Melancholic Joy: On Life Worth Living

Today, we find ourselves surrounded by numerous reasons to despair, from loneliness, suffering and death at an individual level to societal alienation, oppression, sectarian conflict and war. No honest assessment of life can take
place without facing up to these facts and it is not surprising that more and
more people are beginning to suspect that the human story will end in
tragedy.

However, this focus on despair does not paint a complete and
accurate picture of reality, which is also inflected with beauty and
goodness. Working with examples from poetry and literature, including Virginia Woolf and Jack Gilbert and the films of Terrence Malick, Melancholic Joy offers an honest assessment
of the human condition. It unflinchingly acknowledges the everyday
frustrations and extraordinary horrors that generate despair and argues that
the appropriate response is to take up joy again, not in an
attempt to ignore or dismiss evil, but rather as part of a melancholic joy

that accepts the mystery of a world both beautiful and brutal.