Includes bibliographical references and index. Originally published: UK: Viking, 2020.
Contents:
7. Republic of Failure Or why failure feels like coming home. 2. Not Enough, Not Enough Or why you feel like an impostor -- 3. Examination Dream Or how we are schooled to feel like failures -- 4. Life Is Hell, But at Least There Are Prizes Or why rewards are never worth it -- 5. None of Us Is Proust Or how creative failure is like life -- 6. Crooked Timber of Humanity Or why failure is only human -- 7. Republic of Failure Or why failure feels like coming home.
Summary:
Do you ever feel like a failure? Enter widely acclaimed observer of daily life Professor Joe Moran, not to tell you that everything will be all right in the end, but to reassure you that failure is an occupational hazard of being human. It's the small print in life's terms and conditions. Covering everything from examination dreams to fourth-placed Olympians, If You Should Fail is about how modern life, in a world of self-advertised success, makes us feel like failures, frauds and imposters. We need more narratives of failure, and to see that not every failure can be made into a success - and that's OK. As Moran shows, even the supremely gifted Leonardo da Vinci could be seen as a failure. Most artists, writers, sports stars and business people face failure. We all will, and can learn how to live with it. To echo Virginia Woolf, beauty "is only got by the failure to get it ... by facing what must be humiliation - the things one can't do." Combining philosophy, psychology, history and literature, Moran's ultimately upbeat reflections on being human, and his critique of how we live now, offers comfort, hope - and solace.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.