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by: Eric G. Wilson  List Price: $20.00 Amazon.com's Price: $11.64 You Save: $8.36 (42%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 152.4 EAN: 9780374240660 ISBN: 0374240663 Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 176 Publication Date: January 22, 2008 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Release Date: January 22, 2008 Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: Americans are addicted to happiness. When we’re not popping pills, we leaf through scientific studies that take for granted our quest for happiness, or read self-help books by everyone from armchair philosophers and clinical psychologists to the Dalai Lama on how to achieve a trouble-free life: Stumbling on Happiness; Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment; The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living. The titles themselves draw a stark portrait of the war on melancholy. More than any other generation, Americans of today believe in the transformative power of positive thinking. But who says we’re supposed to be happy? Where does it say that in the Bible, or in the Constitution? In Against Happiness, the scholar Eric G. Wilson argues that melancholia is necessary to any thriving culture, that it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation—and that it is the force underlying original insights. Francisco Goya, Emily Dickinson, Marcel Proust, and Abraham Lincoln were all confirmed melancholics. So enough Prozac-ing of our brains. Let’s embrace our depressive sides as the wellspring of creativity. What most people take for contentment, Wilson argues, is living death, and what the majority takes for depression is a vital force. In Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, Wilson suggests it would be better to relish the blues that make humans people. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Strangely... Happiest Book Ever!This book took me by total surprise. Yes it talks about the value of melancholy. Yes it makes you think about all the darkness that exists. It talks about death... but in a really nice way. It kinda makes you happy. It's about taking life as it is... appreciating the dark and gothic... loving the beautiful mess that is life. I highly recommend this book. It's a quick read that you'll want to go through again and again. Rating:  - Kindred spiritAlthough it could have been halved, making it an excellent essay rather than a pretty good book, all I could think was, "Thank God, somebody finally gets me!" ;-) Rating:  - Existential Ruminations, Or, The Ironic LifeIt is really unfortunate that the Washington Post review is so prominent on the Amazon page. To be fair, it is a well-written review: it is precise and supported with the sort of concrete examples that demonstrate a close reading. On the other hand, it is so vituperative that one wonders why the reviewer even bothered; it almost seems suspicious. I picked up the book despite the pause that the Post review gave me, and I am glad I did. This short book is, overall, a treat. Part manifesto, ... Read More Rating: - Happiness is a bust!It's a bit of a dry read, but the overall comfort and joy of knowing I'm OK and not alone in my inability to ever truly reach an extended period of happiness is worth it. Rating: - Interesting in parts, but misses the elephant in the roomThis book attempts to tackle an interesting and important subject, but ultimately it's a somewhat difficult read unless you are an English/History/Philosophy Major. The book appears to wander around for a while, eventually settling on the notion that it's ok to be `melancholoy', because that state of mind is a requirement of creative genius. As I see it, the real 'happiness crisis' in the US and Europe today is that we are bringing up a whole generation of children who think that there's something ... Read More 
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