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Perpetual Euphoria : On the Duty to Be Happy / Pascal Bruckner.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2011]Copyright date: ©2011Edition: Course BookDescription: 1 online resource (256 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691143736
  • 9781400835973
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 170 23
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction. Invisible Penitence -- Part I. Paradise Is Where I Am -- Chapter one. Life as a Dream and a Lie -- Chapter two. The Golden Age and After? -- Chapter 3. The Disciplines of Beatitude -- Part II. The Kingdom of the Lukewarm, or The Invention of Banality -- Chapter four. The Bittersweet Saga of Dullness -- Chapter five. The Extremists of Routine -- Chapter six. Real Life Is Not Absent -- Part III. The Bourgeoisie, or The Abjection of Well-Being -- Chapter seven. The Fat, Prosperous Elevation of the Average, the Mediocre" -- Chapter eight. What Is Happiness for Some Is Kitsch for Others -- Chapter nine. If Money Doesn't Make You Happy, Give It Back! -- Part IV. Unhappiness Outlawed? -- Chapter ten. The Crime of Suffering -- Chapter eleven. Impossible Wisdom -- Conclusion. Madame Verdurin's Croissant -- Index
Summary: 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."
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400835973

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction. Invisible Penitence -- Part I. Paradise Is Where I Am -- Chapter one. Life as a Dream and a Lie -- Chapter two. The Golden Age and After? -- Chapter 3. The Disciplines of Beatitude -- Part II. The Kingdom of the Lukewarm, or The Invention of Banality -- Chapter four. The Bittersweet Saga of Dullness -- Chapter five. The Extremists of Routine -- Chapter six. Real Life Is Not Absent -- Part III. The Bourgeoisie, or The Abjection of Well-Being -- Chapter seven. The Fat, Prosperous Elevation of the Average, the Mediocre" -- Chapter eight. What Is Happiness for Some Is Kitsch for Others -- Chapter nine. If Money Doesn't Make You Happy, Give It Back! -- Part IV. Unhappiness Outlawed? -- Chapter ten. The Crime of Suffering -- Chapter eleven. Impossible Wisdom -- Conclusion. Madame Verdurin's Croissant -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

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."

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)