A look cast briefly or intricately at the scheme of works unfolding and concealed around us simultaneously offers an in-depth breakdown of how our lives are incessantly controlled by these invisible forces, that suck us in this black-hole which constructs this facade of the illusion of hope and choice. It is quite an interesting prospect to look into. How one thinks leads to another just like the domino effect and how we are either the dominoes that fall in the process or the ones that standby waiting for our own turn. Now some might title this as the way things naturally work, but I like to say that it is the way things are made to work naturally, and surely there is a great difference among them.
You see, the human brain has been made intelligently and intricately to form ever-improving thought processes and link to link cause and consequences, and this is what leads to mass confusion and uncertainty when it comes to the matters involving the brain itself. Many of us either overlook them which is the 21st Century concealment and nihilism and on the other hand, we at times freak out, which is also the 21st Century narcissism. The thing that we require is to chill out, to give things a chance to get out of our hands, to let life for once grasp the reins and go along a ride and then decide what we want our course of action to be and not to follow blindly into what is proclaimed through society and its hallmark. Anyone who contributed to diversity did so because they were DIVERSE, they were dynamic and archaism rarely contributes to this equation.
The Author, Plot and More Information
So, this book has been artistically written by Mark Manson who is the New York Times and international bestselling author of one of his acclaimed works, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. He is a blogger and a self-help author and states in his own blog, “My work has been described as a new genre of self-help—it’s based on solid science, pragmatic applications, and a bit of old fashioned “go f*ck yourself” wisdom.” Here’s a link to his own well-articulated blog, https://markmanson.net/.
Here is a list of his notable works:
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
- Love is Not Enough – Audiobook
- Models: Attract Women Through Honesty
This book deals with a lot of our presumptuous ideals about hope, relations and our sentiments and how they co-relate with each other and contribute in the bigger picture as every human being adds in their own diversity. It debunks many of our perceptions which are more or less based upon the hallmark of the society and how many things are but a huge facade created to keep things the ‘natural way’, thus we need to have an eye out for that which is but just an illusion of utopian idealism.
“Freedom itself demands discomfort.”
– Mark Manson, Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope
My Review and Experience Regarding The Book
I had originally planned to read another book of Mark Manson, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life”. However, a modest cousin of mine lend me this book to read for a while and I agreed thinking that it will be an interesting initiation and introduction to his work. And indeed it was.
To be honest, I am not an avid reader of self-help books and apart from recently reading this one, I believe the last one I read was around 5 years ago and that too of Norman Vincent Peale – 8 Books That Changed My Life. However, this is way more than just a self-help book. It is an entire analogical and observational journey from the past to the present and to the future, taking you through various dimensions, creating connections and presenting theories to strengthen independent and dependent clauses. The most heartfelt example is that of something included in this book, “The Uncomfortable Truth of life”, something that drove me to tears when I initially read it:
“One day you and everyone you love will die. And beyond a small group of people for an extremely brief period of time, little of what you say or do will ever matter. This is the Uncomfortable Truth of life. And everything you think or do is but an elaborate avoidance of it. We are inconsequential cosmic dust bumping and milling about on a tiny blue speck. We imagine our own importance. We invent out purpose – we are nothing.”
– Mark Manson, Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope
He has utilized one of the most elaborate ways to breakdown our own presumptuous ideals especially the take on the Formula of Humanity. His in-depth analysis and linkage of abstract ideas together leads to an awe-inspiring apprehension for the reader, keeps them intrigued and exhilarated. It lets you think out of the box and view the same, mundane ideologies with a ground-breaking perspective as realities come to your realization and the make-believe facade is broken.
The usage of informative examples from the past and the present like that of Edward Barneys along with other real-life stories of inspiring individuals also helps to clarify certain tenets. And this deals with diverse factions from mental health, emotions and hope, to narcissism, nihilism, politics, familism and religion and thus it is a thought-inducing learning experience.
“Ultimately, we are moved to action only by emotion. That’s because action is emotion.”
– Mark Manson, Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope
My Favorite Lines From the Book
Here are a few lines from the book Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope by Mark Manson that has stayed with me:
(P.S. All of these quotes/lines ARE from Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope and they are written by Mark Manson, I was just too lazy to write it beside every line.)
- “The problem isn’t that we don’t know how not to get punched in the face. The problem is that, at some point, likely a long time ago, we got punched in the face, and instead of punching back, we decided we deserved it.”
- “Because pain is the universal constant of life, the opportunities to grow from that pain are constant in life. All that is required is that we don’t numb it, that we don’t look away. All that is required is that we engage it and find the value and meaning in it.”
- “You must love someone without expecting anything in return; otherwise it’s not truly love. You must respect someone without expecting anything in return; otherwise, you don’t truly respect him. You must speak honestly without expecting a pat on the back or a high-five or a gold star next to your name; otherwise, you aren’t truly being honest.”
- “Don’t hope for better. Just be better. Be something better. Be more compassionate, more resilient, more humble, more disciplined. Be a better human.”
- “The only true form of freedom, the only ethical form of freedom, is through self-limitation. It is not the privilege of choosing everything you want in your life, but rather, choosing what you will give up in your life.”
- “I have tried to live my life such that in the hour of my death I would feel joy rather than fear.”
- “Living well does not mean avoiding suffering; it means suffering for the right reasons.”
- “We can be truly successful only at things we are willing to fail at.”
- Throughout the rich and developed world, we are not living through a crisis of wealth or material, but a crisis of character, a crisis of virtue, a crisis of means and ends.”
- “The better things get, the more we perceive threats where there are none and the more upset we become.”
- “That while pain is inevitable, suffering is a choice.”
- “You don’t know what something is worth until you experience the potential to lose it.”
The Genres of Life 