Perpetual Euphoria: On the Duty to Be Happy - Hardcover

Bruckner, Pascal

 
9780691143736: Perpetual Euphoria: On the Duty to Be Happy
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0691143730 ISBN 13: 9780691143736
Verlag: Princeton University Press, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

How happiness became mandatory-and why we should reject the demand to "be happy"

Happiness today is not just a possibility or an option but a requirement and a duty. To fail to be happy is to fail utterly. Happiness has become a religion-one whose smiley-faced god looks down in rebuke upon everyone who hasn't yet attained the blessed state of perpetual euphoria. How has a liberating principle of the Enlightenment-the right to pursue happiness-become the unavoidable and burdensome responsibility to be happy? How did we become unhappy about not being happy-and what might we do to escape this predicament? In Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner takes up these questions with all his unconventional wit, force, and brilliance, arguing that we might be happier if we simply abandoned our mad pursuit of happiness.

Gripped by the twin illusions that we are responsible for being happy or unhappy and that happiness can be produced by effort, many of us are now martyring ourselves-sacrificing our time, fortunes, health, and peace of mind-in the hope of entering an earthly paradise. Much better, Bruckner argues, would be to accept that happiness is an unbidden and fragile gift that arrives only by grace and luck.

A stimulating and entertaining meditation on the unhappiness at the heart of the modern cult of happiness, Perpetual Euphoria is a book for everyone who has ever bristled at the command to "be happy."

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Pascal Bruckner is the award-winning author of many books of fiction and nonfiction, including the novel "Bitter Moon", which was made into a film by Roman Polanski. Bruckner's nonfiction books include "The Tyranny of Guilt" (Princeton), "The Temptation of Innocence", and "The Tears of the White Man" (Free Press).

Von der hinteren Coverseite

"Pascal Bruckner, the anti-Pangloss of our time, engagingly reminds us that it is better to lead a rich life with tears than a happy one lacking meaning."--Alan Wolfe, author of The Future of Liberalism

"Pascal Bruckner might well be the most distinguished essay writer in France today. He is both inordinately talented and prodigiously politically incorrect. No one better unmasks the pieties of the reigning intellectual cant. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, he does the life of the mind an invaluable service."--Richard Wolin, author of The Wind from the East

Aus dem Klappentext

"Pascal Bruckner, the anti-Pangloss of our time, engagingly reminds us that it is better to lead a rich life with tears than a happy one lacking meaning."--Alan Wolfe, author ofThe Future of Liberalism

"Pascal Bruckner might well be the most distinguished essay writer in France today. He is both inordinately talented and prodigiously politically incorrect. No one better unmasks the pieties of the reigning intellectual cant. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, he does the life of the mind an invaluable service."--Richard Wolin, author ofThe Wind from the East

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Verlag
Princeton University Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2011
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0691143730
ISBN 13 
9780691143736
Einband
Tapa dura
Anzahl der Seiten
258
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0691204039 ISBN 13:  9780691204031
Verlag: Princeton University Press, 2020
Softcover