# Eat, Pray, Love: Wretch, Stay Away, Long **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016 "2010-08-22T00:01:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/41 "2010-08-24T01:20:15Z")
Well, how noble that the narcissistic cunt who dumped her loving, decent husband for no reason (except, apparently, to go fuck some other, younger dickwad who she also dumped for no reason) didn’t say anything bad about him. What a fucking saint. **Ferret Herder’s** link is right on a target. If a man had done all this shit, women would be hissing at him. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/42 "2010-08-24T03:49:01Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I liked the perspective on the book that [no one would have found it heartwarming if a man wrote it](http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-books/one_mans_odyssey_into_eat_pray_love_20080211/). That’s \*\*\*\*ing hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/43 "2010-08-24T04:57:18Z")
I have neither seen this movie nor read this book, and I strongly suspect my own intestines would jump out of my body and strangle me to death if I tried to do either. And yet I admit that I’m oddly fascinated by the whole phenomenon and I’d like to understand it. From those who saw or read it, and particularly from those who enjoyed it: is it possible to sum up the lessons that Gilbert learned or the insights she gained during her travels? This was supposedly a journey of self-discovery; what did she discover, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/44 "2010-08-24T05:36:07Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Well, how noble that the narcissistic cunt who dumped her loving, decent husband for no reason (except, apparently, to go fuck some other, younger dickwad who she also dumped for no reason) didn’t say anything bad about him. What a fucking saint. > > **Ferret Herder’s** link is right on a target. If a man had done all this shit, women would be hissing at him. _gasp_ You said the C-word!!! ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/45 "2010-08-24T09:20:24Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Well, how noble that the narcissistic cunt who dumped her loving, decent husband for no reason (except, apparently, to go fuck some other, younger dickwad who she also dumped for no reason) didn’t say anything bad about him. What a fucking saint. > > **Ferret Herder’s** link is right on a target. If a man had done all this shit, women would be hissing at him. Who said she was a saint? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/46 "2010-08-24T12:09:29Z")
Every time I see Julie Roberts, I have an irrational impulse to slap the shit out of her. So I won’t be seeing this film anyway. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/47 "2010-08-24T12:11:43Z")
I also feel I have to step in and defend the author a little bit. I just finished the book last night so it’s all fresh in my mind. I don’t know what people thought she should have done…stay with a husband she no longer loved? Go ahead and have kids even though she didn’t want them? That would have been a better choice? And she fully accepted all blame for the divorce–she apologized over and over and was willing to give her husband anything and everything they had built together during their marriage. As someone said upthread, it was only until he started demanding a share in her \*future \*earnings that she said no. And she didn’t leave her husband for a younger man. She just happened to fall in love with him while the divorce was still in the works. And she didn’t leave him for no reason, either. But it’s complicated like all relationships are–she was too needy, and the needier she got the more distant he became, etc. Much of what I liked about the book was how self-deprecating she was. I don’t get this mindset that if you have money, family, etc., if you have a good life, you’re not allowed to get depressed or have a crisis of identity. Depression happens to everyone, and if a painful, drawn-out divorce wouldn’t set it off I don’t know what would. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/48 "2010-08-30T13:35:41Z")
I saw this movie last night because I adored the book. I left the theater with maybe half an hour left in the film. It just doesn’t translate well into movie format. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/49 "2010-08-30T14:09:48Z")
> [@PeskiPiksi](#): > > I don’t know what people thought she should have done…stay with a husband she no longer loved? Yes. Love is an act of will and intention, not emotion… if you are married to a decent person and don’t love them, it’s your own damn fault. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/50 "2010-08-31T17:15:39Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > But… but, it was Eastern Philosophies. That means it was more Spiritual and meaningful than Western thought. Ah yes, I forgot about that! I haven’t seen the movie because this thread pretty much says what I was thinking, although far more hilariously. