[venusss]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paulin..._b_862442.html

I was not sure if to post this here. I will probably cause some uproar. First i have to say I do not like Paulina. For somebody who talks so much about bullied as immigrant kid in Sweden she was been pretty vicious to girls on America's Top Model... including comment about "weird Eastern European tackiness" (really Paulina? Check your DNA).

There are so many things that are wrong with this article? Going on pills for getting kicked off Dancing with Stars? Really, Paulina? Are you sure you are that tough refugee kid from the Bloc? (as judgemental it may sound, here in Bloc we don't cry over minor things). But aren't we somehow fed the solution? Life should be happy, we are entitled to the happiness (ignore what Buddhist said about suffering. Ignore that American Founding Fathers spoke of pursuit of happiness, not easy effortless happiness. Ignore the fact that usually hard work feels most rewarding). I am not saying everybody thinks along these lines, but it is something we are fed from the media (may it be Pharma or those paper back philosophies, Happiness in Two Days, Chicken Soup for Effed up Soul)... and it is definitelly a "school of thought" these days.

But it is interesting how she describes she became a Stepford wife and did not argue with friends no more... maybe that is some of our problem. I clash with people... it was when I learned to recognized when is it worth to clash and when one should let go (not saying I got it figured out, but I am better then the younger version of me for sure), I found more peace and *gasp* happiness in my life.

Person who does not clash with others is definitelly more lovable (but they may be found to be too boring to have any deeper relationship with them...). But is it worth it?

so yeah, just read article... and feel free to argue with me. I might argue back though

[SophiaG]

I think a lot of people don't even know what happiness is.

Also, what might not upset one person will upset another. We have different ways of reacting to things. I don't judge her for her drug issues.

[di meliora]

I think the article is excellent.

[roads]

Porizkova has never particularly interested me, so I knew/remembered little about her. For someone bringing no outside knowledge to the article, it reads as a typical first-person essay. She has tried, however, to give it the patina of truth.
The "tricks" of the writer's trade jump out. Of course, without those tricks a lot would go unwritten. I think, though, that most people would see--if they read the article more than once--where the subjectivity is overwhelming the content. For example, to develop sympathy for her character, she tells the anecdote of being "kicked off" Dancing with the Stars and likens it to being the least-popular kid in her school. Who can't identify somewhat with that? Very few. She neglects to consider the possibility that the Stars departure might have had some relation to her being the worst "dancer" on the stage.
Subtle, yet clearly bending the facts with her own interpretation.
But what bothered me most about the article was that it offered nothing new. It's the same old story that's been reprised thousands of times since The Valley of the Dolls. Her only twist is her character, a woman at once naive enough to fall into the trap yet clever enough to diagnose her own problem and treat herself. For a character to accomplish this much growth would take a novel. In an essay, the character's only two-dimensional. Believe it--if you want to.

[kindachaotic]

Porizkova just goes on & on a bit too much for me.

She can take a pill or fight the good fight... her business.

I agree with Venus & Roadrunner.

Also think she should spend even an afternoon here reading about what we deal with.

That's my two cents.