Nein. a Manifesto - by Eric Jarosinski (Paperback)

About the Book

"Nein. A Manifesto is the brainchild of Eric Jarosinski, the self-described failed intellectual behind the hugely popular @NeinQuarterly, a Compendium of Utopian Negation that uses the aphoristic potential of Twitter to plumb the existential abyss of modern life and finds it bottomless"--Front flap.

Book Synopsis

#FrequentlyAskedQuestions
1. Ontology: what the fuck?
2. Causality: why the fuck?
3. Epistemology: how the why the fuck?
4. Phenomenology: the fuck.

Nein. A Manifesto is the brainchild of Eric Jarosinski, the self-described "failed intellectual" behind the hugely popular @NeinQuarterly, a "Compendium of Utopian Negation" that uses the aphoristic potential of Twitter to plumb the existential abyss of modern life--and finds it bottomless.

Stridently hopeless and charmingly dour, Nein. A Manifesto is an irreverent philosophical investigation into our most urgent questions. And the least. Inspired by the aphorisms of Nietzsche, Karl Kraus, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, Jarosinski's short-form style reinvents philosophy for a world doomed to distraction.

Nein. A Manifesto will be packaged as an attractive small-format hardcover, with a handful of Jarosinski's aphorisms laid out on each page. Critical thinkers, lovers of language, bibliophiles, manics and depressives alike will be drawn to this compelling, witty, and often hilarious translation of digital into print. Theory into praxis. And tragedy into farce.

Review Quotes

Praise for Nein. A Manifesto:

"I hate Twitter, I think it should be prohibited--but Jarosinski's Nein. is the only only exception, the only reason that justifies it! He is like a radical Norman Bates from Psycho intervening with his tweets which are like fast cuts with a knife!"--Slavoj Zizek, author of The Sublime Object of Ideology and Zizek's Jokes and subject of the documentary Zizek!

"Witty and droll . . . There are gems on nearly every page. The book might seem tongue-in-cheek, but Jarosinski's cynical aphorisms about philosophy, art, language, and literature hold plenty of truth. It is the perfect antidote to the relentless positivity of the stereotypical self-help manual."--Publishers Weekly (online)

"A hilarious manifesto of dystopian epigrams. Nein. is the devil on your shoulder, now on your shelf."--Ben Schott, author of Schott's Miscellany and Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition

"Nein. celebrates everything that it negates. It is quietly, joyously bleak. Will you enjoy it? Perhaps better to ask: can you be certain that you've ever enjoyed anything?"--MC Frontalot

Praise for Eric Jarosinski and @NeinQuarterly:

"Crisp, allusive, irreverent."--The New Yorker

"The very best piece of writing I've encountered on Twitter . . . Aphoristic, and yet hinting at a depth of knowledge underneath."--Los Angeles Times (online)

"[Jarosinski] distills difficult philosophical concepts into triumphs of pith."--Slate

"A high-wire walk between high and low culture that explodes all assumptions about the limitations of the German language and humor."--The Irish Times (Ireland)

"Puns and word play are trademarks of Nein Quarterly. His jokes jump from Marxism to pumpkin spice lattes--all told from the perspective of a depressed German philosopher pining for another time and place . . . [Goethe University Professor Helmut] Wicht says Jarosinski has found Germany's enigmatic funny bone. He jokes like an insider."--Public Radio International

About the Author

Eric Jarosinski is a self-declared #FailedIntellectual and expert in modern German literature, culture, and critical theory, as well as the founding editor of Nein. Quarterly. Jarosinski's writing has been featured in numerous publications, including the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Wall Street Journal. He is based in New York.