Against Happiness

Kevin Powers recommends a book by Eric Wilson we didn't find very helpful in Happiness 101, a couple of classes back.

NYT: "Do you ever read self-help? Anything you recommend? 

It probably depends on how broad your definition of self-help is. I read a book called “Against Happiness” a few years ago that interrogated our culture’s desire to treat or medicate any negative emotional state out of existence, while at the same time acknowledging the incredible contributions melancholic people have made throughout history."

Fair enough. But the biggest contribution melancholics make is to show us how grateful we should be if we're not ourselves saddled by nature with melancholia. Admittedly, we should also be grateful for the work of sporadically-sad artists like Coleridge and Springsteen and others. Peter Kramer also named names in his Against Depression: Van Gogh, Kierkegaard, Dinesen, Bellow, Updike... But he also deplored the presumption of praising or justifying anyone else's sadness.

I don't imagine Wilson is too happy about that old jacket blurb from Colin McGinn, btw.

Kevin Powers - By the Book - NYTimes.com