Lost in the Cosmos : The Last Self-Help Book

Rating:
Summary: A reacquaintance with an old friend
Review: I read Lost in the Cosmos ("LITC" for short) shortly after it was first published some fifteen years ago and have read it twice since. Like Huckleberry Finn, LITC must be read every ten years or so as a work of art that can be understood on several levels: from pure satire to the deeply philosophic. In the former case, Percy's chapter entitled "The Last Donohue Show" is a hoot; in the latter case his chapter on semiotics, which he modestly descibes in the forward as an "interlude" which can be safely avoided by the reader, in point of fact simply MUST be read. In the end, Percy raises the same questions which have plagued and bedeviled mankind from the beginning: Who are we? What are we? Why are we? Wisely, he does not attempt any answer,leaving it, instead, to the reader to decide. As noted above, I already gave it three cracks and have yet to come up with an answer, so the time has come for another read. I probably still won't come up with any answers, but I can't think of a better or more enjoyable way to tackle The Big Questions than by reading "Lost in the Cosmos" again and again.

Rating:
Summary: It's Back!
Review: I read this book more than a decade ago now, and am delighted to see that it is back in print. I've wanted to share it with a number of people over the years but started jealously hoarding my copy, when it went out of print. I'm actually not sure if I would still give it all five stars (I have not re-read it all the way through), but again -- it's good to see it's back. Readers new to it are in for a few surprises, like the "Thought Experiments" and clarifying diagrams... Have fun!

Rating:
Summary: absolutely hilarious, with a few slight biases
Review: If you want a good laugh, pick up this book and just start reading from the beginning (with its nine alternate titles) all the way through to the end. Mixed in with his hilarity are many provocative questions that make you stop and really think about the assumptions you make in everyday life and thinking about yourself.

The only problems I have with this book is that certain of the author's biases show through. For instance, in certain examples, the only characters which seem human are the Catholics while the Baptists are pretty much the butts of the jokes. His homophobic attitude also shines through pretty strongly with some subtle derogatory comments. If you don't mind those slight biases, though, you'll have a blast reading this book. In fact, do what our class did. After reading this book, right your own chapter!

Rating:
Summary: The only self-help book I saved out of 351. No joke.
Review: Lost In The Cosmos truly is the ultimate self-help book. I've used Mr. Percy's essay, "The Suicide Option," when teaching Interpersonal Communication, Drama, and even Scriptwriting. It's also recommended at my website. Mr. Percy writes concisely, intelligently and, undoubtedly, with a grin on his face. Trust that Lost In The Cosmos is not just another self-help book. It's full of real information and Mr. Percy's always-ingenious ideas, rather that the weak philosophies so often found on the shelves. Buy a copy. You won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: A good, long, fun look into the abyss
Review: One of the five subtitles of this impossibly good book reads: "How it is possible for the man who designed Voyager 19, which arrived at Titania, a satellite of Uranus, three seconds off schedule and a hundred yards off course after a flight of six years, to be one of the most screwed-up creatures in California-or the Cosmos"

This book defies description. Dr. Percy is unrelenting in forcing the reader to examine the disasters visited upon man through our almost universal refusal to acknowledge our nature, despite the high level of "self-awareness" present in what Percy describes as "the flaky euphoria of the late twentieth century." Although this "self-help" book offers nothing in the way of answers, you will feel after reading (and re-reading (and re-reading)) it that you have been let in on the greatest inside joke of all time.

This book is not chicken soup-it will not give you a set of instructions for living or boost your "self-esteem," but it will stun you with Dr. Percy's simple brilliance and it will alter the way you watch the evening news (and Donahue/Springer), cut your grass, shop for groceries, and generally manage to survive another Tuesday afternoon.

Percy also offers a concise, thoughtful examination of semiotics, a critical study of the nature of human language which he wanted to devote himself to through his novels and non-fiction, although this material does nothing to dilute the potency of the diabolically simple, yet unanswerable, "quizzes" and "thought experiments."

If you are one of those who has ever wondered about how everything started getting horribly off track (including, most importantly, ourselves) about the time that Star Trek reruns stopped regularly appearing on non-cable broadcast stations every weeknight, read this book immediately.

Rating:
Summary: Desperately Seeking Atman
Review: Perhaps I'm juvenile. My friend Kris accused me of that when he read this book at my urging years ago. Apparently, all the existential insinuations struck him as much ado about nothing. For my part, I found this one of the funniest books I've ever read. In the age of Jerry Springer, the lampoon of Phil Donahue seems, if anything, tame. He takes the central modern question, "What does it mean to be ME?" and spins it into a satirical obsession. (For what it's worth, Kris aside, all my other friends have loved it, too.)

