tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post6342355274169414403..comments2023-10-01T05:32:19.823-04:00Comments on The Mind's Language: Reflections: Eat Pray LoveNeerajahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07813033087957007755noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-51800371252452002112011-01-12T09:42:47.578-05:002011-01-12T09:42:47.578-05:00Sumi, thanks for sharing your views! Haha, POtato,...Sumi, thanks for sharing your views! Haha, POtato, poTAto... review vs. reflection, I guess ;) Sometimes no words can convey subtlety in semantics!<br /><br />I guess I didn't register the beautiful descriptions of Bali after the first chapter on it. Even the mysticism part with the medicine man seemed to fizzle out abruptly and the bulk of the chapters on Bali were focused on her love affair and her friendship with the Balinese woman. I just found it silly that she would every now and then feel "guilty" and then meditate for sometime and then call it her balance between pleasure and spirituality. To me, it seemed like she was compartmentalizing things in her life, when really, the goal is to embrace and balance all of it at every phase of life. <br /><br />But I agree with you that she did a good job of triggering that instinct of exploration and in bringing the idea of "spirituality" a little closer to people in the western world. I did find it an interesting read, despite the quibbles towards the end of the book :)Neerajahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07813033087957007755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-1740916667063043692011-01-11T18:19:16.848-05:002011-01-11T18:19:16.848-05:00It was interesting to read your reflections on the...It was interesting to read your reflections on the book (I just typed 'review' and backspaced it out to change it to 'reflections') :-)<br /><br />Very interesting because I had a completely different take on it. For e.g., I never thought her experience of pleasure in Bali was only carnal... I didn't give that bit a whole lot of thought, honestly. I assumed that the pleasure had to do with being in a beautiful place. And then of course she was trying to find a balance between pleasure and 'spirituality' as she called it, but to me it seemed more like mysticism than spirituality.<br /><br />She triggered my instinct to explore, both within and without. That said, I never thought of whether she "really" did discover each aspect she set out to explore completely, and I really don't feel an inclination to do it... to me the book was just "sharing", more than following through on set expectations (of herself or the readers)... <br /><br />I agree with your comment about the book ending like an episode in the Sex and the City. Haha! That's what bored me towards the end. The moment the love track started, it felt like a Hollywood movie, and that's the main reason I decided not to watch the movie. :-)SUMIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15819524844711267989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-40164295665573459442010-04-14T16:51:05.149-04:002010-04-14T16:51:05.149-04:00I agree that writing a memoir requires a lot of co...I agree that writing a memoir requires a lot of courage, but does the fact that the writer is courageous give them license to expect greater sensitivity from us? The scale of learning/ life-changing experiences is not an absolute- Some people learn from a few bad dates, others go through multiple messy divorces to reach the same wisdom. I don't think its fair to gauge the depth of a person's understanding by the intensity of their learning experience, simply because we measure that intensity on our own scales, whereas the depth of the understanding is an absolute(And I'll explain that with a personal example in private ;)). I admire the candor and the courage in the book, I just don't think (subtle) 'objectives' of her search are commensurate with the conclusions of the book :)SecondSighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08197882820971051607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-17058543391475928082010-04-14T12:56:22.418-04:002010-04-14T12:56:22.418-04:00I have all the more come to realize that writing a...I have all the more come to realize that writing a memoir requires a lot of courage, for the author puts out his/her life to be judged and criticized and it's tricky to be sensitive to that issue while voicing our opinions on the author's thoughts and views :)<br /><br />I did have the same doubts on her spiritual experiences - whether they were hallucinations. But since such an experience is already beyond scientific proof I'm not dwelling on it much. She seemed to gain insight from the experiences (as voiced in many parts of the book), so that puts me at ease. <br /><br />But more than anything else, I'm disappointed that the book ended like a "Sex and the City" episode/movie, however much I'm trying to refrain from soiling her life-altering experiences which she was candid and brave enough to share...Neerajahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05771903291361206507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30224618.post-8685429174114916822010-04-14T10:59:10.549-04:002010-04-14T10:59:10.549-04:00Being much more vehement in my opinions of the boo...Being much more vehement in my opinions of the book.. it seemed to me just an attempt at self-discovery with no follow-through whatsoever.<br />The writing is entertaining, she has a decent sense of humor, but her attitude seemed more to mark things off on a checklist (Eaten in Italy, meditated in India) than to follow through on each 'purpose' to its fullest, more with the pray and love parts than with the eat, obviously :). She never really seems to get over her need for a romantic partner at any point in the book. I'm not sure what to make of her spiritual experiences, given that such experiences can some times be quite hard to distinguish from physiological phenomena.SecondSighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08197882820971051607noreply@blogger.com