5 votes

The story of Caroline Calloway and her ghostwriter Natalie

2 comments

  1. Deimos
    (edited )
    Link
    I read this article last night and ended up going down a bit of a rabbithole reading about Caroline Calloway afterwards, since I had never even heard of her before this. It's a world I don't pay...

    I read this article last night and ended up going down a bit of a rabbithole reading about Caroline Calloway afterwards, since I had never even heard of her before this. It's a world I don't pay attention to at all, but a pretty fascinating story overall, with all sorts of weird twists and turns. If you're in the same boat and interested in reading more, this article on Buzzfeed News seemed like the best starting point, and linked to plenty of other things: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemcneal/caroline-calloway-the-cut

    Edit: Natalie Beach did an interview with the New York Times yesterday as well: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/style/caroline-calloway-interview-natalie-beach.html

    2 votes
  2. Grzmot
    Link
    Her professor was right, she's an incredibly sharp writer. The article itself is fascinating, and shows how complex people and their problems really can become. I wouldn't position Calloway as...

    Her professor was right, she's an incredibly sharp writer.

    The article itself is fascinating, and shows how complex people and their problems really can become. I wouldn't position Calloway as evil or exploitative per se, and neither does Natalie, but rather that Calloway was fighting some mental problems herself and Natalie merely face the brunt of it because they spent the most time together. It's not normal to order furniture for six thousand USD in one night while refusing to sleep or severly lack personal hygiene that you have to be forced to shower after wearing the same outfit for several days. Can that be even classified as any mental disorder? Is it depression and Calloway is just trying to hide it with a pompous lifestyle and trying to show everyone how fun and adventureous she is? She definitely seems to lack empathy in the way that she can't imagine being in any other position rather then her own.

    I think the story is so fascinating because other than being a very interesting tale of life, ultimately you can't really put the blame on any single person (except that one middle-aged dude in the beginning). Caroline seems to genuinly care until she suddenly doesn't and Natalie stuck around because she so badly wanted to be like Caroline, probably like most of her followers. I don't think the entire thing was a farce from Caroline's side, and yet she has a peculiar thing for leaving everyone behind because she wants to be in the limelight so badly. Based on the article, she can't really write, but refused to let her ghostwriter do her job. Like Natalie said, if she was only after fame and money, she should've just let her do her job. So Caroline is after something else, and I think she's trying to run from some of her own problems.

    1 vote