thenewinquiry:

A review of Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism at the beginning of the end.

By Jenna Brager

Lauren Berlant wants you to break your New Year’s resolutions. Or, at least she wholly understands your impending failure to keep them. So go ahead, smoke another cigarette. Smoke whatever you can find. Down a few more 100 calorie snack packs. Eat a whole goddamn box of 100 calorie snack packs. Fuck 100 calorie snack packs, find some actual cookies and eat all of them. Eat whatever you can find. Don’t give up caffeine. Don’t work harder. Slack off. Don’t get a promotion. Keep drinking. Drink more. Ignore your new gym membership. Pick up new bad habits. Hone your bad habits into an art form. Master the art of sustaining your bad habits, because your bad habits are what sustain you.

After all, bad habits are lifesavers we cling to in the face of the fraying and always already toxic “good life fantasies” we wallow in, in the face of becoming totally unmoored. Are you really that guilty about your guilty pleasures? What exactly were you hoping for, anyway? In her new book Cruel Optimism, University of Chicago English Professor Lauren Berlant describes the titular phrase as “when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing.” We cling to the fantasy that, “this time, nearness to this thing will help you or a world to become different in just the right way.” This time she’ll really love you. This time you’ll lose the weight. This time you’ll make enough money. This time the candidate’s promises will last after election night. This time the mission will really be accomplished. This time, you will be happy. Except, you know, you won’t. At least not for long.

Happy fucking New Year.

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(Source: thenewinquiry)

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    Got this from Bluestockings and am excited to read it.

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    A review of Lauren Berlant’s

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