How Not To Kill Yourself: A Survival Guide for Imaginative Pessimists - Softcover

Sytes, Set

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1621061973 ISBN 13: 9781621061977

Verlag: Microcosm Publishing, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

<div><b>A highly imaginative and relatable guide for anyone who needs the reassurance that suicide is NEVER worth it.</b><br><br>Are you inclined to escape the crumminess of everyday life into fantasy worlds? Are you smart and imaginative in a way that isn't really suited to your surroundings? Are you definitely misunderstood, likely angry, and almost certainly depressed? Set Sytes, hailing from the UK, would prefer you stay alive and sort things out rather than the alternative, thanks. He figures there are better opportunities for you out there and lays it all out in a way that's compelling, funny, sharp, and useful. This zine turned book (please don't call it a self-help guide, asks the author) is ultimately about how to be a person in the world. It can be done non-miserably, we promise.</div>

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

<div>Set Sytes was born in the misty, Arthurian woods of England and was raised by bears. He grew up learning how to do and be many things at the same time, including slaying monsters, rescuing damsels in distress (who turned out to be neither in distress nor, in fact, damsels), and commanding great armies (the strategy involved inevitably being "everybody charge at the enemy"). As the Real World struck with a calamitous clang, Set was found wandering around in the desolate aftermath, completely uncertain about what was now expected of him. He faffed and stumbled around for an embarrassingly long time (sometimes failing quite spectacularly) and then finally turned his hand to the only thing he remembered being any good at as a kid: writing. He was relieved to break the curse of never having finished anything in his life, when he finished his first novel. Which was okay-ish. Set has since authored many stories of darkness and weirdness and flights of fancy, including the sci-fi/fantasy/western novel <i>WULF</i>, the YA pirate fantasy <i>India Bones and the Ship of the Dead</i>, the thoroughly twisted dystopian thriller <i>Moral Zero</i>, and the fantasy/horror short story collections of <i>Faces in the Dark</i> and <i>Born to be Weird</i>. Set requests politely that you don't put onions anywhere near his food.</div>

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How Not To Kill Yourself

A Survival Guide for Imaginative Pessimists

By Set Sytes

Microcosm Publishing

Copyright © 2018 Microcosm Publishing
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-62106-197-7

Contents

Foreword, 
A Starry-Eyed Preamble, 
Pointless Caveat, 
Who the Hell Are You?, 
A Not-So-Delicate Warning, 
The Cause, 
Cynical Self-Help, 
How Dare You, Suicide Isn't Funny, 
So ... It's all a Bit Shit Really, Isn't It?, 
Dogs, Swamps, and Blankets, 
You Wouldn't like Me When I'm Angry, 
Oh No You Didn't, 
The Death of Potential, 
Some Practical Tips, 
Dream the Best, Be the Best, 
Immortality, 
You Can Be More, 
Change, 
A Self-Serving Afterword, 
A List of Things to Google, 
About the Author, 

CHAPTER 1

A Starry-Eyed Preamble

"I know it's crooked, but it's the only game in town."

–Canada Bill Jones

I'm here to save your life.

Well, not really. I don't have nearly enough traveling money to get to you all. But I am here to help you save your own life. You're already fighting your fight. I'm just here to give you a triple-barreled shotgun to fight it with. Or a cat that shoots fireballs. Take your pick.

I'm not here to tell you that the world is actually fabulous, and you'll just have to damn well learn to appreciate it. That the world is beautiful and full of, I don't know, kittens and rainbow-sprouting unicorns. That you'll see all this amazingness as soon as a passing wizard gives you some new eyes (and a new brain).

Sure, there might be some nice things in the world. I guess. But there's also a lot of ugliness. And, even worse than that, is all the mundanity. I'd hazard the world is comprised of about 99% boring, lifeless, drab, meaningless, empty whatever.

So, no, the world won't be your savior. And chances are, unless you've just taken a lot of psychedelics, you won't roll over one day with stars in your kawaii eyes, curling into a trembling ball of joy as kittens dance in the clouds and infinite lances of sunlight daub the world gold.

The answer to getting better, and to not killing yourself, isn't in the kittens and puppies, it isn't in the clouds, it isn't in the orangutans in the rainforests or the fireworks in the night sky.

