Ghosts of My Life. Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Satiation is the point at which you must face the existential revelation that you didn't really want what you seemed so desperate to have, that your most urgent desires are only a filthy vitalist trick to keep the show on the road.

The true Shopenhauerian moments are those in which you achieve your goals, perhaps your long-cherished heart's desire - and feel cheated, empty, no more - or is it less? - than empty, voided.

That is why Joy Division can be a very dangerous drug for young men. They seem to be presenting The Truth (they present themselves as doing so). Their subject, after all, is depression. No sadness or frustration, rock's standard downer states, but depression: depression, whose difference from mere sadness consists in its claim to have uncovered The (final, unvarnished) Truth about life and desire.