A Guide to Happiness, by Alain de Botton

Socrates on Self-Confidence (Part 1) - Why do so many people go along with the crowd and fail to stand up for what they truly believe? Partly because they are too easily swayed by other people's opinions and partly because they don't know when to have confidence in their own.

Epicurus on Happiness (Part 2) - British philosopher Alain De Botton discusses the personal implications of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270BCE) who was no epicurean glutton or wanton consumerist, but an advocate of "friends, freedom and thought" as the path to happiness.


Seneca on Anger (Part 3) - Roman philosopher Lucious Annaeus Seneca (4BCE-65CE), the most famous and popular philosopher of his day, took the subject of anger seriously enough to dedicate a whole book to the subject. Seneca refused to see anger as an irrational outburst over which we have no control. Instead he saw it as a philosophical problem and amenable to treatment by philosophical argument.

Montaigne on Self-Esteem (Part 4) - Looks at the problem of self-esteem from the perspective of Michel de Montaigne (16th Century), the French philosopher who singled out three main reasons for feeling bad about oneself - sexual inadequecy, failure to live up to social norms, and intellectual inferiority - and then offered practical solutions for overcoming them.


Schopenhauer on Love (Part 5) - Alain De Botton surveys the 19th Century German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) who believed that love was the most important thing in life because of its powerful impulse towards 'the will-to-life'.

Nietzsche on Hardship (Part 6) - British philosopher Alain De Botton explores Friedrich Nietzsche's (1844-1900) dictum that any worthwhile achievements in life come from the experience of overcoming hardship. For him, any existence that is too comfortable is worthless, as are the twin refugees of drink or religion.

Top documentary films.

Truman Capote's Life and some literary works

Truman Capote was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1924 and he died in L.A. California in 1984. He worked as a journalist and a writer.

He began to write because he felt very lonely when he was a child.

Capote studied at Trinity School and in Saint John's Academy.

When he was 17 years old, he got a job with a cultural magazine called "The New Yorker". His job was to choose comics, news and he edited others' articles. When he was 21 years old he published some stories, such as: "Miriam", "Shut a final door". With the latter, he won a prize.

In those times he was considered as the successor of Alan Poe.

His first novel was published when he was 23 years old, It was called "Other Voices Other Rooms". in this novel he spoke openly about homosexuality.

In the 1950s, he went back to working for a magazine. He interviewed people for "Playboy” magazine.

He died of a liver cancer when he was 59 years old.

Some works by this famous writer are:

"In Cold Blood", It was made into a critically acclaimed film. It’s about a real event, the murder of the Cutter Family.

In my opinion, the most popular novel he wrote was “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. It was made into a film starred by Audrey Hepburn.

The musical: "House of Flowers"

"The Grass Harp".

He wrote also scripts, plays and short stories.

He left a posthumous novel called "Answered Prayers".

He played a role in a movie: "Murder by death” (1976).

Truman Capote lived a very exciting life.

Truman Capote in "Murder by Death"

Maricarmen Prieto

Journalists

Some startled friends have asked me what enthuses me about a project as this magazine so much since, for them, it’s just a piece of paper. And hard as it is to put into words, I think I’ll give it a try.

A magazine gathers many of my deepest dreams. It combines my job, which I am making myself more and more fond of, with some of my dearest hobbies, writing and technology. True, I can do them without any publishing, but there appears my third joy, the newest culture of sharing. Writing on you own, nurturing as it may be, does not give you the excitement of exchanging points of view, the thrill of discussing with others, the new insights. Borges used to pride himself not so much on the texts he had produced as on those he had had the pleasure to read. Similarly, a journalist is able to enjoy as much with the texts he puts out as with those he inspires, or the ones in which he took part with a subtle correction. Signing becomes, in the end, something trifle. Teamwork provokes more thought and fun than writing, and I would not give up on any of them.

Quoting Borges again, «The notion of a “definitive text” belongs to religion or perhaps merely to exhaustion» (1). The idea of perfection is at odds with our daily haste and deadlines. Every month, the magazine comes out with a dampened excitement. Once published, the journalist can breathe and start thinking about their new article. Before that day, there is always reviewing. No one can stop thinking of a better word for his key paragraph, or an epithet. There, technology plays a decisive role. We work with blueprints and drafts, we read them every Tuesday from six to seven. We polish the punctuation, the pictures, the lines.

Whereas learning new applications is something tiring, learning on the go, to improve the quality of an article is one of the most exciting things in publishing. Shadows, lines, dots, frames and typefaces become as important as the very text to convey ideas, and finding the right ones makes the effort of technology worthwhile.

It’s been three years now since I started this journey in the magazine. I haven’t published as much as I wished, in order to leave room to others and to train my ear, rather than my voice in the sound of the pages. I have always welcomed people aboard, and I always will. Some students in the CEPA feel overwhelmed by the quality of their fellow writers, and reluctant to join us. I especially invite them to make their voices heard. Ours is not a select club with entry rules. Ours is a welcoming friendship to all types of voices. The moment you enter the club you’ll feel the love for the right word and become an invisible friend of our society, wherever you come from.

(1) “Some versions of Homer”. Las versiones homéricas.

José Contreras

Quoting Shakespeare

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare “It's Greek to me”, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance on your lord and master, laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are as good luck would have it quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known for surely you have a tongue in your head you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

Bernard Levin