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/51 "2010-09-01T10:46:29Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It’s really a despicable movie. Beyond just being a trite and vacuous chick flick, it promotes a loathesome kind of self-centered woo woo, morally bankrupt, fake spirituality. > > Following an asinine, woo woo introductory scene with some dipshit, cliched, magical movie guru, a spoiled, rich, narcissistic cunt abruptly dumps her loving, decent husband for absolutely no reason (following another woo woo scene that’s just too obnoxious to describe), then has a brief affair with James Franco before dumping him for no reason as well. > > She goes to Italy to pretend her anorexic ass enjoys eating food for a while, then goes to India to learn more superficial woo and pretend to meditate in a fashionable ashram for superficial, self-absorbed mediatation tourists like Julia Roberts. This is where the most despcicable subplot of the movie occurs involving a girl being forced into a fake marriage, which the Roberts character encourages and tells the girl basically to stop whining about it. Then she has the nerve to tell this girl after her wedding that her “gift” to her was that she “channeled her love” at the couple during the ceremony. If there’s any greater possible example of Oprahfied, self-absorbed, narcissistc, self-gratififying, ethiically vacuous, woo woo dogshit, I don’t know what it is. > > Then she goes off to Bali (because she resolves all her spiritual problems after about two weeks at the ashram, and it all involved “channeling her love” at people), she goes off to Bali to bone Javier Bardem and discover, in true chick flick tradition, that she can’t be complete without a man, but you’ll probably be falling asleep by then. > > All I could think was where the hell was Joran Van der Sloot when you need him? Best Review of the Year. Two Thumbs Up! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/52 "2010-09-01T13:25:56Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Oh, and Phillipe was cast way too young while Liz was cast way too old. Yeah, I know Javier is the hottest thing since toast right now, but I didn’t buy him as “old enough to be her dad” for a moment. All I’ve seen is the trailer (which was enough to leave me thinking “gee, I’m glad I didn’t have lunch yet”), but if Bardem is supposed to look old enough to be Roberts’ dad, someone picked the wrong makeup artist. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/53 "2010-09-01T13:33:21Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > All I’ve seen is the trailer (which was enough to leave me thinking “gee, I’m glad I didn’t have lunch yet”), but if Bardem is supposed to look old enough to be Roberts’ dad, someone picked the wrong makeup artist. Indeed. I just looked it up, and he’s actually 2 years \*younger \*than her. Grr. Sorry, Jules. You’re a gorgeous woman, but you can’t pull off “early 30s” anymore. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/54 "2010-09-01T13:54:57Z")
Movie? I got 20 pages into the book and thought “This character is the most despicable, unlikeable character I have ever read about.” Then I found out it’s actually sort of a true story, and I shiver with fear that I actually share the same atmosphere with a person as awful as Elizabeth Gilbert. I would rather hit myself in the nuts with a hammer than watch the cinematic version of this soul-crushing dreck. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/55 "2010-09-01T14:39:16Z")
You know, I’ve never even for a second considered reading the book or seeing the movie - but this thread is entertaining the shit outta me. Carry on! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/56 "2010-09-01T16:35:35Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > You know, I’ve never even for a second considered reading the book or seeing the movie - but this thread is entertaining the shit outta me. Carry on! 😃 Right on. Here, we get all the good stuff without having to wade through the stinking book or sit through the godawful movie. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/57 "2010-09-01T17:04:44Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#): > > Wow. That explains why everyone who seemed to like this book also enjoyed _The Secret_. They’re constantly channeling love and energy, sucking up bad vibes, torpedoing wishes into the universe… Sounds like my last trip to the bathroom. I don’t need a movie about that. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/58 "2010-09-01T22:32:39Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > > [@PeskiPiksi](#): > > > > I don’t know what people thought she should have done…stay with a husband she no longer loved? > > Yes. Love is an act of will and intention, not emotion… if you are married to a decent person and don’t love them, it’s your own damn fault. Hmmm…can’t say I totally disagree with you. I’ve been married for going on eight years and yes, there are days when I although I love my (wonderful) husband, I don’t like him very much. A relationship does take work and good intentions. But it does seem like there comes a point, when you’ve tried therapy, etc., and all the options, that sometimes you just have to say “enough.” Life’s too short to be miserable, and we can’t always control how we feel. And also, you failed to address my other point: what about kids? He wanted them, she didn’t. Sure, she should have known that when she married him, but people do change. Obviously, she shouldn’t have had kids unless she really wanted them. So that’s a pretty big obstacle for a marriage to overcome–either they have kids despite her reluctance (not so good for her or more importantly, the kids,) or they don’t have kids, which makes him unhappy and possibly resentful. It’s a no-win situation. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/59 "2010-09-01T23:10:46Z")
The movie didn’t show any indication that there was anything wrong with the marriage other than she (literally) heard a fucking voice in her empty head telling her to arbitrarily abandon her husband. It came off as completely shallow, flippant, capricious self-absorbtion. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016/60 "2010-09-01T23:32:30Z")
Well, okay…I haven’t seen the movie so I can’t speak to that. I was just talking about the book, where she explains it in a bit more depth, and for what it’s worth, she accepts full blame for what happened. She knew it was a crummy thing to do, but she didn’t feel she had any other options. Did they address the children/no children problem at all in the movie? To me, that’s the most important issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-pray-love-wretch-stay-away-long/551016.md?page=4)