Eat, Pray ... Boycott? Elizabeth Gilbert's withdrawn novel is a valid act of cultural resistance

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Elizabeth Gilbert, the celebrated author of Eat, Pray, Love, has cancelled her latest novel, The Snow Forest.

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The ConversationThe Conversation
URL: 
https://theconversation.com/eat-pray-boycott-elizabeth-gilberts-withdrawn-novel-is-a-valid-act-of-cultural-resistance-208029https://theconversation.com/eat-pray-boycott-elizabeth-gilberts-withdrawn-novel-is-a-valid-act-of-cultural-resistance-208029
Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
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Tags: 
People, PEN America, Love, Singing, Solidarity, Industry, The Singing Revolution, Poetry, Seed, Baltic states, Speech, Culture, Goodreads, Kremlin, Fear, Humour, Flower, Snow, Language, Singing Revolution, Creativity, Pain, Bullying, Otpor, QR, Taiga, Museum, Secrecy, Empathy, News, Social media, Entertainment, Book, Whaling, Tourism, Arms industry, Drug
Geotags: 
LITHUANIA, GILBERT, CHINA, LATVIA, SIBERIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, SERBIA
Summary
Key Points: 
  • Elizabeth Gilbert, the celebrated author of Eat, Pray, Love, has cancelled her latest novel, The Snow Forest.
  • Planned for publication in February 2024, there is now no release date.
  • Others argue that writing a work of historical fiction that humanises Russian people does not amount to taking sides in a war.

Non-violent resistance

    • The struggle against South African apartheid was largely won not by violent resistance, but through international campaigns that isolated the regime.
    • The sports boycotts, in particular, caused social and psychological pain and eroded the ideological foundation of the apartheid system.
    • Czechoslovakian resistance to Soviet occupation in 1968 involved leaflets in Russian, German and Polish explaining to the occupiers that they were in the wrong.
    • Secret radio stations broadcast advice and resistance news.
    • Civilian resistance has been an official part of Lithuania’s defence strategy ever since.

The battleground of culture

    • “Fiction and culture are essential to supporting mutual understanding and unleashing empathy,” she argues: “literature and creativity must not become a casualty of war.” However, Nossel also admits culture is not just caught in the crossfire; it is itself a battleground.
    • The war in Ukraine is being waged through “propaganda, intimidation, false narratives, and a campaign of cultural annihilation”.
    • Culture, says Nossel, must be mobilised as a “wellspring of defence”.
    • Since the invasion of Ukraine, creatives there have protected galleries, museums and collections.
    • They have used writing, dance, fashion, film, painting and poetry to assert their national identity and desire for peace.
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