Lewiston, Maine -- Sick of American culture telling you to find "happiness at all costs?" Then you may want to check out Eric G. Wilson's upcoming lecture at Bates College.
Wilson's book, "Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy" (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), argues we should embrace melancholy and buck the "happiness trend."
"It is inauthentic and shallow, charges Wilson, to relentlessly seek happiness in a world full of tragedy," a critic for Publishers Weekly wrote.
"While he does not want to romanticize clinical depression, Wilson argues forcefully that melancholia is a necessary ingredient....