ABSTRACT
Will Fergusson in his novel Happiness 1 envisions our society finally becoming truly happy. This happens after people become mesmerized with a particular self-help book, which in the most compelling way offers advice on how to achieve true self-fulfillment in life. The small book becomes like a virus, which continuously spreads around society. People who read it suddenly abandon their previous lives, simplify their clothing, stop buying make-up and expensive cosmetics, stop obsessing about changing their bodies with the help of plastic surgery, cancel their subscription to the gym, give up cars and all other usual consumerist possessions, and especially abandon their old jobs by placing on their office doors a note: ‘Gone fishing!’ These newly awakened people brim with happiness – their faces look relaxed, they constantly smile, their bodies move in a joyful way, and their whole demeanor exults serenity and contentment. When masses of people become truly happy, capitalism falls into deep trouble. Industries start collapsing one by one. Deeply worried, the publisher of the book and the leading capitalists decide to find a way to stop this happiness movement. They start searching for the author of this dangerous self-help book. Soon it is revealed that the writer is not an Indian guru as it was stated in the book, but an old loner who lives in a trailer park. When this man learned that he had cancer, he decided to provide a financial legacy for his grandson by writing a book, which in essence combines all the major ideas of already existing self-help books. The story ends when the publisher convinces the old man that his writing did more harm than good for the progress of society. The author is then encouraged to write a new book on how to be miserable so capitalism can again flourish.
