The Nihilist's Pocket Survival Guide to Modern Society

by Tungyn Cheque

Overview

The perfect antidote for Boomer, Millennial, and GenXYZ angst!

Ready to rummage through the ridiculousness of our reality? Buckle up for a bumpy ride through the hilarious and thought-provoking absurdities of modern existence, where sanity hangs by a thread, and existential crises are just another day at the office.

Enter the world of Rectum Leviticus, an avowed nihilist. His name and unusual backstory propelled him to adopt an approach to life best characterized as, "I don't care because nothing really matters." This attitude has served him exceedingly well. His nihilism, paired with his astute observational skills, give him an edge in navigating all the challenges of modern life. Rectum shares his wisdom in The Nihilist's Pocket Survival Guide to Modern Society.

Tungyn Cheque blends the humor of late-night comedy shows and cartoon favorites like The Simpsons, the absurdity and wit of Douglas Adams, Dave Barry, and Jerry Seinfeld (with a splash of Monty Python) into an intoxicating cocktail of humorous light-hearted criticism of the times we live in.

This handbook is a must read for anyone trying to figure out and negotiate the landscape of work, home, family relationships, debt, dating and all that modern life offers. How best to tackle these challenges? The nihilist offers readers his well-honed suggestion

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798218319014
Publisher:	Vox Veritas Vita Press
Publication date:	03/18/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	206
File size:	2 MB

Table of Contents

CAUTION

Don't say I didn't warn you

1. Origins

How do you repay a kindness?

2. Working Person

What to do when work gives you lemons? Make alphabet soup!

3. At Home

Creature comforts and cohabitating creatures

4. Riding the Subway

Many feel that the subway is beneath them. It is.

5. Respect for Your Superiors

You can diss someone artfully and openly with impunity and without consequence.

6. The Supermarket

So much choice-a watering hole of essential entertainment

7. Under the Influence

The uninhibited mind revealed in the fog of cognitive impairment.

8. The Next Day

When the anesthetic wears off pain follows.

9. Drama at Work

Astronomy dethrones a drama queen.

10. A Not Very Good Day

Loss and lost in the urban jungle

11. Hanging Out With Friends

Friends, football, and paranormal fantasies

12. Weird Stuff

[This space intentionally left blank]

13. A Family Gathering

Giving thanks for food, family, and fun

14. A Date

Full disclosure without removing your clothes

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

02/19/2024

Thick with humor wry and pointed, this Guide to Surviving Modern Society from the pseudonymous Cheque serves as an amusing, accessible guide to the basic tenets and facets of a nihilist view of contemporary life, a world that Cheque—surveying everyday milieus like the subway, the workplace, the grocery store, and get-togethers with friends—portrays as obsessed with the vapid, self-glorifying, and deeply unsatisfying, a place where the “zombie apocalypse” has already come, powered by the “addictive quality of the digital neurotoxin affecting the masses.” Rather than simply denounce that world, though, Cheque studs this travelogue with playful pointers for surviving as a nihilist (“If you can’t seem to find the auto-amuse feature in your living, breathing self, probe your navel and try harder.”)

At the novel’s heart is philosopher and nihilistic ideal protagonist Rectum Leviticus (R.L.), a Brooklynite who reads fervently, maintains important relationships with the people and geckos around him, and considers the world with a humorous, detached, and largely (if not universally) nonjudgmental perspective, even in the face of “Pinterest-Instagram-Facebook drivel” and media “content” with “little or no nutritive value.” Cheque has created a sympathetic if highly unusual “everyman,” displaying for readers how amusing and freeing life can be when we don’t get “distracted by the trivial b.s.” A tonic of cultural criticism, this Guide often reads less like Nietzche than Douglas Adams, though more rooted in the day-to-day American mundane.

For all its outrage, including R.L.’s thoughts of coprophagia whenever he speaks to his boss, Cheque’s narrative celebrates connection with life and community and observing the world around you. It will please fellow travelers who favor philosophical inquiry, a grand sense of humor, a bit of companionship in living an offbeat life—and who are not put off by books that may send them to the dictionary from time to time. This thoughtful novel is indeed seriously silly, befitting the author’s matriculation from the esteemed Flaneur University.

Takeaway: Outraged, funny, inviting novel of facing American meaninglessness.

Comparable Titles: Kurt Vonnegut; Wendy Syfret’s The Sunny Nihilist.

Production grades Cover: B Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: B+

BookLife Reviews

Thick with humor wry and pointed, this Guide to Surviving Modern Society...celebrates connection with life and community and observing the world around you...This thoughtful novel is indeed seriously silly...

--BookLife by Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher