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Books

In Praise of Failure by Costica Bradatan

Paul J. D’Ambrosio looks at the sorts of successes to which failure can lead.

Scholars are under pressure to write books for general audiences: so-called ‘trade books’. These are books that not only can be read by non-academics, but that people would actually want to read. It’s a hard sell – in every sense.

Many who write such books court popularity by appealing to a sort of authenticity-based ‘celebrate who you are’. Not that scholars should not be in the business of self-help – indeed, it might just be one of the humanities’ most important functions – but kitsch stories about ‘My experience with my Grandma one summer’, clichés like ‘How I learned to appreciate small things’, and anodyne tips like ‘It’s really up to you what you want to take from such-and-such philosophy’ do not really challenge readers.