's even a 2016 essay collection called Eat Pray Love made me do it filled with stories of people inspired by the book people leaving their abusive Partners or choosing to be Child free or moving across the country or the globe or doing that one thing they always wanted to do but never had the courage to ePay loves them impact in pop culture both in terms of scorn and praise can't be overstated that said the movie made the story more two-dimensional as film adaptations often do and it's just cornier in general therapist like why is there a random scene where an elephant shows up it's not a good movie and leaves a lot unsaid so I'll mostly be referencing the book as we go and accordingly this is about 2004 book Elizabeth whose main focus is self-reflection and healing and consequently she may not be the same complex and multifaceted Elizabeth you meet in real life especially today nearly 20 years later anyhow one of my main gripes with this story is that I never got the impression that it accomplished what it sets out to that there's still a lot left unexplored but we'll get there foreign Liz is plagued by unhappiness and starts contemplating the landscape of her life she can't shake the thought that she doesn't want to be married to her husband anymore then can't fathom having children which everyone around her feels is the next logical step I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this life so why didn't I see myself in any of it she feels trapped in a conventional trajectory she never really wanted one where a woman's purpose is marked by being a good wife and mother the white picket fence life so to speak of course there's nothing wrong with this path of chosen willingly and mindfully but evidently that's not how she'd gotten here women reading along deeply related to this sense of disillusionment a persistent dissatisfaction stemming from the idea that they'd been living a life chosen for them rather than the other way around Liz suggesting that she's never felt a motherly urge is still often viewed as a mark of failure in women and this was even more true 20 odd years ago in its own way Eat Pray Love offered an example of a woman resisting social norms I don't know why we can't just accept that we don't want to live in unhappiness anymore but this dissatisfaction was only part of the issue Liz describes how since she was a teenager her life was defined by men in relationships even her writing career up to that point mostly revolved around men and masculinity with her job at GQ and novels about men's spaces someone once told her she was one of those people who always look like the person they're currently dating yeah he used to look like Stephen that kind of looks like David you know how um people start resembling their dogs I'm the sort of girl who always had a boyfriend um kind of serial monogamist of the worst degree and my entire life had just been one love story after another generally overlapping I took vows till death and I take them seriously in the book and film the reasons for her divorce were left purposefully vague for privacy but it makes a little more sense after a 2015 article she penned for the New York Times where she states she left her husband for another Man the David guy played by James Franco in the movie maybe it's just me but this was a surprise since it was always framed like she'd already filed for divorce by the time they met but I guess this Omission allows her to remain a more sympathetic character what happened was I dove out of my marriage and into David's arms in the article she writes icarine from one intimate entanglement to the next dozens of them without so much as a day off between romances you might have called called me a serial monogamist except that I was never exactly monogamous seduction was never a casual sport for me it was more like a heist adrenalizing and urgent I would break into his deepest fault steal all his emotional currency and spend it on myself I was someone's irresistible treasure I loved that sensation and I needed it not sometimes not even often but always I might indeed win the man eventually but over time and it wouldn't take long his unquenchable infatuation for me would fade as his attention returned to Everyday matters this always left me feeling abandoned and invisible love that could be quenched was not nearly enough love for me infatuations Final Destination the complete devaluation of self interestingly she seems to treat relationships the same way she discusses moving to a new house we're moving because I have to move every figures and we've been here six years which is like in dog years or in Liz years that's like a century who sells a house to move a quarter of a mile away for no reason whatsoever except that they like to move welcome to my pathology I mention all this to pinpoint the apparent root cause of her woes the unhealthy intensity of her need to feel adored to the point of relishing being the other woman is something the movie didn't fully convey and a problem I don't think the book even thoroughly addressed by the end oh God one common criticism I feel I should mention a central point raised against this Memoir is the inescapable stench of immense privilege people are generally annoyed that an upper middle class white woman is boohooing so hard about a divorce she caused the standard reaction is essentially oh her husband is getting both houses in the settlement how sad and then she gets paid to travel for a year and complains the whole time let me play her a song on the world's smallest violin and I get it although depression and misery don't discriminate it can be easy to dismiss the pain of well-off people surely they should be able to wipe away their tears with copies of their bank statements and get on with life so if you can't endure the Grievances of a privileged person then this book and movie isn't for you you also can't avoid the feel of her Upper Crust New York liberalism and its narrow lens that mostly examines phenomena at face value it's a disposition that's more prominent in the India and Bali sections of the book though still infused throughout for example the opening lines of the film which are taken from the book describe how a psychologist's friend of hers was daunted by the task of counseling Cambodian refugees who'd endured countless Horrors what could she offer these people in terms of help how could she possibly relate to their suffering so guess what all these people wanted to talk about it was all I met this guy in the refugee camp so basically she says everyone just wanted to talk about their love lives and so Liz concludes this is what we are like collectively as a species this is our emotional landscape never mind that processing deeply traumatic events is exceptionally difficult to do let alone with a foreign stranger who would hardly understand and people of color have deeply ingrained cultural stigma surrounding therapy that would also present a barrier to opening up so yes relationship drama is a bit of a lighter topic than genocide the point is Liz interpreted a complex layered scenario and came to an oddly simplistic conclusion one that just Affirmed her own understanding of the world there's going to be a lot of that at the very least she's aware of her privilege and often reminds us she has a leg up in this world the privilege of my skin color the privilege of the city I live in New York City the privilege of the moment that I live in again pointing to the question of privilege because of the fact that I'm a writer and because of the fact that I've been able to build a career as a writer and sort of organize my time in a certain way I have access to a lot more time than other people might have to think about those things I was able to say I'm going to take one entire year and do literally nothing every minute of the day except think about all these questions in the book she occasionally acknowledges her advantages and how unremarkable her champagne problems are quote the tragedies in my life have been of a personal and largely self-created nature not epically oppressive I went through a divorce and a depression not a few centuries of murderous tyranny I had a crisis of identity but I also had the resources Financial artistic and emotional with which to try to work it out foreign [Music] I want to go someplace where I can Marvel at something language gelato spaghetti something after losing herself in relationships for nearly two decades Liz wants to make sense of her identity when it isn't tied to someone else or wrapped in the endless quest for validation when she chose her destination she was pleased to discover they all started with the letter i a happy coincidence for a journey of self-discovery and cheesy enough for her friends to make fun of her for there's something to be said about how Liz arrives with a preconceived idea of what each place will be like or should be about choosing a little concept for each country as if going to a theme park seems limiting in a way seems to close your mind to other possibilities especially since these themes are pretty interchangeable can she not indulge in Indian food or practice spiritual devotion in Rome of all places moreover what's stopping her from doing any of this In America still Italy would be about reinvigorating her zest for life and reacquainting herself with the concept of pleasure except romance and sex she became voluntarily celibate she's making friends some local some expat she's learning Italian and she's eating all the food she can get her hands on this is her way of reconnecting with the world in its day-to-day Delights after bashing herself for a couple years and before committing to self-control in India she would indulge in many of the joys Italy had to offer with no shame or half-heartedness counting every calorie I consume so I know exactly how much self-loathing to take into the shower I just threw with the guilt to be clear she was still insecure about her weight gain but at least she had a good time about it though in a lame move the film instead frames it like it's only okay because men will still want to sleep with you not to mention as Sunday broy points out it requires more than the normal suspension of disbelief when Julia Roberts announces she will eat that whole pizza and buy the big girl jeans the movie is also just generally littered with stereotypes that annoyed Italian critics okay all the while I wondered this looks like a fun time and all but if this is all that Devotion to pleasure encompasses what's the difference between this and just a simple extended vacation notably Liz claims she isn't a great traveler and mostly drifts around places without a plan or prior research and I think as a result of that her time in Italy and later in Bali feel rather purposeless in the scheme of her story like you're just eating a bunch of food everyone does that if they visit Italy so what exactly makes this so special that aside I had to agree with Liz's comparison of the fast-paced American lifestyle to Italian's philosophy of a slower appreciative life which in a general sense could be applied to most of Europe quote Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure ours is an entertainment seeking Nation but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to Wars but that's not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment in Italy the beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated the more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing the higher your life's achievement you don't necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this either for me though a major obstacle in my pursuit of pleasure was my ingrained sense of Puritan guilt do I really deserve this pleasure Americans commonly feel we have to earn the right to enjoy our life an afternoon lazing away can't be relish without shame unless paired with equal or more hours of productivity you have to be told you've earned it you see a commercial that says it's Miller time and it says that's right and when it comes time for Indulgence it often involves an excess of consumption of spending lots of money in some capacity this is obviously a generalization but it's pretty standard for Americans to scarf down our meals so we can get on to the next thing we have to do American tourists in Italy or France are often confused use why servers don't visit tables every 10 minutes don't prod you along to order food to request more drinks to pay your bill and get out already here the concept of just sitting around is a luxury unfamiliar almost uncomfortable entertainment is a ubiquitous commodity but free and aimless Leisure is scarce in her four months in Italy Liz is sort of trying to deconstruct this ingrained perspective she questions why can't my greatest ambition be finding a place to have a nice meal or to take a pleasant nap in a patch of sunlight of course that's much easier to pull off given her circumstances as she rightfully points out while visiting Sicily quote one can't live like this forever real life and wars and traumas and mortality will interfere eventually here in Sicily with its Dreadful poverty real life is never far from anyone's mind reality never escapes her either as all the while she grapples with inner turmoil another common criticism of the book is pretty straightforward Liz is annoying being self-centered and too self-pitying the term Naval gazing is frequently used to describe her preoccupations to be fair it is a memoir explicitly about her mental health recovery so she's going to talk about herself and her feelings a lot also when you're consumed by depression your thought patterns tend to deviate towards negativity and self-loathing if anything at least she's honest about what's on her mind again Liz seems relatively self-aware and knows she's being kind of insufferable as she Broods over her ex-boyfriend for the hundredth time the whole point is that she doesn't want to be like that anymore and wants to change though I'll admit that being too self-focused too self-absorbed can lead you to project your feelings onto the world and if you're projecting your own biases what new information can you really take in here's an example in one ranting chapter she discouraged the use of antidepressants and mental health drugs despite how they helped her for about two years she tried everything she could to combat her depression examine possible causes went to therapy did a makeover leaned on her support system and tried all manner of tricks and gimmicks like wearing orange panties but nothing shook the depression that was quickly becoming dangerous so she finally gave in and describes how the meds quote opened an extra inch of daylight in my mind gave me those recuperative night hours back stopped my hands from shaking released the vice grip around my chest and the Panic alert button from inside my heart and they were quote part of my bridge to the other side and then in the same breath she discourages people from trying them until they're essentially at the point of self-harm and suicidal ideation like she was it's baffling to say the least some of her reservations made sense and meds obviously aren't for everyone but at one point she says I don't want to take the drugs anymore but I'm frightened I'll have to I'm terrified that I'll never really pull my life together there's this implicit suggestion that having to take medication means you haven't got your life together never mind that some people require hire them to function and or don't have other more expensive options at their disposal like World Travel on someone else's dime her psychiatrist had asked her why she waited so long saying if she'd had kidney disease she would have taken medication for that so why are you hesitating with this and Liz writes but see that only shows how ignorant he was about my family a Gilbert might very well not medicate a kidney disease saying that we're a family who regard any sickness as a sign of personal ethical moral failure you'd think she'd reflect on this very Protestant Outlook maybe try to re-examine her view on the matter especially considering the meds helped save her life but no she quits cold turkey while in Rome and hopes to never have to take them again thanks for the unsolicited medical advice I guess unsurprisingly there comes a point at which the dread closes in on her in Italy I say it's not surprising because she'd essentially found a creative way to run away from her problems including the ongoing thing with David these matters wouldn't be solved or kept at Bay by Pizza and Pasta no matter how much we wish they had that power in her writing she personifies the feelings that have at last caught up with her the character's depression and loneliness back again to dampen her perspective but she's in Rome she thinks how is this possible in this moment I'm reminded of an excerpt from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay self-reliance quote traveling is a Fool's Paradise our first Journeys discover us to the indifference of places at home I dreamed that at Naples at Rome I can be intoxicated with beauty and lose my sadness I pack my trunk embrace my friends embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples and there beside me is the stern fact the sad self unrelenting identical that I fled from I seek the Vatican and the Palaces I effect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions but I am not intoxicated my giant goes with me wherever I go his full perspective is more nuanced than just travel is bad I recommend the whole essay for some valuable introspection to just hear is that the parts of yourself you wish to escape will follow you everywhere no matter how stunning the destinations the backdrop improves yet the misery lingers so it has to be faced head-on I'm not sure that the dream of pilgrimage is new you know um I I think it's hardwired into us in some way the yearning to step aside from the fold and the clan and go off into the desert the mountain the Cave the holy city the you know whatever you know whatever the the sort of dream of distances um that's something that is part of every single Human Society on Earth the next stop on her trip is an ashram in a small Village near Mumbai where Liz's priorities do a 180. here the focus is devoted meditation and self-discipline basically the opposite of grounding herself to the world and instead connecting to and addressing the emotional mess in her head this is where the story started to fall apart for a lot of people as Liz would only plunge further into to borrow a phrase from Bo Burnham the myopic lens of her own self-actualization to touch on the section itself it's honestly a bit of a snooze to read about she spends most of her time practicing meditation and yoga learning to regulate her emotions and exploring her spirituality while incidentally surrounded mostly by other white people trying to find themselves the main supporting character in this section is Richard from Texas who grants her all sorts of Life advice and appears to take on the role of her Guru more than anyone else here this whole new age spirituality go to India thing is nothing new with middle and upper class westerners my friend told me about her to be fair Liz had been practicing yoga for a couple years already she didn't decide it on a clueless whim while she's there she recognizes she has serious control issues and investigates the root of it realizing it's a trait stemming from her childhood realization of mortality's inevitable March she discovers that she can control her thoughts instead of the other way around which is essentially cognitive behavioral therapy you have to learn to select your thoughts the same way that you select your clothes every day now that's a power that you can cultivate and she sort of learns to forgive herself for her past transgressions after all self-loathing is another form of self-obsession of letting ego paint your reality she also enters the void and is transported through the portal of the universe and taken to the center of God's Palm so that sounds fun but despite Liz's claims of Enlightenment her Insight feels largely incomplete there's so much introspection only to be paired with half-hearted analysis for example she didn't do much to reconcile the fact that this year-long trip was itself a manifestation of her coping mechanism against existential dread quote over the years my hypersensitive awareness of time speed led me to push myself to experience life at a maximum Pace if I were going to have such a short visit on Earth I had to do everything possible to experience it now hence all the traveling all the romances all the ambition all the pasta She only mentioned it this one time but I don't know isn't that an important present conflict to try to explore floor the fact she's still essentially trying to outrun her fears I was trying to make it work well I think the chanting in meditation is the same thing in a different costume there's also a point where she almost tries something new a vow of silence which isn't her strong suit but when offered the role of Hostess shortly after she all too willingly slides back into her comfort zone of being chatty and in control Liz who never really clicked with Christianity describes her views on religion believing that people have every right to cherry pick when it comes to their spirituality and finding God this dance has its pros and cons for example she later posits that the search for contentment is not just self-preserving and self-benefiting but a quote generous gift to the world to me this is mental gymnastics trying to portray a fairly individualistic Endeavor as a collectivist one this can be part of the problem with picking and choosing her Western ideals which fear towards the individual end up pervading her perspective why While most eastern philosophies promote the opposite moreover having such a strong concept of self seems at odds with what it means to be enlightened and one with the universe and although she mostly ignored it the material reality surrounding her should probably have informed her perspective more but Liz's musings and observations remain insulated and out of touch to expand on that let's zoom out and examine the bigger picture here as remarked in the article after Eat Pray Love tourism or analism and cartographies of South Asian orientalist Leisure Industries like yoga have achieved a foothold in U.S consumer markets relying as they do on stereotypes of India as a spiritual and exotic but dirty and impoverished Locale that can provide not only culture and Escape but also the sanctimonious feeling of helping the local economy for white Travelers and from another paper by Ruth Williams the Eat Pray Love brand produces a female neoliberal spiritual subject who views travel as a way of accessing authentic and founders with Native populations who serve as tools for her Enlightenment as Cindy broy has charged e Pray Love brand spiritual tourism represents a new colonialism which is typified by white people discovering themselves in brown places Liz spends her three-month Day in India in an ashram that largely caters to tourists it's a bit like visiting Disneyland and saying you've experienced authentic American culture I mean kind of but not really for our purposes I'll ignore the disturbing controversy surrounding this organization since Liz was probably unaware at the time anyhow as she describes outside the walls of the ashram it is all dust and poverty inside it's all irrigated Gardens beds of flowers hidden orchids Birdsong mango trees Etc I have to wonder if the separation affected her experience in any way but there's little to no reflection on it including that it's a perfect tangible representation of how much better her life is than most peoples the film of course ignores it even harder ironically there's a point where Liz claims she's wary of the word Detachment because she's met people who already seem to live in a state of complete emotional disconnect from other human beings and Detachment is the last thing they should be after I'm inclined to lump her into that very category yes Liz acknowledges her privilege in a straightforward sense but she doesn't use this awareness to evolve her perception of the world and her place in it in any meaningful way she'll mention an impoverished kid with a compelling aura or a Strangely Beautiful poor people and how happy they look doing back-breaking work I don't know what to say about this other than it rubs me the wrong way like isn't it magnificent how they transcend their poverty I mean they don't have much of a choice do they they're just living their lives and trying to survive Why Try to romanticize it as Liz seeks a life where she can carve her own path and make her own choices she's surrounded by women who aren't offered the possibility of that option like she befriends a 17 year old girl who's dreading her arranged marriage I want to study psychology and this just makes Liz think back on her ex-husband more than anything else what did it look like when I was happy it seems to me this reality was worth more of her contemplation and empathy if you're going to take the time sometimes Pages Worth to describe these people's stories there should probably be a little more critical thought applied I mean sure she's not going to solve poverty in any of these places but her superficial Impressions presents a crucial blind spot in her self-awareness maybe she did consider these questions more in real life maybe she avoided topics she thought her publisher or readers didn't want to hear about but it's not as though she was aiming to be a political since she brought up her dislike of Republicans and George Bush yet her focus on the self and spiritual Detachment seemed to contribute to her sort of political disengagement as if her feminist ideals didn't apply to the women in India or Bali I think Sunday broy's final anecdote provides a striking metaphor that encompasses what I'm talking about he describes that when he left the screening for the Eat Pray Love film he went down in an elevator crammed with radiant women all discussed when they teared up during the film and how much they related to it and its message of opening yourself up to the world there was one woman in a wheelchair in the elevator after we reached the lobby the women still chattering marched out into the Chile San Francisco night the woman in the wheelchair remained stranded behind the heavy doors for some reason and this just boggles my imagination there are still just huge swaths of women who never got the memo that their lives belonged to them and there's this Instinct that they have that they needed permission slip from the principal's office for anything the main Target demographic here was primarily women who like Liz already had the social academic physical and financial potential within societal constraints to break free from cultural expectations for these other women well that's just the way it is their lives are confined to the status quo this disparity between Liz's idyllic views of self-fulfillment versus the experiences of less privileged people surrounding her only adds to the criticisms regarding her egocentrism making Eat Pray Love's themes come off more Hollow than inspirational Within These Pages only those with the means to can feel free to change their lives or at least pretend to [Music] to Circle back to what I said in the intro the major reason this book succeeded is because it sells a fantasy cell is the key word here e Pray Love did decent numbers in its hardcover release but became a paperback sensation thanks to penguin's marketing strategy plus the stamp of approval from the spokesperson for this sort of thing if anyone can sell something as a means of spirituality and empowerment it's Oprah but this is what I never understood in the book I'm thinking well you've been in the palm of God you could just go home yeah but the book wasn't the only thing being sold and Merchandising skyrocketed particularly upon the film's release jewelry perfume beauty products Home Goods food clothing travel packages official prayer beads everything was fair game to slap an e-pray love label on as long as they thought women would buy it as noted in Reuters the film might be a call to action for women to live their lives passionately but it's also a call for them to purchase the taste smells and luxuries that Julie Roberts enjoys On Screen through her travels it serves as a fragrant reminder that movie merchandising once the domain of films for teens and kids has matured for the adult female audience this was all partially fueled by Oprah's endorsement and Liz has since become a regular visitor on her network it's been suggested that Oprah and by extension Eat Pray Love offers a neo-liberal vision of women's agency fusing Inner Awakening with capitalist pragmatism essentially this version of feminism promotes the idea that empowerment can be achieved through consumption in the case of Eat Pray Love This was especially true for tourism Elizabeth herself was conflicted by the heavy marketing of products and is generally opposed to people simply reenacting her experience every once in a while I get a letter from somebody who says okay so I went to Italy I found it I found the gelateria where you ate that gelato and then I went to Naples and I found that Pizzeria and I had the pizza and now I want to go to you know India can you tell me the name of your ashram as excited as I am always to see somebody going on a journey there's also a part of me that wants to say okay that's great but the point isn't that you go do what I did you know the point is that maybe this book will encourage you to ask yourself the same questions that I was asking myself that led to this journey the world would be an even more cruel and unfair place than it already is if the only people who could have spiritual Journeys for people who could afford to go to India why couldn't she have done it at home then I don't know but regardless of her intentions the larger point was warped by marketer messaging copycats flocked to these locations all while pursuing an authentic experience to live like the locals in Rome or Bali despite being tourists those who sought to replicate Liz's Journey Down To The Last Detail that isn't self-discovery it's imitation an expensive performance they're just recreating a movie with themselves as the main character yet hoisting lives up as a model of empowerment leaves most people at a loss for what to do since most can only afford the Branded candle or necklace in the article e Pray Love producing the neoliberal female spiritual subject Williams remarks that the book's marketing equates sharing in Gilbert's journey of self-discovery not with critical reflection on the self and Society but with spiritual consumption consumers are seldom available as a ready and willing Market rather the work of consumer culture has been to produce the desires and the conditions within which buying a product becomes meaningful in other words we're made to feel as though we need certain things to feel fulfilled Williams continues one of the key gendered components of neoliberalism is that it harnesses the dream of women's emancipation to the engine of capitalist accumulation this is another flavor of the supposedly feminist sect of the self-improvement genre the pressure to be that girl to mold yourself into a category and buy all the things associated with it the notion of living your best life often comes with a price tag on an outfit to portray a desirable aesthetic on an expensive skin care item to stay you full on an overseas Yoga Retreat to free your mind it's fine to find enjoyment in these things but if anyone believes they need certain products or excursions to become the best versions of themselves they've been seriously duped the majority of that progress happens internally prior to this journey Liz was a self-described to self-help junkie if some of her unorthodox tactics to tackle depression are any indication her approach including this trip may be adjacent to a sort of Gwyneth Paltrow approach to Wellness merging new AG spirituality with expensive schemes in Eat Pray spend privilege and the new enlightened American Dream they break down the genre of privilege or privileged literature stating that the genre is unique in that it reflects an inversion of its own explicitly expressed value system privilege tells women they must do expensive things that are good for the body mind or soul but the hidden subtext and perhaps the most alluring part of the genre for its Avid consumers is the anti-feminist idea that women should become become healthy so that people will like them they'll find Partners they'll have money and they'll lose weight and be hot God forbid a dumpy lonely single person should actually try to achieve happiness health and balance for its own sake it's the wolf of the mean-spirited makeover show or the vicious High School Clique in the sheep's clothing of Wellness in addition hyper focus on self-improvement to the responsibility of the individual can once again lend itself to political disengagement to turning a blind eye to societal realities that may also be impeding people's ability to live their best lives as Ruth Williams points out the spiritually fulfilled subject represented in Gilbert's happy ending is not ultimately positioned to ask critical questions regarding how the world Works instead she is taught to ask questions about how she can work better within the world to examine that let's move forward to section 3 of the book in Bali Liz first revisits a popular medicine man who to her surprise doesn't remember her at first in the film he's a pretty standard wise old one-dimensional Asian character who Liz literally compared to Yoda I am hoping this is just what he was really like and they didn't exaggerate his mannerisms for the film [Music] either way his presence doesn't lead to very much as Roy mentions this character is just here to dispense fortune cookie style wisdom once again Liz's observations in Bali are rather shallow or otherwise uncritical when it comes to other people and even herself for example she details a story about a new friend of hers a man who was deported back to Indonesia due to the Patriot Act following 9 11. although he was married to an American citizen she recounts the tale while suggesting it was wrong that this happened to him but didn't have much to add after spending a whole chapter on it meanwhile after she'd arrived in Bali Liz was stunned to find she could only legally stay there for a month in her words it hadn't occurred to me that the Indonesian government would be anything less than delighted to host me in their country for just as long as I please to stay wouldn't it be worthwhile to reflect on the entitlement that allowed her to possibly assume that but don't worry I guess she gave an official a few hundred bucks to illegally extend her visa again I think a sincere comparison of these very different very telling scenarios of her and her friend could have been eye-opening or at least humbling here's another person's story this time featured in the movie why in the Healer whose divorced from her abusive husband made her a social outcast was Raising her daughter and two orphans despite her financial difficulties having to keep relocating when she could no longer afford rent so in honor of Liz's birthday she requests donations from her friends overseas to help buy a house for YN it was a kind life-altering gesture I won't pretend otherwise eighteen thousand American dollars I brought you to emails there is a little too much lingering on the Savior complex of it all especially in the film where the generous Act is framed more as a tool for Liz's fulfillment than anything else maybe if we have a house family then have a pretty good Lord like this and like when in a bit of word play Liz mentions that thuti wyan's daughter's name means everyone in Italian so she says that in a way when you set out to help yourself I.E her going on this trip sometimes you end up helping Tutti that was a bit eye roll-inducing but it was a good deed nonetheless but there is more to the story in the book Liz faces a dilemma after transferring the money it's actually the subject of several chapters wyan continually delays purchasing land citing various spiritual downsides of all the properties and Liz with only a couple weeks left in Bali feels pressure to make sure the money is used for its intended purpose syn stalls while hinting she wants even more money Liz's new man tells her she's being toyed with and she writes I hate the cultural implications under his speech the whiff of colonial White Man's Burden stuff the patronizing this is what all these people are like argument she has a point here but she also never confronts the fact that she's ultimately just another tourist who mostly socializes with other expats she doesn't examine the imbalance dynamic in her relationships with Balinese people namely the transactional undercurrent at play every time she visits the medicine man he reminds her to tell her Western friends to visit him for a palm reading that his bank has been empty ever since the 2002 and three terrorist bombings when she first arrives she acknowledges the attacks effects that it's even easier to get around now or to rent a place because quote everyone is desperate to help you desperate for work but she doesn't turn that observation on herself to remark on the role of the tourists she plays maybe because she wants to believe her presence here is more special more meaningful than that in the end she reluctantly lies to wyan that the donors are angry and she'll have to take the money back if she