Why You Should Read Self-help Books
Summary
TLDRThis script challenges the disdain for self-help books, arguing they are unfairly maligned due to a romanticized view that dismisses emotional education. It posits that in ancient Greece and Rome, self-help was a literary pinnacle, with works by esteemed thinkers like Plato and Seneca. The script suggests that many acclaimed works, such as Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' and Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time,' are unrecognized self-help books, aiming to guide us towards more authentic living. It envisions a future where self-help is recognized as a prestigious genre, housing some of the world's most distinguished literature.
Takeaways
- 😅 Self-help books are often ridiculed and dismissed by intellectuals.
- 🎓 Prestigious institutions and highbrow journals typically overlook self-help literature.
- 🏛️ In ancient Greece and Rome, self-help was a central genre, aiming for emotional education and fulfillment.
- 📚 Historically, great thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and Seneca wrote self-help books to guide living and dying well.
- 📈 The current disdain for self-help books may deter top writers and thinkers from contributing to the genre.
- 🌟 Works like Seneca’s 'On Anger' and Marcus Aurelius’s 'Meditations' are both literary masterpieces and self-help books.
- 📚 Tolstoy’s 'War and Peace' and Proust’s 'In Search of Lost Time' are examples of self-help books in disguise.
- 💡 Self-help books aim to guide us towards more compassionate, calm, and authentic lives.
- 🌈 The script suggests a reevaluation of self-help as a prestigious genre in a utopian bookstore setting.
- 🔔 The video encourages viewers to subscribe and enable notifications for more content.
Q & A
Why are self-help books often ridiculed and looked down upon?
-Self-help books are often ridiculed due to a Romantic prejudice that regards offering explicit emotional education as beneath the dignity of any serious writer, implying that intelligent people should already know how to live.
What is the impact of this disdain on the quality of self-help books?
-The disdain for self-help books has led to a degradation in their quality, as the most accomplished writers and thinkers feel ashamed to associate their names with a genre that is often relegated to the least prestigious sections of bookstores.
How did ancient Greek and Roman cultures view self-help literature?
-In ancient Greece and Rome, self-help literature was highly regarded, with the highest ambition of authors being to provide emotional education to guide readers towards fulfillment (Eudaimonia).
Which renowned philosophers from classical culture wrote self-help books?
-Philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, and Marcus Aurelius wrote self-help books aimed at teaching how to live and die well, using their intelligence, wit, and style.
Why are Seneca’s 'On Anger' and Marcus Aurelius’s 'Meditations' considered both great literature and self-help books?
-These works are considered both great literature and self-help books because they are written with high literary quality and also serve the purpose of guiding readers towards better emotional and intellectual lives.
How does the script challenge the modern perception of self-help books?
-The script challenges the modern perception by suggesting that many esteemed works of literature, such as 'War and Peace' by Tolstoy and 'In Search of Lost Time' by Proust, should be recognized as self-help books due to their educational and guiding nature.
What is the script's view on the role of culture in emotional education?
-The script views culture as a tool for emotional education, suggesting that many works of culture, when seen through this lens, are in fact self-help books that aim to guide us towards more authentic lives.
Why does the script suggest that self-help books should not be considered low-grade?
-The script argues that the desire to guide and teach wisdom is central to all ambitious writing, and thus self-help books, which aim to do just that, should not be marginalized but recognized for their importance.
What is the utopian vision for self-help books presented in the script?
-In a utopian vision, self-help books would be the most prestigious section in bookstores, housing many of the most distinguished works of world literature, returned to their rightful place of honor.
How does the script redefine the term 'self-help book' in the context of great literature?
-The script redefines 'self-help book' not as a derogatory term but as a descriptor of works that aim to guide us away from folly and towards more sincere and authentic lives, thus recognizing the educational ambitions of great literature.
Outlines
📚 The Disregard for Self-Help Books
The paragraph discusses the widespread disdain for self-help books, particularly among intellectuals who view them as beneath serious literary consideration. It suggests that this disdain is rooted in a Romantic-era prejudice against the concept of emotional education, which self-help books explicitly offer. The author argues that the quality of self-help books has suffered as a result, with talented writers and thinkers avoiding the genre due to its stigma. However, the paragraph also points out that in ancient Greece and Rome, self-help was highly esteemed, with philosophers like Plato and Aristotle writing works aimed at guiding readers towards a fulfilling life. The paragraph concludes by suggesting that if we view culture as a tool for emotional education, many classic works of literature, such as Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' and Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time,' can be seen as self-help books, despite not being labeled as such.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Self-help book
💡Romantic prejudice
💡Emotional Education
💡Eudaimonia
💡Classical culture
💡Intellectuals
💡Stylists and thinkers
💡Cultural guardians
💡Tolstoy's War and Peace
💡Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time
💡Utopia
Highlights
Self-help books are often ridiculed and not considered prestigious literature.
