That and the fact that I’m mesmerised by a book from 1936 by Dorothea Brande, called Wake Up And Live! It’s out of print and currently going for a hundred quid or so in various web bookshops. But Scribd have helpfully put it up here, which is good of them.
Wake Up And Live! is a forerunner of the eighty zillion self-help books that fill the bookshops of the 21st century. But it’s not really that sort of thing at all. Its tone is more “Oh do stop being so silly, this simply won’t do” rather than “Affirm your love for your own inner child and heal your ruptured chakras” or whatever. Self-help books are not really my cup of tea, so forgive me if I’m generalising.
Anyway, the central point of WU&L! is its no-nonsense formula for (self-defined) success: “Act as if it were impossible to fail.” This won’t mean much in isolation, but Dot gives us a good run-up at it. Plus it’s written in the elegant American prose of the thirties, which is a delight in itself.
No idea if this 40-page dressing-down from a stern aunt will make a jot of difference in my life, but it has explained a few of the self-sabotage tendencies that have always puzzled me.
I shall say no more and leave it to you to judge for yourself, either by clicking on the link above, or by intuition (use your green chakra). Expect me back with a real post in two shakes of a lamb’s tail, or thereabouts.
Er, it’s actually available for a tenner from Abebooks, after all that. Still not as cheap as the free PDF from Scribd, mind. Thanks Scribd member uploader!
I get this sort of advice from my mother all the time, only in a delightful British-citizen-who-has-lived-in-America-since-the-60s prose. *G*
The other day, this post posed the interesting question of whether Venus is “not safe for work”. Erring on the side of caution because my work situation is precarious at best – and the side of ludicrousness, if that’s a word – I decided she probably isn’t.
To be honest, that is probably more to do with the unacceptability of looking at a painting during work time than the content of this particular one. But I had the feeling that naked Venus might attract the attention of the particularly malicious boss sitting behind me, in a way that a Rothko might not.
After the revolution, we will not have to be philistines on Wednesdays.
I suppose that’s part of the reason why self-help books aren’t my thing (although a nice bit of 30s prose is always good). I’m not always exactly brimming with confidence and go-getness, I’ll admit. But I think the “will to fail” argument does set the individual up against the outside world as if the outside world ddn’t have much to do with anything. And I reckon that without running away from all responsibility, a lot of the stuff that drags us down isn’t to do with us at all.
Honestly, I really don’t think my dodgy work situation – or the precarious employment of lots of other people – isn’t down to a will to fail. Having to weigh up the balance of power in the workplace before looking at a work of art, I ask you…
I’ve messed that up.
“I really don’t think my dodgy work situation – or the precarious employment of lots of other people – isn’t down to…” should say “don’t think… it is down to”.
Is a misplaced double negative the sign of a too-negative outlook? Discuss…
Oops. Sorry, office-based readers. It actually never occurred to me that Venus might be a bit racy. I will pay attention to this issue next time I pick a pic. Hope nobody got fired.
Aravis, your mother sounds like a character. Perhaps I should’ve just called her for some no-frills homespun wisdom instead!
That’s an interesting point Red. I think DB’s response would be that it’s possible to attribute a source of stress to an outside influence, but that you aren’t powerless to alter the response you have and can therefore make a conscious choice to respond differently. Something along the lines of Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous “Nobody can make you feel bad without your permission”. About halfway through the book, DB talks about ways of communicating to reduce annoying responses from others, e.g. by requesting things in a non-ambiguous way. She gives an example of asking a subordinate worker to do something directly and pleasantly, as opposed to adding “if you’re not too busy”, which will just draw the person’s attention to the fact that they have to do it whether they’re busy or not as you’re their superior, consequently bringing out some resentment and suffering when it wasn’t necessary. More of this sort of thing is found in the work of people like Robert Anton Wilson, particularly Quantum Psychology, which talks about everyone’s experience of life as being filtered through their own “reality tunnel”. Two people could view exactly the same thing in different ways.
I suppose this has resonance for me because a few years ago, my “reality tunnel” gave me a certain view of life – see the rantings of the Urban Fox blog, for an example – and now it presents what I perceive to be a wider, slightly different, slightly calmer and more zen angle. Not deliberately, just how my thoughts evolved. I haven’t had a blow to the head or anything. At least, not that I remember… hmmm….
That’s a spectacularly muddled way of explaining it, so anyone with a passing interest in this concept would be better off looking at the source texts rather than listening to me gabble on.
OK, enough soulsearching. Next week on Postculturist – Stripping paint: white spirit or sandpaper? A nation holds its breath.
Wake Up and Live! sounds really interesting…can’t wait to see what else you have to say about it…
Thank you, PP!
PS: I cropped the photo so corporate buildings can ring with the cry of ‘We love Postculturist!’ once more. Hope this helps, dearests.