Nein. A Manifesto

A gleeful yet serious philosophical manifesto in aphorism by the creator of the hugely popular @NeinQuarterly Twitter feed, written in the same “crisp, allusive, irreverent” (New Yorker) voice.

#FrequentlyAskedQuestions

• Ontology: what the fuck?
• Causality: why the fuck?
• Epistemology: how the why the fuck?
• 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 aphorism to plumb the existential abyss of modern life—and finds it bottomless.

Stridently hopeless and charmingly dour, Nein. A Manifesto mixes melancholy with nihilistic glee in its investigation into the most urgent questions. And the least. Inspired by the philosophical aphorisms of Nietzsche and Theodor W. Adorno, Jarosinski’s epigrammatic style reinvents short-form philosophy for a world doomed to distraction.

Nein. A Manifesto will be packaged as an attractive trade paperback, each page consisting of its own four-line manifesto. Critical thinkers, lovers of language, bibliophiles, manics and depressives alike will be drawn to this compelling, witty, playfully irreverent translation of digital into print. Theory into praxis. And tragedy into farce.

“I hate Twitter, I think it should be prohibited—but Jarosinski’s Nein. is the 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 Žižek

“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

“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

“The very best piece of writing I’ve encountered on Twitter . . . Aphoristic, and yet hinting at a depth of knowledge underneath.” —Los Angeles Times

“[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