ZNote
In many ways, James Currie's approach to self-help could be considered "anti-self-help," in that he spends time ruminating on his own existential crises brought about by merely existing in a world that demands we "do something!" Combining history with his job as an academic, as well as the Covid pandemic and his own oscillation between fearing that he's failing as an adult and discussing Lars von Trier's Melancholia, he flirts with the time-consuming and alluring seduction that vanishing from the world provides. He personifies objects, gets deeply anecdotal, and it flows from one thread to another in a jarringly graceful manner. The end result is a book that advocates for a different kind of self-liberation, in which an ideal time of becoming like unto air should be sought, even if only briefly. Whether we succeed at doing so (the inherently perverse playfulness of the phrase "doing something by doing nothing"), it is worth remarking that we are, in essence, slaves to the modern world and chastised when we fail to "do something." Perhaps what Currie said about teenagers is true - that when approached from the right angle, they are aristocracy unto themselves, defiantly doing nothing as their parents yell at them to make something of their lives.
In many ways, James Currie's approach to self-help could be considered "anti-self-help," in that he spends time ruminating on his own existential crises brought about by merely existing in a world that demands we "do something!" Combining history with his job as an academic, as well as the Covid pandemic and his own oscillation between fearing that he's failing as an adult and discussing Lars von Trier's Melancholia, he flirts with the time-consuming and alluring seduction that vanishing from the world provides. He personifies objects, gets deeply anecdotal, and it flows from one thread to another in a jarringly graceful manner. The end result is a book that advocates for a different kind of self-liberation, in which an ideal time of becoming like unto air should be sought, even if only briefly. Whether we succeed at doing so (the inherently perverse playfulness of the phrase "doing something by doing nothing"), it is worth remarking that we are, in essence, slaves to the modern world and chastised when we fail to "do something." Perhaps what Currie said about teenagers is true - that when approached from the right angle, they are aristocracy unto themselves, defiantly doing nothing as their parents yell at them to make something of their lives.