Art and Culture # 106: Elizabeth Gilbert Eats, Pray, and Kneels to Cancel Culture
Elizabeth Gilbert, famously known for Eat, Pray, Love, (2006) in her infinite wisdom, sarcastically speaking, in response to the overwhelming negative criticism coming from her goodreads account. Her 2024 release of Snow Forest, a novel concerning Russia is the central setting and early 1930’s period, where a Russian family is rising up against Communist Russia, stopped her novel’s publication because it offended her Ukrainian readers.
For those wondering what Snow Forest deserved such a public self cancellation method, according to Pirate Wire’s Kat Rosenfield’s Free Press Substack page, PEN America’s Suzanne Nossel released a statement calling Gilbert’s decision “regrettable,” saying, “literature and creativity must not become a casualty of war.” And fellow writers were no less dismayed: as acts of moral grandstanding go, this one had disturbing repercussions. Elizabeth Gilbert, whose net worth is estimated upward of $20 million, might not have thought much about the financial hit she would take by cancelling her book, but for most writers, this sets a precedent that is not just economically ruinous but completely untenable in the glacially paced world of publishing.”[1]
What is generally concerning is the gift of self cancellation, if done right, offers no repercussions from the major publishers, but to the audience, it’s economic and creative suicide to self cancel a book, just because of Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But this does pose a terrible question. Why sacrifice your novel just because one nation or a cancel culture mob wants you to?
It forces the writer into a cuck position, being fucked repeatedly, as this won’t be the last time Elizabeth Gilbert will have to apologize or make further accomodations for invisible readers that don’t care about art or creativity.
While I’m rather late to this story, I am sure of one thing. Elizabeth Gilbert’s career has never seen the highs since Eat Pray Love (2006) or The Devil Wears Prada. CBC.com, in their group chat discussion podcast, calls her self cancellation “a sense of gratitude toward Elizabeth Gilbert, and um, this before she explained what the book was about,” to which she and her daughter said, “that’s a bit weird.”[2]
It’s amazing to see that the media, which created cancel culture, is trying to remove themselves from the situation, as to when it happens to their favorite authors, and to smaller writers, would call them bigots and Nazi’s.
So, they can spare me their mock outrage. They revel in cancel culture until it happens to their favorites. But this is the same media who went radio silent about Salman Rushdie, too, after his 2023 stabbing in New York, fell to deaf ears.
But the very wise and thoughtful Francine Prose, in her “Elizabeth Gilbert is pulling a novel set in Russia from Publication. That’s unsettling” op-ed June 15th, 2023 article, “writing a novel set in a country waging a monstrous imperial war is simply not the same as condoning that war. Of course it would be quite different had Gilbert written a work of pro-Putin propaganda, or if she intended the proceeds from her book sales to be channeled into the Russian dictator’s war chest. But that is clearly not the case. Indeed, the book is reportedly about a group of people who resisted Soviet oppression, which, it could be argued, might be seen as encouraging (rather than wounding) those who are engaged in a similar struggle today.”[3]
What is upsetting is Elizabeth Gilbert crucified herself, and for a puppet regime like Ukraine. But art is being sacrificed here, and no amount of public outrage can stop the decision, either. But it’s just another day where all of literature must submit to cancel culture or be exiled from the big six, and never work in the industry again. It’s just another depressing day where art must be turned against the author, and destroyed for the sake of current mores of the present. But wars come and go, and hopefully Gilbert will release it at some point. But that might never happen, sadly.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 21 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline Part 2: Chaos, The Data Chase, The Disintegrating Bloodline part 3: Solvè, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, The God of Curiosity, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One, City of Sand: Book 1: The Holy Terror, and The Voices Are Alive, and The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisBr88881650. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His two newest books, The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited, and The Savior, the Flood, and the Beast: Three Plays are out now: https://www.amazon.com/City-Sand-Book-Jerusalem-Ignited/dp/1365979660/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1G8HAWZP73ZFO&keywords=Louis+Bruno+City+of+Sand+book+2&qid=1675772880&sprefix=louis+bruno+city+of+sand+book+2%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1. https://www.amazon.com/Savior-Flood-Beast-Three-Plays/dp/1088120997/ref=pd_ybh_a_sccl_4/140-0249150-4265358?pd_rd_w=W5fsa&content-id=amzn1.sym.67f8cf21-ade4-4299-b433-69e404eeecf1&pf_rd_p=67f8cf21-ade4-4299-b433-69e404eeecf1&pf_rd_r=2E73RTDRBVPZEY5D77V2&pd_rd_wg=69KGI&pd_rd_r=59d8721c-bf89-4fa7-bd88-7a072004a89f&pd_rd_i=1088120997&psc=1.
[1] https://substack.com/inbox/post/128382329. Found 06.17.2023.
[2] https://www.cbc.ca/arts/commotion/what-elizabeth-gilbert-s-publication-delay-reveals-about-the-ethics-of-writing-fiction-1.6878113. Found 06.17.2023.
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/15/elizabeth-gilbert-the-snow-forest-russia.
It's so odd to me that no one is willing to tell the mob to go to hell when they must know that doing so would be the greatest publicity they could get. "No" is a license to print money at this point.