The Living Dead and the End of Hope

Though some are happy, many are not. Even among those who would describe themselves as happy, there are many who only imagine they are, or remember that they once were, or expect they someday will be. Many of those who are unhappy are so because they are engaged in a pursuit of unhappiness. Through studies of novels, stories, films, and narratives of actual experiences, The Living Dead and the End of Hope explores the reasons people seek to make themselves unhappy.

The book explores the nature and ends of human desire, the role of hope in unhappiness, and the importance of imagination and fantasy in human life. Its central thesis is that the pursuit of unhappiness is a flight from emotional aliveness into a self-imposed state of life without the feeling of being alive.