The core reason, the truest, most sincere reason to stay alive isn't really out there at all.

It's in you.

You are the key and you are the lock. You are the whole meaningful universe. And I promise you that's not just me being hippie. This isn't a spiritual guide. There are no chakras here, no healing auras or "positive energies." I have a real, practical point to make.

It's a terribly sad state of affairs, but as long as you stay mute and withdrawn, the world just won't care about you. That's because it doesn't know you. I think it's about time to change that.

CHAPTER 2

Pointless Caveat

There are all sorts of reasons people have to kill themselves, because there are all sorts of people. I could not hope to tackle all this, and I would be severely out of my depth if I tried.

I assume, however, that you were drawn to two things. The title, which perhaps suggested something black-humored, something partly tongue-in-cheek, to you. And the subtitle, that targets you specifically (if I've got the wrong person, then this book might not be for you, but by all means give it a jolly good go).

So: all sorts of reasons, all sorts of people. This is directed at a certain type of person — a lump category I have called "imaginative pessimists." I could have also called them (and me) "creative cynics," or the classic and much maligned "tortured artists." Or maybe just "weirdos" (I mean that in the nicest way — the best people are at least a little weird). This guide is attempting to cater to your particular sense of self, and I want you to be proud of that self.

I appreciate that a number of the things I say will fall flat to you. After all, you're a gigantic group of individuals. Every one of you is unique. If I did somehow magic you all into an actual physical group together, within ten minutes two-thirds of you would have wandered off out of sight and the other third would be sitting on the floor determinedly avoiding eye contact. I'd be insane to think I could assume you're all the same. I just hope that you'll all get something out of reading this.

And, let me just get this out of the way: you've done a fucking good job getting this far. Well done you. I really mean that.

CHAPTER 3

Who the Hell Are You?

Tell me if any of this is true (I don't know how you'd tell me, just pretend. You're good at that):

• You prefer dreams to real, waking life.

• You prefer fiction and fantasy to the outside world.

• You would like to live inside your own head (the good parts of it, I mean, not the depressing parts).

• You're often "in your own little world" or "away with the fairies" or whatever other rubbish people say.

• It is the world that gets you down, and all it demands of you. You frequently find the world — or simply humanity — quite awful. It is drab, boring, mundane, and depressing. It might even be cruel. It is certainly nothing like how you want it to be.

• The only things that could be considered wrong with you could also be considered the fault of the world around you. There is little-to-nothing intrinsically wrong with you (if you don't believe this, that's fine — but at least consider it).

• You make heavy use of escapism (e.g. books, movies, games, television, flights of fancy).

• You are highly creative and imaginative.

• Sometimes you feel like you have a bit of an ego, or a spot of narcissism.

• You are sensitive, and easily wound up by things/people. Especially when you spend a long time overthinking things.

• You long for new things, while at the same time longing for innocence.

• You don't get as much pleasure out of the same things as you used to. You wish you could see the world and the things in it as you used to, or as other, happier people seem to.

• You have a strong, and yet sometimes unusual, sense of humor.

• People making such a big division in life between childhood and adulthood annoys and depresses you, and you hate being told to "grow up" or that being "childish" is a bad thing.

• You wish sometimes that you were not so cynical, but part of you also feels superior for your cynicism, that you are "in the right."

And so on, you get the idea.

If you are tutting and shaking your head at some of these, this survival guide might not be for you.

CHAPTER 4

• A Not-So-Delicate Warning

In this guide, there will be swear words. I think I've already used one. I do not tip-toe around heavy topics. Suicide is a monster of a thing, a creature that deserves to be, at turns, fought with poisoned swords and poisoned words, shouted down and sworn at, laughed at and, above all, listened to. If you are offended by swear words in this context, perhaps you should re-examine your priorities, or read a more PC book. Suicide is not PC, and it never will be. It does not give a fuck.

This guide will be, at turns, aggressive, tongue-in-cheek, sympathetic, empathetic, and maybe even fawning. The latter is because, if people really knew and understood everything, completely knew and understood each other, completely knew and understood...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Microcosm Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1621061973
• ISBN 13: 9781621061977
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 3
• Anzahl der Seiten: 128
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Goodfellas S.r.l.; http://www.goodfellas.it; ; Via Rubaconte Da Mandello, 11; Firenze; 50126; Italien