Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 114
December 8, 2013
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What’s the emotional difference between writing a confessio…
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What's the emotional difference between writing a confessional memoir and writing a work of pure fiction?
SIMPLE ANSWER: Writing a novel is way more personal and revealing.
LONGER ANSWER: I've been asked this question a lot since "The Signature of All Things" was published in October. And I think people are always surprised by my answer. They (understandably) assume that the most vulnerable and exposing thing I ever wrote was "Eat Pray Love". They want to know how I could possibly have shared such intimate details about my life with the world, and they assume (again, understandably) that it was probably a relief for me to then write an unrevealing novel of pure invention — to hide my true self, as it is, behind fictional characters.
But here's the thing. My memoir is a very, very polished piece of sea glass. I didn't publish several volumes of my private diaries, after all, but offered up a well-considered compilation of stories about myself, all of them very carefully edited and selected. And there is a great self-consciousness to writing a memoir: You must be extremely careful about what you say not only about yourself, but also about other people. Also, as open and honest as I tried to be with EPL, the fact remains that perhaps I don't know myself as well as I think I do. (Who among us really knows ourselves?) I tried to be revealing, I tried to show you exactly who I am…but maybe I am not who I think I am? Certainly legions of other people see me differently than I see myself.
With a novel, on the other hand, the writer is lulled into this sense of safety and expansion and utter liberty (thinking, "This has absolutely nothing to do with me, so I can go in any direction I please!") and thus might very well accidentally reveal A LOT about herself. It is only now, more than a year after finishing "The Signature of All Things" that I realize how much of me is in there. Some of the most intimate details of my own deepest self (things I would never dream of sharing in a memoir are) are casually littered all over this novel — not only in the character of Alma, but in all the characters (all of whom, after all, spring from different parts of myself.)
Think of it like a crime scene. The memoirist, aware of being watched, goes over each page with white gloves and bleach, cleaning up every single bit of stray evidence. The novelist, joyfully oblivious, leaves a trail of hair and fingernails and footprints and bits of incriminating DNA all over her book.
All of which is to say, as I have realized only very lately, you'll probably learn more a lot more about me by reading "The Signature of All Things" than by reading "Eat Pray Love".
Crazy as it sounds. Crazy but true.
YIKES!
But there can be no art without revelation and vulnerability, my friends! To make art is inherently to reveal. We must reveal courageously, even when we do it accidentally…
Happy reading,
LG
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SOAT in Prague! Beautiful…
SOAT in Prague! Beautiful…
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
My dear Liz, I am sending you greetings from Prague, Czech Republic! SOAT finally arrived from UK and I cant wait to sink into another world you created… I wanted to take a picture with a snowman, unfortunetely all the snow melted down overnight… Anyway, I am sending you lots of love and harmony and hope to meet you one day in person, Monika
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December 7, 2013
GIFT-A-PALOOZA! 75% off! Only 2 hours left to score a copy of THE SIGNATURE OF…
GIFT-A-PALOOZA!
75% off!
Only 2 hours left to score a copy of THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS from Amazon for under seven bucks!
Ho-ho-ho!
Amazon.com: Deals in Books: Books
www.amazon.com
Online shopping for Deals in Books; & more at everyday low prices.
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CHRISTMAS GIFT ALERT!!! THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS…75% off!!!! You guys, ju…
CHRISTMAS GIFT ALERT!!!
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS…75% off!!!!
You guys, jump on this deal!
For today only Amazon.com is running a Christmas special, selling my new novel for less than $7.00…which is absolutely insane for a giant brand new hardcover book.
If you were ever gonna buy it — for you or for every single person on your Christmas list (my modest suggestion) — now is the moment…
Pass this on, too, if you don't mind!
GO!
Heart,
LG
Amazon.com: Deals in Books: Books
www.amazon.com
Online shopping for Deals in Books; & more at everyday low prices.
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LOVE KEEPS US HUMAN. Dear friends — Longtime followers of this page have…
LOVE KEEPS US HUMAN.
Dear friends —
Longtime followers of this page have heard me sing the praises of the American midwife and activist Robin Lim, whom I met in Bali years ago at her natural birth center. She is one of the most brave, compassionate and remarkable women I have ever met (and I am not alone in my admiration of her: CNN recently named her HERO OF THE YEAR for her tireless global work on behalf of the health of mothers and babies.)
Robin is currently in the Philippines, working to protect some of the most vulnerable people in the world right now — the pregnant women, nursing mothers, and newborn infants who have endured the trauma and horrors of the recent Typhoon.
She sent me this photo yesterday, and the letter below.
If you are looking for a way to help, or want to make a Christmas offering, I can't urge you strongly enough to help Robin's foundation in its efforts to save women and babies in one of the most suffering places on earth at the moment.
Here is her letter, and the donation information:
"Dear Liz: I am currently doing disaster relief for the survivors of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. It's rough here… as bad as the Tsunami, but many many more hungry, homeless, thirsty people. I am in and out of Tacloban, most of the dead are buried now, but not all. The burning of garbage, in an attempt by Filipinos to clean up the huge mess, makes air quality most of the time, unbearable. But even now, less than a month after disaster struck, and stripped the coastal areas and the mountains of all foliage, even bent and broken trees are popping out tiny green leaves. And hopping from broken electric cable to bent branch a tiny bird, a survivor was singing.
Mostly I run around trying to find food liaisons for the midwives to feed the mothers and children. Wanted to share with you a photo I took on my phone: A breastfeeding mom in the street, because there is just nowhere else cleared yet, the city is twisted iron and busted up cement, broken dreams of people who lived their lives quite simply in these fishing villages. No homes, no boats…But here a baby nurses, a toddler shows signs of malnutrition, while the big brother stays happy. Please post this photo, as it says so much about Love and Hope, in the center of Suffering… Love still keeps us Human!
If your Family of Fans want to give to the Philippines, there are a couple of ways to give to Bumi Sehat/Wadah Foundation Philippine Disaster Relief:
We have made a brief post on the website regarding donations for Philippines, linking from the home page:
http://bumisehatfoundation.org/
to this page: http://www.bumisehatfoundation.org/donate-to-philippines/
Or
http://www.amillionmothers.org/<http://www.amillionmothers.org/>
Love, Ibu Robin"
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SOAT in Vegas!!! Definitely a place I never imagined Miss Alma Whittaker venturi…
SOAT in Vegas!!! Definitely a place I never imagined Miss Alma Whittaker venturing!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
SOAT in Vegas with chips and tequila. Would like to be on a beach or in Bali but happy to be sitting at a bar laughing and crying while I worry the neighbors. Thankful to be born in the 20th century and as always Liz you amaze me. Wonderful book. Thank you!
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SOAT and a happy reader…I love it when a 500 page novel leaves someone wishing…
SOAT and a happy reader…I love it when a 500 page novel leaves someone wishing for more! Thank you, Lilly!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Not five minutes ago, I finished the last page of this masterpiece. I have been side by side with Miss Whittaker for quite some time now, it seems. Now, I cannot help but wish for more.
Thank you Liz, for this adventure.
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December 6, 2013
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is your home a museum to grief? About nine years ago, a…
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is your home a museum to grief?
About nine years ago, a dear friend called me one morning in a state of joy, to inform me that she had spent all night throwing out old letters, photographs and diaries. She sounded so free and light, it was amazing.
My jaw dropped.
Letters and photographs and diaries???!!! Who throws out letters and photographs? That's the stuff you're supposed to run back into the flaming house to rescue during a fire, right?
But she had thrown away several garbage bags of it, she said. Because many of those letters and photos and journals, it emerged in the conversation, were relics of her sad old failed relationships, or documents of bad times. She had been holding onto them the way we often do — as some sort of dutiful recording of her complete emotional history — but then she said, "I don't want my house to be a museum to grief."
The historian in me balked at the idea of this — you can't throw away letters, photos and diaries!!!
But I took her words to heart. I couldn't shake the sense that she was onto something. I couldn't forget how joyful her voice had sounded. I couldn't stop thinking about what miseries I had stored in my attic, literally hanging over my head.
Later that week, I took a deep breath. Then I took two big black garbage bags and did a MAJOR cleansing. Divorce papers. Angry letters. Tragic diaries of awful times. (YEARS of them: the chronicle of my depression.) Vacation photos of friendships now severed. Love letters and gifts from men who had broken my heart. All the accumulated evidences of shame and sadness. All of it: IN THE TRASH.
What was left were only items that made me feel light and lucky and free when I saw them.
That was nine years ago. I have never missed one single piece of it since.
So I ask you — are you holding onto anything that spurs memories of shame, of abandonment, of loss, of sorrow? (I don't mean healthy sorrow, like photos of a beloved friend or relative now deceased. I mean items like the letter where your ex-lover explains why it's all over, why you aren't good enough. That kind of stuff.)
Throw it away. Trust me.
See what happens when you stop hoarding sorrow.
Don't be a museum to grief.
All love,
Liz
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SOAT at the hair salon…I LOVE this photo!
SOAT at the hair salon…I LOVE this photo!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Two women + hair salon + both reading the same epic novel = Instant friendship
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