Gloucester, surrounded by caissons.

[hirez]

Out of what I believe to be a sense of devilment and the absurd, that rotter jarkman lent me Alain De Botton's 'The pleasures and sorrows of work.'

It's excellent and uncomfortable reading.

I'd sort of half-wondered for quite some time why yer man De Botton was in receipt of such regular shoeings from, well, the entirety of Trad Meejah and a good wedge of the broadsheet-bothering 'speak you're branes' that is the alleged 'blogosphere'.

It's because he asks apparently innocent questions that make you stop and confront the futility of your life. Obviously, the people with vested interests in selling you opinions clothed as fact (See also the Julian Assange interview in the Manchester Guardian. Unfortunately for the paper, they sent a journalist rather than someone who knew the score.) and/or selling you things to stop you thinking, which are more or less the same thing, are terrified of anyone who might cause an outbreak of Thought.

I quote (i): 'I left Symon's company newly aware of the unthinking cruelty discreetly coiled with in the magnanimous bourgeois assurance that everyone can discover happiness through work and love. It isn't that these two entities are invariably incapable of delivering fulfilment, only that they almost never do so. And when an exception is misrepresented as a rule, our individual misfortunes, instead of seeming to us quasi-inevitable aspects of life, will weigh down on us like particular curses.'

.. and (ii): ' ... presents the observer with a case-study of the discrete charms of offices, with their intriuguing blend of camaraderie, intelligence and futility.'

... and (iii): 'I told Renae that our robots and engines were delivering the lion's share of their benefits at the base of our pyramid of needs, that we were evident experts at swiftly assembling confectionery and yet we were still searching for reliable means of generating emotional stability or marital harmony. Renae had little to add to this analysis. A terrified expression spread across her features and she asked if I might excuse her.'

Which is the ideal sort of advert for the post of Jobbing Philosopher. (All concepts given due consideration while-u-wait. Ask about our loyalty programme.)

(Part of me hopes that Renae escaped the biscuit factory and is now doing something cheerfully strange.)

Comments

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

Have you come across How to Be Idle: a Loafer's Manifesto (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060779683/ref=dp_proddesc_1?ie=UTF8&n=283155)? I can only loaf while procrastinating. Must try harder.

[markeris.livejournal.com]

I`ve only read Status Anxeity so far but found it to be the perfect Guardian Saturday Supplement to Oliver James. I`ve since become aware, through chats with people in the unlikeliest places that De Botton is not considered all that. Fuck them. I look forward to reading more of his work.

My favourite work related example of the above distilled into an actual anecdote is when my on/off boss / colleague (he kept getting moved upwards or sideways and I would without fail be the go to guy to fill his boots which created an unusual dynamic in the end) was when he was told by "the senior partners" (1) that it was his job to manage people, not be their friends. And he just looked them in the eye and asked what on earth was so badly broken inside them that they genuinely regarded those two things as mutually exclusive.


(1) yes, that IS an Angel reference.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Not a huge fan of De Botton. He seems to be only one step away from writing apocalyptic skiffy. Apocalyptic zombie skiffy, filled with looooong words. If you take everything he says at face value then you're not going to change your life, just be further prone to drowning in the outfall, and he offers no alternative.

Gloucester, surrounded by caissons.

[cybermule.livejournal.com]

I quite like him - I've read the Art of Travel and the one that he wrote in Heathrow airport, which I liked slightly less. I'm not much interested in philosophy though, so I'm probably exactly the type of person "proper" people berate him for attracting :)