Paulo Coelho

Not long ago, I was asked why I have an aversion to Paulo Coelho… Well, it’s not something as simple as to explain.

They say “The eyes are the window to the soul”. A very true phrase to which I would add that “and words are the door and the welcome mat.”

The truth is that through words we can learn more about a person’s personality than by conversing with them face to face. In writings, even if they are crude, we can see their fears, their anxieties, and even the humor they had at the time of writing, not only by what they write, but also by the way they write, the words they use, the punctuation… In short, we can really know the soul of a person through their writings.

What’s going on with Paulo Coelho?

Well, in his writings there is a sense of superiority and excessive ego, in the end, they show thoughts and attitudes that make one believe that when he wrote, something like “The poor innocents are lost, and I am their savior, their guide, their path… without me they are lost” passed through his mind.

Ego, narcissism, and a clear habit of looking at people as inferior beings. However, that’s not all. There are people who act that way that aren’t so annoying to me, since they are so obvious that sometimes it’s funny to see them climb two steps just to seem taller than others. But Paulo Coelho doesn’t display that vanity; instead, he covers his contemptuous attitude with an aura of compassion.

Let’s say we see an old man on the street and someone comments: “That man smells, remove him from there.” Obviously, that person and their contemptuous attitude disgust me, and more than one of you will reproach their comments. Now imagine another person says: “Poor man who hasn’t been as fortunate as me, I feel pity and sympathy for him who was born unfortunate.” At this point, it also disgusts me, since it’s the same sense of superiority as the first individual, but it’s covered with so much pomp and rhetoric that it’s impossible to reproach him, you can’t tell him not to consider all people equal, and more than one will applaud his comment that degrades both the old man and those who hear the comment.

That’s the reason for my aversion to his books and to his person. Am I wrong? Very likely, but there are some people whose company I don’t enjoy.