Summary
Title: Sloth: The Seven Deadly Sins
Author: Wendy Wasserstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195166302
Pro:
• Very funny and witty text that both promotes and undermines sloth at the same time
Con:
• None
Description:
• Part of Oxford University Press’ “Seven Deadly Sins” series
• Satirical parody of common self-help books, promoting sloth as a means to self-fulfillment
• Explains how to best eliminate all drive and ambition from your life
Book Review
There are seven deadly sins and none less famous than sloth. So anonymous is this sin that most people don’t even properly understand it — most people interpret in the common sense of laziness. In reality, the sin of “sloth” is meant to refer to indifference. It’s not the desire to rest that is sinful, but rather the failure to care enough to engage in activities necessary for family, community, and religion.
At least, that’s the traditional view of the orthodox Christianity. Wendy Wasserstein offers an alternative perspective in her book Sloth. A part of the fascinating Seven Deadly Sins series from Oxford University Press. The other books have taken a very serious tone, but given the nature of American culture today it makes more sense to adopt a different tone in a book about sloth and indifference.
In an entertaining parody of all the self-help guides that clutter bookstores today, Wasserstein presents us with “Sloth: And How To Get It.” In today’s hectic world people find it difficult to slow down and take it easy. In this book, however, you’ll find a smorgasbord of helpful tips and methods for neglecting work, ignoring friends, and “dropping out” of life like few have ever really achieved.
If you follow the plan she lays out, you may be able eliminate every last bit of your ambition, drive, and competitiveness from your life. Is this a worthy goal? Wasserstein argues that it is — after all, when was the last time you heard about a slothful slacker cheating on income taxes, participating in a drive-by shooting, or blowing themselves up in a crowded marketplace? Rather than “make love, not war” the slogan should be “just don’t do it.”
There are the five sloth commandments (because ten is just too much work):
S: Sit instead of stand
L: Let yourself go
O: Open your mouth and let anything you feel like enter
T: Toil no more
H: Happiness is within me
Many of us are already well on the way to slothdom. Wasserstein suggests as a good tactic that we fill our minds with “nonsense,” like celebrity marriages, in order to train ourselves into realizing that there isn’t much point in caring about anything at all. If reading magazines like People all day line doesn’t numb your brain, I’m not sure that much else will.
There are even über-sloths, people who look like they are busy al the time but have in fact filled their entire lives with meaningless nonsense. They look like they are moving, but they aren’t going anywhere and they don’t really care about anything important. They have rid their lives of the creativity and passion that sloths have always sought to purge, sometimes without even realizing it.
At the end, there is even a listing of activities and how many “grams” of activity each gives you — Wasserstein recommends no more than 50 grams per day if you are starting out, 75 grams when you are on maintenance. Eating a Cheeto dinner gives you 5 grams, but sushi is 20. Reading The New York Times gives you 30 grams, but her book is only 2.
The one thing missing from the list is playing multiplayer games of Halo on the Xbox. It’s true that if you play you must care about who wins, but playing can ensure that you barely move anything but your thumbs for hours on end
At least, that’s what I’ve heard. Really.
