I just read the book, How Not to Kill Yourself: A Survival Guide for Imaginative Pessimists by Set Sykes (2015)
The book is great. It is a (sort of) self-help book, although it talks about how (other/most/all) self-help books are anything but helpful. Although it points out that suicide is not funny, and some things to consider before acting on it, the book is absolutely filled with the same sort of offbeat, cynical, dark humor which I love and use.
Indeed, there are two more steps in grief - and grief can be a function of being alive for some of us. We know the 5 steps listed by Elisabeth Kubler Ross: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. There are two more which I’ve gotten from HumptyDumptyTribe on Youtube: Dark Humor, and Fuck it.
As anyone reading this blog knows, I’ve been into dark humor for quite awhile. Now, I guess I’ll fuck it.
Incidentally, Set Sykes does not pull punches, and uses a significant amount of “vile” language. If such words are not for you, neither is this book.
It speaks of the imagination that all of us who enjoy living in this dark place must have developed a long time ago, as well as the comparison between that and a description of a “Self-Actualized Person” on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Gee, are cynical pessimists who tend to be imaginative actually Self-Actualized under Maslow’s system? If so, that kind of puts yet another dark spin on things!
I would highly recommend any cynic read this book. Like the author, I’ll put in the disclaimer that I’m not a doctor, and you might want to consider asking your doctor for help, or getting a second or third opinion… of course, being more cynical than the author, I doubt that would do you any good, but I’ll say it nonetheless.
The book ends with a set of quotes by other depressive people, and finally Friedrich Nietzsche.
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