Against Happiness

[Natália Maranca]

Which reminds me of this movie <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147612/>.

On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Wilson, Erik G.  Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy.
>   New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
>
> 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. It's time to throw off
> the shackles.
>
> http://www.fsgbooks.com/fsg/01_happiness.html
>
> Introduction
>
>
> http://www.holtzbrinckpublishers.com/FSG/Book/BookDisplayExerpt.asp?BookKey=6432832
>
> Arguing the Upside of Being Down
>
> All Things Considered, February 11, 2008 · Author Eric G. Wilson has
> come to realize he was born to the blues, and he has made peace with
> his melancholy state.
>
> But it took some time, as he writes in his new book, a polemic titled
> Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy....
>
> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18885211
>
>
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