The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy by Michael Foley | Book review | Books | The Observer
Interesting book and good review - amongst other things it quotes Flaubert who believed that 'Selfishness, good health and stupidity are prerequisites for happiness'
The author condemns modern life styles:
'sales of oranges are falling steadily because people can no longer be bothered to peel them. .....Now I peel an orange very slowly deliberately, voluptously, above all defiantly, as a response to an age that demands war without casulties, public services without taxes, rights without obligations, celebrity without achievement, sex without relationships, running shoes without running, course work without work and sweet grapes without seeds.'
His solution seems to be 'Read authentic writers and then begin a new job in your current post, enjoy a holiday where you actually live and most thrillingly plunge into a tumultouous affair with your own spouse.
Good advice?
The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy by Michael Foley | Book review | Books | The Observer
The author condemns modern life styles:
'sales of oranges are falling steadily because people can no longer be bothered to peel them. .....Now I peel an orange very slowly deliberately, voluptously, above all defiantly, as a response to an age that demands war without casulties, public services without taxes, rights without obligations, celebrity without achievement, sex without relationships, running shoes without running, course work without work and sweet grapes without seeds.'
His solution seems to be 'Read authentic writers and then begin a new job in your current post, enjoy a holiday where you actually live and most thrillingly plunge into a tumultouous affair with your own spouse.
Good advice?
The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy by Michael Foley | Book review | Books | The Observer
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