Sunday, 23 January 2011

Jonathan Franzen on Depression

Does any modern author write depression as well as Franzen? I love this quote from How to be Alone - his collection of essays.


"Depression presents itself as a realism regarding the rottenness of the world in general and the rottenness of your life in particular. But the realism is merely a mask for depression's actual essence, which is an overwhelming estrangement from humanity. The more persuaded you are of your unique access to the rottenness, the more afraid you become of engaging with the world; and the less you engage with the world, the more perfidiously happy-faced the rest of humanity seems for continuing to engage with it."