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Self-Fixed-Anguish
Neat has decided she's had enough of life, and wants to erase her existence from the universe. You'd think this alone was difficult enough, but when a wacky cult, a living jail, a giant mall, and even more incredible stuff gets involved, it goes from dubious to downright impossible! Can the “Mystocrat,” a shadowy near-mythical figure, help her wipe all traces of her life, or is she doomed to wander forever?
This hilarious existential comedy by François Tremblay, his second novel, will appeal to anyone looking for a deft mix of light philosophical satire and heavy themes. Guaranteed to contain at least some incidental dogs, or get your money back.
This hilarious existential comedy by François Tremblay, his second novel, will appeal to anyone looking for a deft mix of light philosophical satire and heavy themes. Guaranteed to contain at least some incidental dogs, or get your money back.
269 pages, Paperback
Published August 22, 2022
3 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 30, 2023
Original Review
Thank you to author Francois Tremblay for providing me with a copy of his book in exchange for this honest review.
I previously reviewed author Tremblay's She's Found Her Mind, a satirical novel about a professional manic pixie dream girl and her pseudo romance. Tremblay has a voice for satire and the absurd. It's a very tough genre to get right. Often, it comes across as either mean-spirited or it's not obvious that it's not serious and that could be offensive or just annoying. Have no fear, Self-Fixed Anguish is none of those things.
This new novel follows protagonist Neat (first name Neat, last name She, get it?) as she wakes up from her capitalist drudgery and sets out to find the meaning of life. Not so much the traditional grand answer to the question of all questions more of just any reason that existence happens at all.
She works harvesting land sponges for the personal use of everyone on the planet. The workers are required to listen to music in their headphones and one day she removes hers and is enlightened to the awful screaming these poor creatures make as they are slaughtered. From here she is determined to erase her own existence, she doesn't want to kill herself, she wants to never have been in the first place.
Her journey is very nihilist and also touches on the lesser known philosophy of antinatalism. That is the idea that it is morally wrong to have children because it is an act of non-consent. I've been previously aware of this, I even know a mod on the antinatalist subreddit personally. I can't say they're wrong either. I didn't ask to be born into this nonsense. Here I am, writing blog posts for tens of dollars a year while my full time job makes money for some rich bastard while I try to enjoy the few hours a week I have free but can't afford to do the things I want to do. Then my parents who brought me into this mess don't help me live it?! Rant aside, life is stupid.
Self-Fixed Anguish recognizes how very stupid this whole situation is and it plays with the boundaries of what life really is. The book gets meta at times and the characters in the book are no longer in the world but in the book itself. Who's to say an all powerful author isn't in charge of our mundane stories right now?
At one point the book even places us within its pages and becomes a choose your own adventure novel. I found this section highly creative and very funny. I did my best to stay within the parameters and only read for the choices I made but I can't say I didn't skim some other sections (please don't come after me grand author).
I wasn't sure how Self-Fixed Anguish would end, however I thought it would end was not the way it did end. I'm glad though because I was very pleased as I shut the back cover.
This kind of humorous novel is certainly not for every reader but if you like this kind of silly and tongue in cheek humor mixed with a healthy dose of modern philosophy I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy Self-Fixed Anguish.
5/5 sponges 🧽🧽🧽🧽🧽
Thank you to author Francois Tremblay for providing me with a copy of his book in exchange for this honest review.
I previously reviewed author Tremblay's She's Found Her Mind, a satirical novel about a professional manic pixie dream girl and her pseudo romance. Tremblay has a voice for satire and the absurd. It's a very tough genre to get right. Often, it comes across as either mean-spirited or it's not obvious that it's not serious and that could be offensive or just annoying. Have no fear, Self-Fixed Anguish is none of those things.
This new novel follows protagonist Neat (first name Neat, last name She, get it?) as she wakes up from her capitalist drudgery and sets out to find the meaning of life. Not so much the traditional grand answer to the question of all questions more of just any reason that existence happens at all.
She works harvesting land sponges for the personal use of everyone on the planet. The workers are required to listen to music in their headphones and one day she removes hers and is enlightened to the awful screaming these poor creatures make as they are slaughtered. From here she is determined to erase her own existence, she doesn't want to kill herself, she wants to never have been in the first place.