doesn't purchase land soon YN buys land within four hours the tourism industry has a double-edged effect on locals to this day with visits reportedly Amplified by Eat Pray Love's popularity Bali was essentially built for tourism by the government as described in the article Eat Pray Love and War Bali was basically the invention of romantic artists who in the 1930s convinced Dutch Colonial administrators to establish a protectorate That Was Then converted by post-world War II Western liberators into a money-making tourist Enterprise today in 2018 ninety percent of the restaurants in Bali are owned by foreigners who of course make more money than their local workers real estate is also giving way to foreign ownership and the impact of mass tourism and over development takes shape in water shortages environmental degradation sanitation issues overcrowded destinations loss of authenticity and higher cost of living plus the commodification of rituals and spiritual practices at certain locations has made them less available to locals as they're flooded with tourists seeking an authentic experience as with many things it's complicated tourism often helps and hurts simultaneously but there's no doubt the effects of overexposure lean negative in the long run as noted in William's paper Liz comes close to engaging in a critical analysis of the impact of Tourism on Bali she writes the Balinese quite literally live off their image of being the world's most peaceful and devotional and artistically expressive people but how much of that is intrinsic and how much of that is economically calculated and how much can an outsider like me ever learn of the Hidden stresses that might loiter behind those shining faces yet rather than musing on the connection between bali's Colonial history which Gilbert mentions in the background she provides and the tourism industry Gilbert literally lets her critical gaze go blurry writing it's the same here as anywhere else you look at the picture too closely and all the firm lines start to melt away into an indistinct mass of blurry brush strokes and Blended pixels the evacuating move Gilbert makes is a perfect model for neoliberal Spiritual tourism for them seeking out the answer to such questions involves a realization that rather than an enlightened spiritual Seeker the subject is simply another consumer buying a piece of cultural simulacra in a way this circles back to the argument that travel alone even if for self-fulfillment won't organically solve underlying psychological issues of course it has the potential to be transformative and eye-opening in certain ways I like travel as much as the next person but tourism is still consumerism it's not a magic bomb for depression Liz also failed to fully explore the element of lack of responsibility especially Financial which has a tremendous impact on people's quality of life and emotional well-being one fact that's quickly glossed over is that Liz is technically on a job her Publishers 200 000 dollar advance which she refers to as a staggering personal Miracle does affect the story whether she wants to acknowledge it or not does it limit its value or sincerity as many suggest that might be up for debate but she didn't give this aspect much consideration she says she no longer feels she's searching for balance in Bali because it naturally came into place that she's never felt less burdened by herself for the world that she doesn't mind anything these days and can't imagine or remember discontent she also had to mention she did this without medication but frankly it seems like it's relatively easy to feel at peace when you have quote metric tons of free time and are thousands of miles away from most day-to-day responsibilities the luxuries of this lifestyle are unrealistic even for her sure you can find contentment on vacation in beautiful Bali but can you find it at home alongside the realities of life until then its contentment propped up by pretty scenery and low-cost amenities not to mention a new relationship while in Bali Liz opens up to the possibility of sex and romance again this is barley everyone should have a love affair in Bali she socializes within the expat Circle and warms up to a Brazilian man she refers to as Felipe though they're spending a lot of time together she's hesitant to let things go further because the quote vital transformation happening in her life needs time and room in order to finish its process undisturbed and she doesn't want to lose control of her life again but she relents soon after with not much reasoning except she had two dreams where her gurus gave their blessing like hey you've done enough learning you're good it's fine she gives herself permission to embark on this new romance with Felipe and for a long while she spends most of her time at his place reveling in the Bliss of his affection and having so much sex she gets a bladder infection with all this comes the obvious question considering that her unhealthy obsession with romance and relationships or the reason Liz is on this journey to begin with is there any indication she's ready for a new one I have a hunch she isn't and it stems from this in a moment of doubt about their budding relationship Liz writes I wonder if I'm capable of being somebody's son somebody's everything am I centered enough now to be the center of somebody else's life but when I finally brought up the topic with him one night he said have I asked you to be that person have I asked you to be the center of my life I was immediately ashamed of myself for my vanity for having assumed that he wanted me to stay with him forever so that he could indulge my whims till the end of time it seems Liz retained the assumption that relationships are measured by their level of obsession and tireless devotion she is still looking at others and only seeing herself and this is important because the whole premise of the book is predicated on the idea that Liz has changed that she's undone this outlook on love and doesn't require romantic adulation to feel worthy of existing and then You Found Love yeah Felipe finally put his palm against my cheek and said that's enough darling come to my bed now come to my bed now yeah and I did yet many of us leave this Memoir feeling the problem is unresolved that she's still