KILL YOUR SELF; A Helpful Essay
Intro
There’s a problem. These self-help books - they’re everywhere. People are reading them. Believing them.
The fact that they’re published in the first place is a problem – that the people we’ve entrusted books to think it’s a good idea to print and sell these. But what is truly scary is that people take the advice they receive from self-help books and apply it to their lives and their worlds – the same world me and you live in and share with these large legged children.
I admittedly am not well read within this genre, but thanks to my mom recently mailing me Randy Pausch’s, The Last Lecture, I have some ideas, mainly that I just won’t take it anymore. The deal with Randy’s book is he was dying from cancer and wanted to leave something for his children and colleagues to remember him by. Now, I realize ripping a guy who was dying and simply loved his family is not the friendliest thing to do, but it must be done.
Positioning
Chapter Five of Randy’s book is, It’s About How To Live Your Life. This is the basically what all self-help books are about. The original assumption is that the author or authors know more than you do about life (Which is simply not true. Maybe the opposite.), and are now going to share this information with you in the name of helping though they are the ones profiting from the process of selling you the book. This is blatant dishonestly and self-righteousness and should be enough to make readers want to stop. But apparently it doesn’t as every time I get on the train someone is nose deep in, How to Become a Fucker by Age Thirty. So here’s some more…
The first self-help reading experience I had was with the book The Secret, viewing experience actually. I watched a DVD copy my sister gave me. Her boss had given it to her. After watching The Secret I considered writing the boss a letter without telling my sister, but in the name of preserving her job to continue borrowing money from her I decided against it. My initial disgust was based simply on the assumption I’ve already mentioned - that the author knew something I did not, when really what they did know was what used to be called “common sense”.
Masters of the Obvious
The message of The Secret is this - if you focus all of your thoughts and energies on getting something, you will get it. Yeah, and if you wipe your ass with your hand it’s gonna smell. The actual content of any self-help book is the overtly obvious. And they have the nerve to name the book what? – The Secret!
Faking It
As I’ve implied, the things in Randy’s book or the Secret are true – things like focusing on your goals and feeling gratitude are good. The problem though is that a person can not learn how to truly do and feel these things from a book, not books like these at least. People understand life as it unfolds based on the sum of all their time and experience up to the moment at hand. So where reading a self-help book may be one experience, it can not compare to the power of all human interaction, emotion, and thoughts they’ve had over the course of their entire lives. What they can learn from the books though is how to fake it. What you’re left with is a person without a vision for their lives pretending they have one as opposed to being honest with themselves, or an ungrateful person acting grateful because they think they should. In sort, you got a bunch of phonies. What could be worse?
Artistic Value
This may shock some readers to find out, but writing is an art form. Or at least it can be when the writer artfully or stylishly puts together subtle, or beautiful, or funny, or sad pieces of life. Self-help books do none of these things. They simplify the human experience which, when we are honest about it, can be quite complex, to the point of presenting an unrealistic world and in turn confusing readers without them knowing it.
If you really want to give someone a piece of writing that can help them, write something good. Or is that too difficult?
Conclusion
I e-mailed my mom…
“Seriously mom, I don't know if you're kidding or not. Motivational literature is the new Old Navy. This stuff is dangerous.”
There’s a problem. These self-help books - they’re everywhere. People are reading them. Believing them.
The fact that they’re published in the first place is a problem – that the people we’ve entrusted books to think it’s a good idea to print and sell these. But what is truly scary is that people take the advice they receive from self-help books and apply it to their lives and their worlds – the same world me and you live in and share with these large legged children.
I admittedly am not well read within this genre, but thanks to my mom recently mailing me Randy Pausch’s, The Last Lecture, I have some ideas, mainly that I just won’t take it anymore. The deal with Randy’s book is he was dying from cancer and wanted to leave something for his children and colleagues to remember him by. Now, I realize ripping a guy who was dying and simply loved his family is not the friendliest thing to do, but it must be done.
Positioning
Chapter Five of Randy’s book is, It’s About How To Live Your Life. This is the basically what all self-help books are about. The original assumption is that the author or authors know more than you do about life (Which is simply not true. Maybe the opposite.), and are now going to share this information with you in the name of helping though they are the ones profiting from the process of selling you the book. This is blatant dishonestly and self-righteousness and should be enough to make readers want to stop. But apparently it doesn’t as every time I get on the train someone is nose deep in, How to Become a Fucker by Age Thirty. So here’s some more…
The first self-help reading experience I had was with the book The Secret, viewing experience actually. I watched a DVD copy my sister gave me. Her boss had given it to her. After watching The Secret I considered writing the boss a letter without telling my sister, but in the name of preserving her job to continue borrowing money from her I decided against it. My initial disgust was based simply on the assumption I’ve already mentioned - that the author knew something I did not, when really what they did know was what used to be called “common sense”.
Masters of the Obvious
The message of The Secret is this - if you focus all of your thoughts and energies on getting something, you will get it. Yeah, and if you wipe your ass with your hand it’s gonna smell. The actual content of any self-help book is the overtly obvious. And they have the nerve to name the book what? – The Secret!
Faking It
As I’ve implied, the things in Randy’s book or the Secret are true – things like focusing on your goals and feeling gratitude are good. The problem though is that a person can not learn how to truly do and feel these things from a book, not books like these at least. People understand life as it unfolds based on the sum of all their time and experience up to the moment at hand. So where reading a self-help book may be one experience, it can not compare to the power of all human interaction, emotion, and thoughts they’ve had over the course of their entire lives. What they can learn from the books though is how to fake it. What you’re left with is a person without a vision for their lives pretending they have one as opposed to being honest with themselves, or an ungrateful person acting grateful because they think they should. In sort, you got a bunch of phonies. What could be worse?
Artistic Value
This may shock some readers to find out, but writing is an art form. Or at least it can be when the writer artfully or stylishly puts together subtle, or beautiful, or funny, or sad pieces of life. Self-help books do none of these things. They simplify the human experience which, when we are honest about it, can be quite complex, to the point of presenting an unrealistic world and in turn confusing readers without them knowing it.
If you really want to give someone a piece of writing that can help them, write something good. Or is that too difficult?
Conclusion
I e-mailed my mom…
“Seriously mom, I don't know if you're kidding or not. Motivational literature is the new Old Navy. This stuff is dangerous.”
posted by Dr. Fish | 6:59 AM
1 Comments:
Hey Asshole,
My shit don't stink!!!
Randy
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