Her journey is very nihilist and also touches on the lesser known philosophy of antinatalism. That is the idea that it is morally wrong to have children because it is an act of non-consent. I've been previously aware of this, I even know a mod on the antinatalist subreddit personally. I can't say they're wrong either. I didn't ask to be born into this nonsense. Here I am, writing blog posts for tens of dollars a year while my full time job makes money for some rich bastard while I try to enjoy the few hours a week I have free but can't afford to do the things I want to do. Then my parents who brought me into this mess don't help me live it?! Rant aside, life is stupid.
Self-Fixed Anguish recognizes how very stupid this whole situation is and it plays with the boundaries of what life really is. The book gets meta at times and the characters in the book are no longer in the world but in the book itself. Who's to say an all powerful author isn't in charge of our mundane stories right now?
At one point the book even places us within its pages and becomes a choose your own adventure novel. I found this section highly creative and very funny. I did my best to stay within the parameters and only read for the choices I made but I can't say I didn't skim some other sections (please don't come after me grand author).
I wasn't sure how Self-Fixed Anguish would end, however I thought it would end was not the way it did end. I'm glad though because I was very pleased as I shut the back cover.
This kind of humorous novel is certainly not for every reader but if you like this kind of silly and tongue in cheek humor mixed with a healthy dose of modern philosophy I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy Self-Fixed Anguish.
5/5 sponges 🧽🧽🧽🧽🧽
September 9, 2022
«Self-Fixed Anguish» (2022) is the second novel by French-Canadian pulp writer Francois Tremblay, the first one being his excellent debut novel «She’s Found Her Mind» (2021). He’s currently writing a third one too, or so says the word on the street, but let’s talk about this one.
The first thing to mention is that the book-cover of Self-Fixed Anguish (2022) is one of the best bookcovers I’ve seen in a while. Better yet, the cover kind of encapsulates the essence of the story. (Kind of.)
What is this book about? It is a story from the perspective of Neat, a woman who has a genuine love for rocks and minerals, but not much else, and who lives in a strange futuristic world stuck in a job she doesn’t like. We’re not necessarily talking sci-fi per se, not sure about fantasy either, but there's many elements here which implies we are not set in the present day Kansas either.
It’s hard to envy the protagonist. Neat works in a factory where she is transported to everyday. Her job is harvesting (killing) sentient sponges. They scream in fear before being executed. She has to wear ear muffs in order to not hear them. That is her day-job and she’s struggling to find meaning in her life. Is this really it?
There's a philosophy floating around the world called "anti-natalism", which typically means there's something wrong with procreation, or coming into existence is a harm -- Mr.Tremblay even wrote his own non-fiction book on it called «A New Approach to Procreative Ethics" (2016) where he outlines a lot of his radical views on procreation and how one shouldn’t bringing new people into the world. There were small traces and hints to antinatalism philosophy in his last book «She Found Her Mind» too, but the new one is far more centered around it as a main theme, although in a backwards kind of way. You see, the character Neat wishes she had never came into existence, but understands that is something that is irreversible when she’s already here. She wishes there was a way for her to erase that she ever came into existence.
Which sounds like a very improbable and stupid thing to wish for, but Neat hears about a mystical person who is called the Mystocrat who was able to go in and out of existence. Maybe he can help her get her wish? Only problem is she doesn’t know where he is, but she has some leads. She very dramatically flees from her trapped existence by not attending to her job, take the role of a refugee go off on an adventure like no other to find the Mystocrat.
Strangely enough there’s a paradox of her missing a meaning with her existence, but trying to erase having existed becoming her mission. A point probably not lost in the story.
I think the main takeaway if you will like this book is if you can handle the mix of a quite bleak subject matter with the zany, funny and comedic writing Francois Tremblay is known for doing, because yes, it is a very funny book, a comedic book, but about a pretty pessimistic topic. It definitely is a weird combination, but perhaps that is what sets it apart from the rest of your local library too.
The ending I won’t spoil, of course, but sure it is intriguing although I am not entirely sure what happened. That is probably a good thing. Perhaps it is even a genius ending. I guess it is until the opposite is proven. I still think about it.
Either way, there's a lot of good writing here, funny and interesting situations, and just tons of ideas and characters that will surprise you. I also think Mr. Tremblay deserves a much bigger audience. (Okay, I was paid handsomely by the author to write the last sentence, but the all of the rest is true.)