Rating:
Summary: Indecisive and Insightful
Review: The book begins with indecision and continues gloriously from there. It insists on asking all of the difficult questions about self-hood that everyone is familiar with and desperately wants to be able to answer with some sort of certainty. It is light-hearted, but serious; shallow, but stirring. And while you are reading it, you will have to define and redefine your relationships with yourself and with others and with the Cosmos over and over again. This book is not one that can be swallowed in one sitting, but take your time and let it sink in. You'll enjoy it!

Rating:
Summary: Illustrating absurdity by being absurd!
Review: The duty of a Prophet is to draw a straight line to show how crooked we are. The duty of a satirist is to show how crooked we are by drawing an even more crooked line. Mr. Percy's line is quite crooked.

This book is billed as "the last self help book." He makes his point "sharper than a serpents tooth" in that the entire book is set of multiple-choice quizzes. But, as you suspect, the answers are stacked.

My personal favorite from page 75:

"Question: Why do so many teenagers, and younger people, turn to drugs?"

"(a) Because of peer-group pressure, failure of communication, psychological dysfunction, rebellion against parents, and decline of religious values."

"(b) Because life is difficult, boring, disappointing, and unhappy, and drugs make you feel good."

"(Check one)"

I found his perspective on suicide, and especially on being an "ex-suicide" to be both novel and fascinating. He asks the question: why not consider suicide as an option? We normally (that is, in the pre-Kevorkian world of 1983 when the book was written) exclude suicide as an option, but Percy makes the point that our depression, angst, etc. may actually have a basis in reality, and we may be justified in pulling our own plug. "Consider the only adults who are not depressed: chuckleheads, California surfers, and fundamentalist Christians . . . Would you trade your depression to become any of these?" (p.76)

By the way, for the Person of Faith who is horrified at this idea of defacing the image of God in suicide, please read (in this order) the book of Lamentations, the book of Ecclesiastes, and then the book of Job. The first two books we routinely ignore, but the last one, Job, we merely talk about and do not read. The case for life being [insert your favorite expletive here] is made in this holy trinity of Biblical books. But back to Percy!

Percy asserts that life becomes meaningful when we look at suicide as a legitimate option. He is merely reasserting the old law of oppositions, that truth is revealed in the contrast. The capacity of "not to be" makes Hamlet's "to be" all the more meaningful. If we commit suicide, we cause a ripple, annoy our creditors, but after that, nothing much else happens. We just get a change of scenery. However, if we consider suicide, then consciously elect against it, we have become empowered by our choice. We finally begin to live.

Percy closes the chapter thus:

"The difference between a non-suicide and an ex-suicide leaving the house for work, at eight o'clock on an ordinary morning:"

"The non-suicide is a little traveling suck of care, sucking care with him from the past and being sucked toward care in the future. His breath is high in his chest."

"The ex-suicide opens his front door, sits down on the steps, and laughs. Since he has the option of being dead, he has nothing to lose by being alive. It is good to be alive. He goes to work because he doesn't have to."

You can see that Percy is a neo-existentialist, and does Kierkegaard proud. In fact, I think Percy has gotten back to the proto-existentialist in that he has not abandoned religion, which gave Kierkegaard's ideas such a zest. Reread "Fear and Trembling," and pay attention to Abraham's sacrifice.

This is an engaging book, but it has deep and complex humor, and is, in fact, a 262-page long joke. If you don't get Johnny Carson, David Lettermen, British and/or Jewish humor, don't get this book. You won't get the complex and nuance-ridden joke.

PS-I have written an addendum, which fits somewhere in the last section of the book. Maybe on the last page somewhere:

ET: "Greetings Earthling. Take me to your leader."

POTUS: " I am the leader."

ET: "We are from Bernard's star. We wish to open trade and technological exchange. We can solve your hunger, poverty, unemployment, and war problems"

POTUS: "Do you have any interns on your ship?"

Rating:
Summary: Illustrating absurdity by being absurd!
Review: The duty of a Prophet is to draw a straight line to show how crooked we are. The duty of a satirist is to show how crooked we are by drawing an even more crooked line. Mr. Percy's line is quite crooked.

This book is billed as "the last self help book." He makes his point "sharper than a serpents tooth" in that the entire book is set of multiple-choice quizzes. But, as you suspect, the answers are stacked.

My personal favorite from page 75:

"Question: Why do so many teenagers, and younger people, turn to drugs?"

"(a)Because of peer-group pressure, failure of communication, psychological dysfunction, rebellion against parents, and decline of religious values."

"(b)Because life is difficult, boring, disappointing, and unhappy, and drugs make you feel good."

"(Check one)"

I found his perspective on suicide, and especially on being an "ex-suicide" to be both novel and fascinating. He asks the question: why not consider suicide as an option? We normally (that is, in the pre-Kevorkian world of 1983 when the book was written) exclude suicide as an option, but Percy makes the point that our depression, angst, etc. may actually have a basis in reality, and we may be justified in pulling our own plug. "Consider the only adults who are not depressed: chuckleheads, California surfers, and fundamentalist Christians . . . Would you trade your depression to become any of these?" (p.76)

By the way, for the Person of Faith who is horrified at this idea of defacing the image of God in suicide, please read (in this order) the book of Lamentations, the book of Ecclesiastes, and then the book of Job. The first two books we routinely ignore, but the last one, Job, we merely talk about and do not read. The case for life being [insert your favorite expletive here] is made in this holy trinity of Biblical books. But back to Percy!

Percy asserts that life becomes meaningful when we look at suicide as a legitimate option. He is merely reasserting the old law of oppositions, that truth is revealed in the contrast. The capacity of "not to be" makes Hamlet's "to be" all the more meaningful. If we commit suicide, we cause a ripple, annoy our creditors, but after that, nothing much else happens. We just get a change of scenery. However, if we consider suicide, then consciously elect against it, we have become empowered by our choice. We finally begin to live.

Percy closes the chapter thus:

"The difference between a non-suicide and an ex-suicide leaving the house for work, at eight o'clock on an ordinary morning:"

"The non-suicide is a little traveling suck of care, sucking care with him from the past and being sucked toward care in the future. His breath is high in his chest."

"The ex-suicide opens his front door, sits down on the steps, and laughs. Since he has the option of being dead, he has nothing to lose by being alive. It is good to be alive. He goes to work because he doesn't have to."

You can see that Percy is a neo-existentialist, and does Kierkegaard proud. In fact, I think Percy has gotten back to the proto-existentialist in that he has not abandoned religion, which gave Kierkegaard's ideas such a zest. Reread "Fear and Trembling," and pay attention to Abraham's sacrifice.

This is an engaging book, but it has deep and complex humor, and is, in fact, a 262-page long joke. If you don't get Johnny Carson, David Lettermen, British and/or Jewish humor, don't get this book. You won't get the complex and nuance-ridden joke.

PS-I have written an addendum, which fits somewhere in the last section of the book. Maybe on the last page somewhere:

ET: "Greetings Earthling. Take me to your leader."

POTUS: " I am the leader."

ET: "We are from Bernard's star. We wish to open trade and technological exchange. We can solve your hunger, poverty, unemployment, and war problems"

POTUS: "Do you have any interns on your ship?"

Rating:
Summary: Laugh yourself sane. (More or less)
Review: This book is deeply funny, in the best way. It is not frivolous, except in the sense of parodying frivolity, nor is it flippant, nor even does it tell "jokes." Rather, it reveals (from the inside out) the bizarre, humorous truth about our own odd selves. "How can a ghost feel otherwise toward a machine than bored?" "If (the primitologist) could converse with his chimpanzee, he would have the best of both worlds: (a) beat other scientists, and (b) have someone to talk to." "I am rascal, hero, craven, brave, treacherous, loyal, at once the secret hero and a-- of the universe."

This is the first book I've read from this author. I hope it won't be the last, though it will be if the cosmic gate crasher at the Donohue show turns up soon. My first intuition was, "This man has read Pascal;" then I thought "Chesterton too." That gave me a hint as to where he was coming from, but he never did lay many cards on the table. In fact, the whole book mostly consists of throwing cards up in the air and asking us to grab the right ones before they touch the ground.

In a review of one of Chesterton's books (if you like this, see Orthodoxy and Everlasting Man in particular), I said Chesterton makes us laugh ourselves sane. Percy pushes us in the same direction, with the cattle prod of humor. He's more of a pessimist than Chesterton. Sometimes he's wrong. And once in a while he slips into mere crankiness: "For every Mother Theresa, there seem to be 1,800 nutty American nuns, female Clint Eastwoods who have it in for men and are out to get the Pope." He also seems to have it in for "fundamentalists" (whom he classifies with "chuckleheads," unfairly in my perhaps minority experience) and Calvinists. (The last line he gives John Calvin in his Donahue sketch sounds very Chestertonian.) But more like Pascal, Percy speaks the language of science as well as contemporary literature. (And he pegs Carl Sagan just right.)

Think you've got life figured out? Read this book, laugh at yourself and the crazy, ingenious human race, and go wonderingly back to square one.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man ([e-mail])