Explained Books: The regenerative potential of sorrow | Explained News,The Indian Express
A new book focuses on the depth of the “melancholic direction” and why a culture’s neglect of its regenerative potential can be inhibiting.
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole By Susan Cain Penguin Viking 310 pages Rs 799
A decade ago, amid the implosion of social media, and motivational speakers urging people to put themselves out there, American writer Susan Cain posited a contrarian view in her book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (2012).
What if, she asked, in pathologising introversion in a world full of sociable, confident people, we were denying acknowledgment to the creativity and contemplation of those who felt deeply but could not or would not vocalise it with the same fervour? Cain traced the change in societal attitudes to introverts to the Industrial Revolution of the early 20th century when agricultural societies transformed into industrial economies, giving rise to what she termed as the “extrovert ideal”.
“The new economy called for a new kind of man — a salesman, a social operator, someone with a ready smile, a masterful handshake, and the ability to get along with colleagues while simultaneously outshining them,” she wrote of the American culture of hustle that could hold true in any other part of the world as well. How to win friends and influence people, she explained, was really about putting forward a carefully manicured version of oneself and cultivating sociability as a tool for self-aggrandisement.
Part self-help, part philosophy, part research and analysis, Quiet put forward a compelling argument that won Cain many admirers and catapulted the book to bestseller lists as a contemporary classic. Her new book, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, picks up from where she left off in Quiet. It focuses on the depth of the “melancholic direction” and why a culture’s neglect of its regenerative potential can be inhibiting.
Rating: 5