The first thing to mention is that the book-cover of Self-Fixed Anguish (2022) is one of the best bookcovers I’ve seen in a while. Better yet, the cover kind of encapsulates the essence of the story. (Kind of.)
What is this book about? It is a story from the perspective of Neat, a woman who has a genuine love for rocks and minerals, but not much else, and who lives in a strange futuristic world stuck in a job she doesn’t like. We’re not necessarily talking sci-fi per se, not sure about fantasy either, but there's many elements here which implies we are not set in the present day Kansas either.
It’s hard to envy the protagonist. Neat works in a factory where she is transported to everyday. Her job is harvesting (killing) sentient sponges. They scream in fear before being executed. She has to wear ear muffs in order to not hear them. That is her day-job and she’s struggling to find meaning in her life. Is this really it?
There's a philosophy floating around the world called "anti-natalism", which typically means there's something wrong with procreation, or coming into existence is a harm -- Mr.Tremblay even wrote his own non-fiction book on it called «A New Approach to Procreative Ethics" (2016) where he outlines a lot of his radical views on procreation and how one shouldn’t bringing new people into the world. There were small traces and hints to antinatalism philosophy in his last book «She Found Her Mind» too, but the new one is far more centered around it as a main theme, although in a backwards kind of way. You see, the character Neat wishes she had never came into existence, but understands that is something that is irreversible when she’s already here. She wishes there was a way for her to erase that she ever came into existence.
Which sounds like a very improbable and stupid thing to wish for, but Neat hears about a mystical person who is called the Mystocrat who was able to go in and out of existence. Maybe he can help her get her wish? Only problem is she doesn’t know where he is, but she has some leads. She very dramatically flees from her trapped existence by not attending to her job, take the role of a refugee go off on an adventure like no other to find the Mystocrat.
Strangely enough there’s a paradox of her missing a meaning with her existence, but trying to erase having existed becoming her mission. A point probably not lost in the story.
I think the main takeaway if you will like this book is if you can handle the mix of a quite bleak subject matter with the zany, funny and comedic writing Francois Tremblay is known for doing, because yes, it is a very funny book, a comedic book, but about a pretty pessimistic topic. It definitely is a weird combination, but perhaps that is what sets it apart from the rest of your local library too.
The ending I won’t spoil, of course, but sure it is intriguing although I am not entirely sure what happened. That is probably a good thing. Perhaps it is even a genius ending. I guess it is until the opposite is proven. I still think about it.
Either way, there's a lot of good writing here, funny and interesting situations, and just tons of ideas and characters that will surprise you. I also think Mr. Tremblay deserves a much bigger audience. (Okay, I was paid handsomely by the author to write the last sentence, but the all of the rest is true.)
January 2, 2024
This is easily on of the worst books I have ever tried to read. The main character's actions are absurd, stupid, and seem arbitrary. There is no way to actually get in touch with the character. The book doesn't read like a journey, where there is some progression or character development. The main character just randomly stumbles upon a very weird situation, confusingly tosses around, nothing is got from all of this, and then she goes to the next disconnected scene.
At the beginning of the book a lot of trendy social issues are being raised extremely briefly for no apparent reason, because they're immediately discarded. And there is a lot of things like that: something disconnected happens... and we go to the next scene.
I think the author might have had an idea to write a book that would show that people have no free will or agency in what's going on. Maybe. But the result is bad and uninteresting.
I started reading at the end of September of 2022. Now it's the beginning of 2024. I read 40% of the book. Reading it was like a chore, like something I thought I had to do to write an honest review. Life is too short to waste on things like that...
Disclaimer: I have received a copy of the book for free from the author.
At the beginning of the book a lot of trendy social issues are being raised extremely briefly for no apparent reason, because they're immediately discarded. And there is a lot of things like that: something disconnected happens... and we go to the next scene.
I think the author might have had an idea to write a book that would show that people have no free will or agency in what's going on. Maybe. But the result is bad and uninteresting.
I started reading at the end of September of 2022. Now it's the beginning of 2024. I read 40% of the book. Reading it was like a chore, like something I thought I had to do to write an honest review. Life is too short to waste on things like that...
Disclaimer: I have received a copy of the book for free from the author.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews