Last year over the summer, I read the memoir Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. In it, Mortenson explains how a failed climb up the mountain K2 resulted in a chance encounter with an impoverished, uneducated village in Pakistan. This encounter, he says, inspired Mortenson to dedicate his life to philanthropic works centered around building schools for this village, and others like it. I enjoyed the book when I read it, and was inspired by the optimism and selflessness evident in the story.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I read an article claiming that Mortenson’s story may be at least partially fabricated. My initial reaction was one of disappointment. The fact that Mortenson may have (lied or at the very least exaggerated) much of Three Cups of Tea completely ruined the book for me. I felt like Oprah, who recommended James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, only to find out that it was largely made up, and not based on Frey’s life as he had claimed. The people who had been inspired by the story of addiction and redemption in the book rejected it, along with Frey. Now, with Greg Mortenson coming under fire in much the same fashion, Three Cups of Tea risks seeing the same fate. Will Mortenson be able to prove that the book is factual?
More importantly, does it really matter if Mortenson exaggerated? Does all of the inspiration people got from his book vanish just because parts of the book are less than accurate? I don’t think so, especially in Mortenson’s case. Though the genesis of his philanthropic spirit might have been fudged, the very real changes he has helped to bring about cannot be denied. Even if the allegations against Mortenson turn out to be true, I’m not going to let that ruin what was, for me, a very good book.
Great post Brandoni! I definitely agree with you that you shouldn't let the fabrications get in the way of what you get out of the book. But the problem is that Mortenson is a real person who not only may have fabricated his story, but allegedly is misusing some of the money that should be going to the schools that his charity built. It's hard to look past something like that and not let its affect your opinion of Mortenson.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Alli! The article that I based this post on focused on the potential inaccuracies in Mortenson's book, and didn't mention any controversy surrounding his charity. My point was that, as long as his charity was doing good works, it doesn't really matter if the book is exaggerated or not. If the allegations about some fraudulent aspects of his charity are true, though, that's another story. All of this is an unnecessarily long way of saying that I completely agree with you.
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