http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
In this book, William Ian Miller offers his reflections on the perverse consequences, indeed, often the opposite of intended effects, of so-called good things. Noted for his remarkable erudition, wit, and playful pessimism, Miller here ranges over topics from personal disasters to literary and national ones. Drawing on a truly immense store of knowledge encompassing literature, philosophy, theology and history, he excavates the evidence of human anxieties around scarcity in all its forms (from scarcity of food to luck to where we stand in the eyes of others caught in a game of musical chairs we often do not even know we are playing). With wit and sensitivity, along with a large measure of fearless self-scrutiny, he points to and invites us to recognize the gloomy, neurotic, despondent tendencies of reasonably sentient human life. The book is a careful examination of negative beliefs, inviting an experience of bleak fellow-feeling among the author, the reader, and many a hapless soul across the centuries. Just what makes you more nervous, he asks, a run of good luck, or a run of bad?
A somewhat dour introduction -- May you have my luck -- The law of conservation of good things -- Competition -- Vile jelly -- The messenger -- A jaundiced view of authenticity (and identity) -- Lord of the table : Judges 19 and the Last Supper -- Odds and the end -- Epilogue : go litel boke amidst a flurry of auto-antonyms.
Includes bibliographical references and index.