defined by her romantic relationships that her new love affair is what's helping keep negativity at Bay she even says maybe I'm just enjoying this surreal moment in my life because I happen to be falling in love and that always makes the world seem delightful no matter how insane your reality you're running away from all the great possibilities of your own life the film offers its last dramatic revision Liz is too afraid of her own feelings and at first refuses to go away with Felipe on a trip for two sometimes to lose balance type of living it's framed like she's overcoming the fear of loving again but I thought the problem was wanting it too much in reality there was no climactic moment on the beach where Liz had to tearfully reconcile her decision to enter a new relationship she just does it despite some initial reservations this romance is what the last few pages are about what the final section is named for and as if to hammer home the point in the film's last shot she sails off into the sunset with her hot Latin lover in my opinion this conclusion undermines the purpose of the entire Journey it can be argued that things are different this time but what makes that true just because she spent nine months traveling and meditating spoiler alert it didn't end differently this time she also left this dude for someone else albeit under unique circumstances your relationship that you develop with with Ria who was a a long-term friend wasn't she um who sadly passed away and since romance is evidently Central to the Eat Pray Love Story her love life is still still the object of much scrutiny anyway there's a passage in the last chapter that goes like this I am happy and healthy and balanced and yes I cannot help but notice that I am sailing to this pretty little tropical island with my Brazilian lover which is I admit it an almost ludicrously fairy tale ending to this story like the page out of some housewife's dream perhaps even a page out of my own Dream from years ago yet what keeps me from dissolving right now into a complete fairy tale Shimmer is this solid truth a truth which has veritably built my bones over the last few years I was not rescued by a prince I was the administrator of my own rescue there's an air of triumphant finality to this that doesn't feel genuine especially because of a trip she took two years prior Liz came to Bali on assignment for a travel magazine she was in the bottom and middle of her pain from her ongoing divorce and ended up extending her stay detouring to a tiny mostly remote island she spent 10 days in solitude and silence contemplating and meditating until she at last felt healed and forgave herself this was described near the end of the book and I thought wait a minute didn't she just do that in India again what was the point of this year-long trip like does she just need to visit a new place every time she wants to feel healed to be fair Liz does speak on the redundancy of it all quote I also knew somehow that this respite of Peace would be temporary I knew that I was not yet finished for good that my anger my sadness and my shame would all creep back eventually I knew that I would have to keep dealing with these thoughts again and again until I slowly and determinedly changed my whole life so yeah I understand the cyclical nature of human beings that we continuously have to learn and relearn how to be better to ourselves and to others but that's not what this book is selling it's about Liz finding herself through a year of travel about her Enlightenment about her Rescue of herself it's about a woman's search for everything and did she find it well no it doesn't seem like it given all I've discussed ultimately perhaps Liz felt too much of a need to tie things up in a neat bow for the publisher after all it's easier to sell books when there's romance involved but either way Liz left some of the most important questions unanswered why was she so unhappy and insecure before where did the desperate validation seeking originate where did it begin and how did it supposedly end how does she ensure she can maintain this new mindset when she's not on a paid vacation and how does the material impact of her consumerist tourism fit into the landscape of her quest for self-improvement in the lives of locals again I'm just going off the book maybe she did consider these questions more in real life I didn't write any of this in order to deny Elizabeth Gilbert her story or anyone else who may have been inspired by it it's a scary intimate thing to lay out your flaws for the world to see I just feel it missed the mark all too often Eat Pray Love seemed to bog self-actualization down to external gratification the story focused on finding the joy in life through new and exciting experiences and people so much so that it came off as a means to run away from the mundanity of day-to-day life the same way she ran from men when their attention drifted to Everyday matters my main takeaway was that she's the kind of person who just gets bored Board of places and people always ready to pack up and move on to the next intoxicating thing it's not a crime or even rare to seek Thrills in Amusement still Eat Pray Love strives to convince us it's more than that though in the end it only is more than that if peace can indeed be found through frantic escape and love through looking at the world and seeing only your own reflection but I don't think that's how to find them thanks so much for watching I'm really curious to hear y'all's thoughts on this one I feel like the dominant opinion on this book and movie at this point is just that it's like that I would really like to hear some varying opinions on it or if you think I missed anything I'd really like to hear about that too I wasn't expecting this video to be so long hopefully y'all like long form type of essays but yeah that's pretty much all I have to say I hope your summer is lovely so far and I'll catch y'all in the next one bye

Channel: Quality Culture

Views: 407,907

Keywords: eat pray love, eat pray love elizabeth gilbert, eat pray love analysis, eat pray love breakdown, eat pray love review, elizabeth gilbert analysis, eat pray love movie analysis, eat pray love movie

Id: xFxz5C_gPbM

Length: 52min 17sec (3137 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023