David Rakoff On Jon Stewart: Found A Tumor While Writing A Book About Pessimism And Melancholy (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart last night asked his guest, author David Rakoff, to explain the warning label posted on the cover of his new book: "No inspirational life lessons will be found in these pages."

"The book is meant to be a defense of pessimism, melancholy, sadness," Rakoff said. "All the emotions a self-selecting group, we can just call them ... Jews," he joked.

Laughing hysterically, Stewart said: "Did not see that coming!"

"That baseline way you see the world is as value neutral as having brown eyes," Rakoff continued. "There's nothing particularly wrong with being more pessimistic than optimistic. Optimism is broad-based non-detail oriented thinking; pessimism is detail oriented thinking."

In the midst of writing his book, however, Rakoff discovered that he had a tumor that was pinching his nerve. "It's great, though," he said!

How about a little pessimism?

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Comments

[Blow In]

04:28 AM on 10/18/2010

I heard a quote from an engineer that was on a big building project. I like it.

"It takes an optimist to get a project started and a pessimist to get it done correctly."

That quote goes along with the statement that pessimism is detail oriented thinking.

[NancyPeske]

12:57 PM on 10/17/2010

David Rakoff is brilliant in finding the beauty in the ugliness--and I would bet there are many life lessons in his book despite his protests!

http://www.nancypeske.com

[WoodyCPM]

09:40 AM on 10/17/2010

I am so down with Rakoff on the whole "you create you're own reality" junk thinking. It always sounded like blame the victim stuff to be too. That's why it's so popular in America.

[rini]

03:29 PM on 10/17/2010

I agree.

Also, it sells books. "You can cure your own cancer by thinking happy thoughts!" The medical evidence on all this crapola is zilch.

[WoodyCPM]

05:14 PM on 10/17/2010

While I do believe that we can achieve certain outcomes by practicing positive thinking along with positive actions, I completely reject the notion that you are somehow responsible for everything that happens to you, whether good or bad. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, otherwise you cannot explain genocide, the Holocaust, rape, lynching or gay bashing. To suggest that people who are victims of these kinds of atrocities somehow "asked" for it is appalling.