The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 26 November 2014
by Eric G. Wilson
Are you happy? Statistics from polls of Americans suggest that you, most likely, will say that you are happy. Americans are a happy bunch. We suppose this to be the case because we are so well entertained. We're well fed, wealthy, and have, by and large, incredible freedom of movement and at least some opportunity. We are the home, after all, of Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth. But we can put it another way, too. Do you feel connected? Do you feel an engagement with the basic nature of existence, with the duality of life and death, at least a little in touch with the mysteries of the universe? No? Are you inexplicably sad, melancholy, or depressed? Do you think you maybe should be on some kind of mood-altering medication? Here, then, is the core argument of this book. True joy, true connectedness with life, these entail sadness, melancholy, romantic irony, and an intense attention to the tragedies as well as the pleasures. Eric Wilson, who studies literature from a psychological angle, asserts that the core of creativity and connectedness is melancholy. He doesn't speak of a Gothic depression, indulgence in gloominess. He speaks rather of a sense of the duality and tragedy of existence that enriches our awareness of joy. He goes on to assert that this is also the core of creativity. He offers, of course, no shortage of examples of great works of art created by troubled sad artists. By why not be happy, just enjoy the good things life has to offer and stay as far away as possible from the bad things (i.e. don't let us think about mortality)? Because, Wilson argues, in the long sharp screed that opens this book, that sort of life is hollow, utterly empty of any basic understanding of our place in the universe, and, as a result, utterly unaware of the origins of true joy. Indeed, American "happy types" are his primary target, those people for whom life is but a journey from one postcard moment to another. (Though, this reader does wonder where -- in his portrait of an America intoxicated by dreams of happiness -- where does he fit the mania also for political anger, animosity, and downright hatred we find in our public discourse? (Here he makes an argument that our political polarity is flight to certainty and away from melancholy ambiguity and recognition of the duality of life.) And what about our love for urban ruins? Surely, there is a melancholy streak in such adoration of decay.) While this little book opens on a polemical note, a cranky complaint against American vacuity, Wilson goes on to make a convincing philosophical and psychological argument in favor of melancholy, romantic irony and sadness. All of these, he argues, with many literary references, are the real path to a connected joy in this life, and the seeds of creativity. So, are you happy?