Intellectuals scorn the idea of self-help books and they are not featured in highbrow reading lists or journals.
The disdain for self-help books is a symptom of a Romantic prejudice against emotional education.
In ancient Greece and Rome, self-help books were at the pinnacle of literature, aiming to guide readers towards fulfilment.
Great thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, and Marcus Aurelius wrote self-help books.
Works like Seneca’s On Anger and Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations are both great literature and self-help books.
Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time are examples of self-help books in disguise.
Self-help books aim to guide us away from folly towards more sincere and authentic lives.
The desire to guide and teach wisdom is central to all ambitious writing, not just self-help.
In an ideal world, self-help books would be the most prestigious section in bookstores.
Self-help books should not be considered low-grade; they offer valuable guidance and wisdom.
The current perception of self-help books is degraded due to a lack of involvement from accomplished writers.
Ancient self-help books were written with intelligence, wit, and style to engage both the intellectual and emotional faculties.
Self-help books have been historically misunderstood and undervalued in their role in emotional education.
By viewing culture as a tool for emotional education, many works of literature can be reclassified as self-help.
Self-help books should be recognized for their ambition to improve our lives and not be marginalized.
The channel invites viewers to subscribe and turn on notifications for more content.
Transcripts
There is no more ridiculed literary genre than the self-help book. Intellectually-minded
people universally scorn the idea of them. Self-help books don’t appear on reading
lists at any prestigious university, they’re not reviewed by highbrow journals and it’s
inconceivable that a major literary prize could ever be awarded to one of their authors.
This concerted attack on the entire genre of self help is a symptom of a Romantic prejudice
against the idea of Emotional Education. Offering explicit Emotional Education is regarded as
beneath the dignity of any serious writer. We should - if we are at all intelligent - know
how to live already. Unsurprisingly therefore, the quality of all
self-help books is at present highly degraded. The most accomplished stylists and sharpest
thinkers would feel ashamed to put their name to a work which would be destined to end up
on the most ludicrous shelves of any book shop.
Yet not all eras have shared this dismissive attitude. In the classical culture of ancient
Greece and Rome, it was taken for granted that the highest ambition of any author was
to offer the reader an Emotional Education that could guide them towards fulfilment (Eudaimonia).
Self-help books were at the pinnacle of literature. The most admired thinkers - Plato, Aristotle,
Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius - all wrote self-help books, whose aim was
to teach us to live and die well. Furthermore, they deployed every resource of intelligence,
wit and style in writing their manuals so as to ensure that their messages would delight
the intellectual as well as the emotional faculties. Seneca’s On Anger and Marcus
Aurelius’s Meditations are among the greatest works of literature of any nation or era.
They are also, undeniably, self-help books. It can look as if humans stopped writing good
self-help after the Fall of Rome. But once we view Culture as a tool for Emotional Education,
many more works emerge as, in fact, belonging to the currently much maligned genre of self-help.
For example, Tolstoy’s War and Peace explicitly aims to teach compassion, calm and forgiveness;
it offers guidance around money, manners, relationships and career development; it seeks
to show us how to be a good friend and how to be a better parent. It clearly is a self-help
book - it just doesn’t happen to be officially described this way by the current guardians
of Culture. Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is, similarly, also a self-help
book, teaching us how to surrender our attachment to romantic love and social status in favour
of a focus on art and thought. It’s not an insult to describe such masterpieces
as self-help books. It’s a way of correctly identifying their ambitions, which are to
guide us away from folly towards more sincere and authentic lives. Such works show us that
self-help shouldn’t be a low-grade marginal undertaking: the desire to guide and teach
wisdom is at the core of all ambitious writing. In the bookstores of the utopia, the self-help
shelves would be the most prestigious of them all and on them would sit many of the most
distinguished works of world literature - returned, at last, to their true home.
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