On Against Joie De Vivre
Brady Detwiler
Art of Nonfiction
Professor Hoffman
10/15/14
On “Against Joie de Vivre”
Phillip Lopate’s “Against Joie de Vivre” is, in a sense, an absurd project. The term joie de vivre, after all, literally translates as “the joy of living”, and if we as readers are to take this denotation at face value, one must naturally ask—why would one take up such an argument? The title tacitly asserts a nonsensical proposition, and presuming that we are convinced by what Lopate writes, what then shall we live for? The title is undoubtedly a provocation on Lopate’s part, but it also typifies the purpose of the personal essay in so far, as Montaigne often liked to reiterate throughout his works, as he attempts to answer an intractable question – the answer to which reveals all sorts of insights that may seem contradictory. Lopate himself said of this essay that he “wanted to push a prejudice, or dark impulse, of [his] as far as it would go, and see where it would take [him],” (Lopate 715). “Against Joie de Vivre” is especially unique in this way. It attempts, at the very least, to dissuade us from something not through logic, but through the appeal and persuasiveness of its exaggerated and pessimistic sensibility – a sensibility that ultimately provides a mediated glimpse of the truth and even a kind of consolation for the reader.
But as outlined in the introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay by Lopate himself, the essayist is often times anything but consolatory. Often times, the essayist must play the “Role of Contrariety” (xxx). True to his word, Lopate begins by debunking an illusory assumption:
Over the years I have developed a distaste for the spectacle of joie de vivre, the knack of knowing how to live. Not that I disapprove of all hearty enjoyment of life. A flushed sense of happiness can overtake a person anywhere, and one is no more to blame for it than the Asiatic flu or a sudden benevolent change in the weather (which is often joy's immediate cause). No,
Art of Nonfiction
Professor Hoffman
10/15/14
On “Against Joie de Vivre”
Phillip Lopate’s “Against Joie de Vivre” is, in a sense, an absurd project. The term joie de vivre, after all, literally translates as “the joy of living”, and if we as readers are to take this denotation at face value, one must naturally ask—why would one take up such an argument? The title tacitly asserts a nonsensical proposition, and presuming that we are convinced by what Lopate writes, what then shall we live for? The title is undoubtedly a provocation on Lopate’s part, but it also typifies the purpose of the personal essay in so far, as Montaigne often liked to reiterate throughout his works, as he attempts to answer an intractable question – the answer to which reveals all sorts of insights that may seem contradictory. Lopate himself said of this essay that he “wanted to push a prejudice, or dark impulse, of [his] as far as it would go, and see where it would take [him],” (Lopate 715). “Against Joie de Vivre” is especially unique in this way. It attempts, at the very least, to dissuade us from something not through logic, but through the appeal and persuasiveness of its exaggerated and pessimistic sensibility – a sensibility that ultimately provides a mediated glimpse of the truth and even a kind of consolation for the reader.
But as outlined in the introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay by Lopate himself, the essayist is often times anything but consolatory. Often times, the essayist must play the “Role of Contrariety” (xxx). True to his word, Lopate begins by debunking an illusory assumption:
Over the years I have developed a distaste for the spectacle of joie de vivre, the knack of knowing how to live. Not that I disapprove of all hearty enjoyment of life. A flushed sense of happiness can overtake a person anywhere, and one is no more to blame for it than the Asiatic flu or a sudden benevolent change in the weather (which is often joy's immediate cause). No,